Rob and Jill Futrell

Most vendor recommendations are a favor traded between people who have never actually worked a wedding together. This one is not that.

Craig and Ashley's wedding at Sawgrass Country Club is the easiest way to explain it. We ran the DJ booth and the live saxophone. Rob shot it. The photos further down this page are his - the ceremony out on the course, the hora, the sparkler send-off. That is a real night that both of us worked, and the pictures are the receipt.

Rob and Jill Futrell run Photos by Rob + Jill Futrell out of St. Augustine. Ten-plus years, more than 2,500 sessions, and a WeddingWire Couples' Choice award nine years running.

We like that line because it is the photography version of something we believe about music. The best moment of a reception is never the one somebody staged. It is the one that happened because the room finally relaxed.

Who you actually get

Some photography companies send whoever is available. With this one you get the two people whose name is on it - which is the entire reason a husband-and-wife team is worth something on a wedding day. They have been reading each other across a room for a decade.

That is not a small thing at a reception. Two shooters who have to verbally coordinate are two shooters who miss the moment while they are coordinating.

Why we recommend them

Three reasons, and none of them are "he asked us to."

They work the rooms we work. The White Room, Lightner Museum, the Treasury on the Plaza, Flagler College - the venues in their portfolio are the same St. Augustine venues we spend our Saturdays in. A photographer who already knows where the light dies at 6pm in a particular room is not learning your wedding on your wedding day.

Rob gives away what he knows. He walked us through how he handles his own review collection, in detail, with no angle in it for him. We rebuilt our review pipeline off that conversation. People who share process instead of guarding it tend to be the same people who make a vendor team work on a Saturday.

We have actually worked together. See the gallery above. That is not a portfolio we pulled off the internet - it is a night we both showed up for.

The venues we both work

If you are getting married at one of these, there is a good chance we have each been in the room before.

What they shoot besides weddings

Worth knowing if you are booking a wedding now and will want something else later. Beyond the wedding day they cover engagements, proposals, elopements, and courthouse ceremonies, and then the things that come after - maternity, newborn, and family sessions. They also shoot video and do commercial work, including headshots and branding.

A lot of couples end up wanting the same eye for the anniversary photos and the first baby. Booking a team that already knows your faces is not nothing.