are you experienced in photographing LDS weddings?

i believe there is more to capturing the essence of an LDS temple wedding than just having a nice camera and knowing all the LDS 'buzz' words. having served many hundreds of hours in the nauvoo temple and other temples around the country, i understand and love what a couple is experiencing on their wedding day. i fully appreciate the sacred nature of the day and we feel that is reflected in our images. i personally feel it makes a big difference in the outcome.

our dress and demeanor is always in keeping with the way we feel about being on the sacred grounds of the temple.

how many weddings do you you shoot a year?

only one: yours.

how's that for a groucho marx-ish answer? but in addition to your wedding being the only one we shoot this year, we'll probably shoot another 20-30. then there's the portraits for missionaries, seniors, family reunions, etc...aw shucks, i lost count.

what's your style?

everythng I know in life i learned from jazz pianist bill evans.

"to the person who uses his art as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument. my creed for art in general is that is should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise...a part of yourself you never knew existed." bill

what sets my images apart from others? people in my pictures look natural and comfortable. that means i did whatever was right at the time to make a great picture.

what kind of cameras do you use?

have you seen the camera on the new iphone? sweet pics out of those, but yeah, should we forget our iphones, we also bring top-of-the-line canon gear and really long, heavy lenses as backups.

do you shoot film or digital?

grandma?! is that you?! we've been shooting digital only for over 14 years now.

so what's your deal? why hire you?

why hire tom simpson photography? because we are highly educated, competitive, and intensely passionate about photography. we won't be happy unless every one of your friends is jealous of how much better your photos are than theirs.

you've done this before, right?

before moving to nauvoo in 2012, we owned and ran a successful photography biz in sarasota, florida area for many years.

are you insured?

yes, we have both liability insurance and errors and omissions coverage. some venues won't let photographers work on their premises without liability coverage, so it's important a photographer is properly insured.

do you travel?

sure do. we've shot weddings and projects all over the US. haven't been to alaska or klamath falls yet though.

how much for a wedding?

well you've got to fill out our contact form for the details. we'll send info right back, we promise, but we need to make sure you've seen our work, and read about us before you get scared off by MONGO BIG NUMBERS. that said our basic nauvoo temple wedding starts at only $699 for two hours of coverage. all collections include a bonus print. some include an album and all include a USB drive with custom printed case that includes all the final images (72 dpi for printing up to 5x7 size).

packages for reception coverage, bridals, seniors, missionaries, family reunions, etc....are all priced similarly (starting at $299). we also can provide custom albums, high-quality professional prints, canvas giclees, and custom framing for our clients upon request.

gosh, we're sold! so how do we book you?

well, first there's the Airing of Grievances, and then the Feats of Strength, and finally we exchange Gifts of Vegetables.

seriously, we ask you to sign our contract and give us money. it's a 50% retainer, which goes toward your session, and guarantees your session date and time, followed by the remaining balance due 2 weeks before your wedding or session. cool thing is we do all the contracts and payments through our online booking system, that would be jeanette, so hiring us is just a few mouse clicks away.

is stuff refundable, should, cable tv forbid, our wedding be canceled?

sadly, no once you've signed with us, all monies paid are non-refundable. understand, you're still receiving a service. the service you paid for with your retainer is your consultation time and that, should someone call us up and ask about your wedding (or other session) date, our response is "no, so sorry, we're booked" and not "well, we're booked but how much more will you pay us than these other folks...?"

also, believe us, we're almost as upset about a canceled wedding as the (almost) bride and (almost) groom. a canceled wedding means we're sitting at home, sad and alone, probably stress eating some annie's salted caramel frozen custard (on muholland street-a must eat place while in nauvoo), instead of shooting a wedding. also, we lost out on the remainder of the payment, and any reprint and album sales to family and guests we might have had afterward. canceled weddings make us very, very sad. nobody wins and we all have a big lucille ball cry.

i'm really busy and live a thousand miles from nauvoo! can we do a phone or video consult?

please! by all means, we would love to meet you and get to know you, but you're insanely busy planning a wedding or family reunion, and we're insanely busy shooting weddings and portraits and the like. it can be very difficult to arrange a time when we're all in the same place at the same time especially when most (95%+) of our clients are coming from outside the immediate nauvoo area, but hopefully you've gotten an idea about our personalities and the quality of our work and services from this website. We would LOVE to meet with you, but totally understand the time and distance thing. to that end, we can talk on the phone, and tom and jeanette have his-and-hers-super macs with isight cameras, so we can meet digitally if you like.

when can we see our pictures?

tha depends on how well you feed us if there's a reception in nauvoo. filet mignon? VERY QUICKLY. squished bologna sandwich and lime jello? not quite so quickly.

kidding aside, it'll be 3-4 weeks after your wedding. peak season and holidays may require additional time for quality post-production.

if I order an album how long 'til I get it?

that kind of depends on you. if you're on the ball about picking the images you want in your album and approving design changes, we can have your album in your hot little hands in under three months. if you're suffering from PWSD (post wedding stress disorder) and having trouble picking, it might take a little longer.

so, do we get the files?

well, you get all the final processed files (72 dpi) on a USB drive for making it a snap to print up to 5x7 size, use on social media, and emailing to family and friends. we'll include instructions on where and how to have your images professionally printed for larger sizes you'll definitely want to hang on the wall. however, if you have them printed at a drugstore counter, wally world, or on snapfish glossy paper for 2 cents a piece we're pretty sure it throws off the whole karma thingy for years to come.

can't i just have the disk without an album?

well, you get the files anyway, but we don't recommend stopping there because we would like to see all our clients have a finished product. that means every image is retouched, enhanced, artfully arranged and professionally printed and/or bound. if you don't have your photographer make you an album, chances are you'll never get around to it, because real life will intrude. eventually you'll be five years after your wedding, reunion, or graduation with some disc sitting in a box under your bed, no prints having seen the light of day, and then what did you really pay for? just trust us, we can make something really amazing for you. it's up to you. and we do understand budget constraints.

do you retouch your images?

yes, any final image that is delivered or sees print gets the full treatment, so the colors and clarity are just like the rest of the images you see on our website and blog. shooting the session is only a fraction of the actual time investment. post-production insures the quality of the final images.