Blue Dandelion Photography LLC

We had an engagement photo session with Doug a few months before our New Years Eve Wedding. Both experiences went perfect. With the daylight being limited since our wedding was in the winter time and the sunset earlier we were so glad Doug managed the time well to be able to get our outdoor shot, along with everything else we hoped for! He was not only professional but a lot fun, our entire wedding party really enjoyed themselves during the photos session. Blue dandelion exceeded our expectations! We hope to someday have baby photos done by Doug & Courtney! : )
- Karl & Sara Weber

Blue Dandelion is a fabulous company. They are well worth the money; their work is exquisite and their professionalism is some of the best I've worked with. We will be using them for all our family's photos in the future.

We checked out a number of wedding photographers before deciding to go with Blue Dandelion Photography to capture our big day. BDP's style is vintage and they're not your average, ordinary wedding photography company. Doug was our master photographer for both the engagement session and wedding day. He was brilliant! He has a great eye for the shots that will make your wedding photo collection a timeless masterpiece. We also added an associate photographer who complimented Doug's work at our ceremony and reception.

Doug was quite professional and thorough in his dealings with us before, during and after our wedding day. He was fun to work with yet able to keep the wedding party on task during our photo ops between the ceremony and reception. This let us maximize our time in front of the camera and get more of the shots that we later fell in love with! We were worried about the rain forecasted on our wedding day but Doug quickly put that anxiety to rest. He pointed out that he had plans for both outdoor and indoor settings no matter what Mother Nature threw our way. In the end, we found a break in the rain and Doug took some stunning shots outside!

We rated BDP's responsiveness at 4 stars as there were a few occasions that it took more than one phone call, voice or text message to get a response to a question of ours. Nevertheless, we were very pleased with BDP's work and would recommend them to anyone!

Wonderful pictures!!! A little busy so not always getting back right away but worth the wait.

Working with Doug for our engagement session was great, and working with both Doug and Billy for our wedding was even better! They are a lot of fun, which makes everything (especially being photographed all day) -that- much more enjoyable. The shots they were able to get turned out beautiful. We wanted our photos to look like they came straight out of a magazine - not corny or cheesy staged poses, and when I look back at them now, I feel like that is exactly what we got! I -STILL- can't stop looking at them over and over again! I don't know if I ever will - or want to!

There were times that I wished the communication could have been more responsive and the timing of promised deadlines was a bit late, but in the end everything came together perfectly and was well, well worth the wait. Doug and Billy went well out of their way to make everything flow smoothly the day of the wedding, and some of the humor we all shared throughout the day will always be a part of the memories that made our day so special!

Blue Dandelion Photography came highly recommended to me after I thought there wasn't a photographer in the Greater Milwaukee area that could deliver the vision we had of our wedding day in photos. Blue Dandelion went above and beyond our expectations and we will continue to pass along the high recommendations!

Thanks again!

There is no doubt that Doug and Courtney are talented artists and photographers, but unfortunately, their customer service and business plan doesn’t follow suit. I was married this past July 2012 and we did not receive our wedding photos until December 2012. Below is my experience with Blue Dandelion Photography. I hope you take this information and make the best decision for you and your wedding photos. My selection in photography is the ONE aspect of my wedding that I would do differently due to all of the stress and frustration Blue Dandelion has caused me and my husband.
First, their customer service is very poor, including their response time. They are very slow to respond to any request and do not follow through on the timelines they promise.
Don’t believe their “editing schedule.” They will promise again and again that your photos will be done soon, but yet you receive nothing. I know for a fact that there is no rhyme or reason to their editing schedule. We knew the people that were getting married the same day as us and also used Blue Dandelion Photography. Their photos were up on the online gallery months before ours. I don’t know why theirs would be completed before ours, especially since we were first to book for that day. I also noticed other couples were up on the online gallery even though they were married weeks after us. I am not a photographer, so maybe there is more to an editing schedule, but common sense would tell me that you would complete the photos in order that they were taken, unless there were very special circumstances.
I hope Blue Dandelion is able to pull their “stuff” together because they do take beautiful photos. My recommendation to them would be to hire more people!! Obviously, editing is an issue and is stopping them from getting photos out the door. They need to create a better system to keep customers coming back.

I have loved the work of Blue Dandelion from day 1!! I am very satisfied with all of my wedding photos, however I hardly received any from the reception. 15 photos of guests was all I received and many of them were blurry! I pd for 2 photographers for 10 hours and only one stayed for the full length of time. It took 4 months to get our images (350 of the 800 or so they promised during our consultation) and it has been 6 months and we have heard nothing about the album we ordered!! Great product, poor turn around time.

Blue Dandelion has the worst responsiveness I have ever dealt with. Even before our wedding they were hard to get in contact with and did not have final confirmation until 6 days before the wedding!!! Also, it took 3 weeks and 4 trys to get ahold of them before I received one photo so I could send my "thank yous". Its been 3 months and still have no time estimate on will I will receive my photos. The only good experience I had with them was having their associate Jen shoot our photos, she was awesome. I would not recommend them to anyone!!

Doug shot our wedding and was FANTASTIC!!! I can't say enough good things about him as a photographer. The day before the wedding we met with Doug so he could see the layout of the venue and made recommendations from where to set up the chairs for the best lighting for guests to where we should take photos on the property. He was very organized and had a great vision of what we wanted and what to capture in such a short time. He knows a lot about photography and captured amazing pictures. Not only did he end up being the photographer but stepped in when so many things at our wedding were going wrong to direct guests on where to go and what to do. He was a lifesaver and went above and beyond what we had expected of him. The pictures turned out great and were exactly what we were looking for- soft and romantic photos that we will be able to cherish for a lifetime. We couldn't afford to have a videographer at our wedding but from the many, many images Doug captured...we now have a great timeline of event to relive and remember everything that happened. I would highly recommend using Blue Dandelion Photography and wouldn't hesitate to use them again in the future!

Doug & Courtney were very flexible to work with as our date changed a couple of times. We got married in Mexico, and they did an amazing job as always. We have recommended Blue Dandelion Photography to many of our friends getting married! Thanks again!

I am not surprised to see the terrible reviews for Blue Dandelion become more prevalent.

My wedding was December 31, 2011. I purchased an album. This album has more than one error in it. Doug addressed the issue and was unapologetic and unprofessional. I still have not had the album fixed. There is clearly one picture where the picture is cut off and then repeats itself (if only I could upload this photo). I sent Doug the photo of this mistake and he said it was supposed to look that way (which is clearly not true).

They are not worth anyones money or wedding day. Please choose a photographer who actually cares about his/her customers and business.

Doug and Courtney did an amazing job on our wedding! They are both so creative and took wonderful photos of us to capture our special day. We are so glad that we decided to book with them!

Doug and Courtney do absolutely amazing work. I am so very happy with everything they did for us. They were also very easy to work with and very flexible. I really don't think you could find a better photographer for your money. Our guest are still raving about them. We can't wait to see the final pictures. Thanks for your hard great work guys. You are truly the best!!!! : )

We absolutely loved working with Blue Dandelion for our photography. Doug did our engagement session, and we were so pleased with the work he did. Courtney was our wedding photographer and we also really loved working this her as well. She was very patient and worked with us so that we got the pictures we wanted, but she also had some wonderful ideas for some amazing pictures as well. I would recommend Doug and Courtney to anyone looking to get some amazing pictures!

We loved working with Blue Dandelion Photography every step of the way. Easy to work with and always friendly. We would highly recommend them!!!!

Although their editing process does seem to take a long time before you get your photographs after the event, it does seem worth the wait because of their creativity and overall awesomeness of the product!

We used Blue Dandelion Photography for our wedding in late November. We chose them because of their creative, soft feel and thier unique ability to really capture the subject's personality and mood. One additional benefit to BDP is that there an engagement session included in the price so its an oppurtunity to capture both the essense of the couple in a more natural setting as well as "all dolled up" for the special day. Though we did experience some frustration when trying to communicate with them after the wedding and a longer than average wait time to get the photos, I know that they are taking steps to improve this and will be sure to give a realistic idea of potential wait times. However, as many friends and family have confirmed for us, once you do receive your pictures, they are worth the wait! Courtney is an extremely talented artist and we are excited to have these photos to look back on for years and years to come.

I am so pleased we had Blue Dandelion as our wedding photographer! They started us out with a fun Engagement session where we really got to know them and relax in front of the camera. Our wedding day photos were a blast and everyone in our wedding party would agree. We received so many beautiful and unique photos back that I am having a hard time deciding which ones to frame and which to put in the wedding album! We could not be happier!

Doug was so much fun and had an amazing eye for the lighting and colors that we wanted! He took a very untraditional and artistic view on our wedding and it was amazing! The personal touches that he added to our photos made us feel special and that he was invested in our wedding. I would recommend them to anyone!!! I would also say that it's definitely worth the extra money to have him or his wife there ALL day!!! He really captured the feel and essence of our wedding and made sure to be attention to detail, no matter how obscure it was! AMAZING!!!

Doug & Courtney, from Blue Dandelion Photography, were so helpful in planning our wedding. Everything from our engagement session to our wedding day, they provided us with guidance and answers to all of our questions! They were very flexible when setting up times to meet and go over details for the wedding. The pictures are amazing!!

The short story: The photos are nice...yes. However, we were told we would receive 800 photos 4-6 weeks after our wedding. It is now 5 months after our wedding and we have only just received the digital images and our prints are no where in sight. We also will only be receiving 350 photos. Not 800.

The long story:
I am taking some time to write you about my concerns about Blue Dandelion Photography. My husband and I used their services for our Sept 2010 wedding. When we were first searching for a wedding photographer we were living in out of town. This meant that we had to do much of our planning from afar. We found Blue Dandelion Photography on the internet and really appreciated and admired their style of photography. After requesting some information about rates and packages (which was sent to us via e-mail), we really felt that this would be the right photographer for us and we booked them and the Something Blue package. Since our wedding over 5 months ago we have come to realize that Blue Dandelion was not a great choice for several reasons. The brochure sent to us our package stipulates that we receive 800 fully edited photos within 4-6 weeks of our wedding. Several weeks ago we finally received the digital images of our photos but we have yet to receive any of the prints. We will also only be receiving just short of 350 photos, as opposed to the 800 that was listed in the brochure (and we signed our contract based on that brochure). When we brought this to Doug and Courtney's (the photographers) attention, they said that "fully edited" just meant that it went through their visual editing process which means that they look through the images to see which ones they liked the most. We wish this would have been explained to us in the beginning because "fully edited" to us means completed images that we receive. Another concern we had after we saw the images was that many opportunities and details at our wedding were missed. For example, there were no photos of the centerpieces or guest favors. Another example was that we specifically asked Doug and Courtney to take candid photos of anyone wearing a corsage or boutonniere (these people were grandparents or aunts and uncles) and we have e-mail conversations saved that prove this. Many of these people we do not have a single photo of. Doug and Courtney even went so far to say that we didn't even tell them about our desires to have family photographed. When we first expressed our concerns to Doug and Courtney they suggested that we look through all the unedited prints to see if there were some more photos they missed that we might like. We did this and found about 20 some that were overlooked, but none of them were of family or any of the elements that Doug and Courtney missed. They were just extras of photos that had been given to us, but better copies of those photos (for example, in the ones we selected people were not closing their eyes, but a lot of photos that Doug and Courtney gave us people had their eyes closed). They also suggested that we might want an art album to make up for our concerns. We said no, we had already purchased and album that I am still anxiously awaiting to put together. We told Blue Dandelion that we felt we should get some of our money back because the services promised to us we did not receive and definitely not in a timely manner. When we suggested this Blue Dandelion asked us to leave their office and have only communicated to us once through a letter (after our last meeting which was several weeks ago). We replied with our own letter further expressing our concerns but it went unanswered. Furthermore, in their letter to us they made personally demeaning comments about me and my husband, which felt very unprofessional on their part.

The quality of the pictures really do match the pictures shown online - what you see is what you get, and I loved that about Blue Dandelion. Doug was late on the wedding day but he just missed some of the "getting ready" shots, and it was only because he got a flat tire. He was generous enough to offer us a credit to make up for it, and I appreciated his professionalism. In terms of value, I thought we would get more for our money. When I called Doug to ask if we could have the unedited pictures, he at first said no because he didn't want us to look at his "unpolished" work in any negative light. This was somewhat frustrating, but when I pressed him for the pictures, he agreed. Doug's flexibility was great - he was willing to work with us when we wanted to go to the fair inbetween the ceremony and reception, and he made a professional decision on when to call it quits based on everyone's attitude! The only REAL letdown with Blue Dandelion, and the reason why I am hesitating to order any actual prints through them, is the time it took to get the pictures back. I had been given an initial estimate of 2 months. At 2 months, I checked in with Doug and was told a couple more weeks. Four weeks later, I was told just a few more days. I finally called on December 20th (our wedding was September 4th) and said I was picking up the pictures on the 24th. Doug then had them done by then. So my advice to future autumn brides: be persistent about a timeframe, especially if you're planning on making one of the pictures into a Christmas card. I would love to hire Blue Dandelion to take newborn pictures someday (their past work looks AMAZING online!!), but I would have to check my patience first!

Blue Dandelion was amazing! I couldn't have asked for a better photographer...the creativity, uniqueness and quality of the photos are better than any other photographer that I have seen and the price can't be beat. They are soo personable and really do a great job at getting to know your personalities to create beautiful images.
I will surely be going back to them down the road for baby and family photos because I know that I will get something special, and NOT generic!!!
Thanks guys!!!!!

We had a wonderful time working with Courtney. Our pictures are fabulous! She posted a preview of our wedding the next morning!

Doug and Courtney - you did such an amazing job photographing our engagement shoot and wedding. What a pleasure it was working with such friendly, respectful people. We thank you so much for being flexible with us and catering to our needs and desires for that special day. We LOVE our photos and brag about you all the time - we have the best wedding photos of any of our married friends! Thank you!

Doug and Courtney were extremely helpful throughout the wedding planning process. We were in contact with them frequently, and they were very helpful in not only outlining the photographs that we wanted to take, but also in helping us finalize a timeline for our big day. We also took our engagement photos with them, and were very happy with the results that we got. I have to say though, the thing that impressed me the most was seeing Courtney show up to help Doug photograph our wedding literally just about a week before her due date. Now THAT is commitment.

I cannot say enough about Doug and Courtney! There were so professional on our wedding day, making me and my husband feel special - and the shots are to die for. We had pictures on a blog the next day, and our pictures back in 3 weeks. There style of during the day was very laid back. They definitely are to be commended for their way they made sure everyone in our family and wedding party was included. I've recommended them three times to my girlfriends, and they have said the same things back to me for their engagement pictures. So excited to work with them again for the upcoming weddings!

My fiance and I booked with Courtney before she and her sister merged so we got a great deal and amazing pictures. What we didn't get was communication and the feeling like she wanted to be there on our wedding day. After calling every Friday for three weeks she finally contacted me back to give me a finish date. We love our pictures and got them 4 other wedding from friends before our wedding and now feel bad because all of them are having communication issues:(

Billy and Rachel Hyer did a great job with our engagement and wedding photography!! They were so easy to work with and we absolutely LOVE all of our pictures. We have gotten several compliments on our wedding pictures from our friends and family. I would most definitely recommend Billy and Rachel Hyer at Hyer Images in the Charleston, SC area and Blue Dandelion for anyone in the Madison/Milwaukee area. You won't be disappointed!!!

Had a great experience with Blue Dandelion. Love the style of photography. Very laid back, yet efficient. Would definitely recommend.

I cannot say enough about Blue Dandelion Photography! The work is absolutely beautiful. Your wedding day only happens once, and when it's over... the food is eaten, the flowers have wilted, and your dress is packed up in a box. But the photos? You'll have those around forever.

Courtney was great to work with. Very low-key, didn't order us around and holler to get us in place for the shots she wanted. (I've had this happen at weddings I've been in, and it's no fun.) And she was quick too. All those must-have pics (the line-ups, etc) were over in no time, and turned out beautifully.

It took some time to get our photos afterward, BUT IT'S FOR GOOD REASON. Half the beauty of the pictures is in the editing after they're taken. I had a friend who got married a couple of weeks after I did, and she got her pictures in a week. NO COMPARISON to ours.

No doubt, if you use Blue Dandeloin, you'll be so happy from start to finish.

Rachel and Billy are so wonderful to work with and I cannot say enough about them!! Check out their website to see samples of their awesome work!

Our Favorite by FAR!!!! Doug and Courtney are always wonderful to work with and their pictures are amazing!!!