MGPortraits

We first met Mariano at the San Diego Bridal Bazaar in January, 2014.  With less than six months to go until our wedding, we were really hopeful we'd find a great person to capture the beautiful memories we would be making with our friends and family on our wedding day.  We scheduled a consultation with Mariano at his office in Chula Vista, and he presented a package that was absolutely hard to beat.  His pricing was very affordable, and his portfolio of work was awe inspiring.  Before we left, my now-husband and I booked him for photography of our wedding.The package we purchased included an engagement session, which we did at La Jolla Cove in February.  Mariano brought some very nice lighting and equipment as well as a few props we could play around with.  His personality was very engaging, and he was great at coordinating some truly beautifuly shots.  Our photos from our engagement shoot turned out picture perfect, and he provided us a large beautifully framed photo that was hung up at the entrance to our wedding reception.  Mariano also used the photos from the shoot to make us a lovely guest book, which guests could look at and sign in on at the reception.  On the day of the wedding, Mariano showed up with his assistant at our home early and took photos of me, my mother, and my bridesmaids getting ready.  We had a lot of fun (and yes, there were plenty of nerves on my part!), and Mariano captured all of those moments beautifully.  Many of them were candid photos I didn't even know were being taken, and some were set up with me and my dress both before and after I had it on.  These photos truly turned out goregous.  At the actual wedding ceremony, Mariano took some great photos of the wedding procession and me and my husband saying our I dos.  Immediately afterward, he was very efficient at coordinating photos with our bridal party and immediate family.  These photos turned out especially beautiful and were taken right at sunset.  He framed the shots so nicely that they truly look flawless.  During the reception, he and his assistant got all the important shots (the arrival of the wedding party into the reception hall, our first dance, our toasts, cake cutting, bouquet toss, garter toss, and money dances).  There were a few things throughout the night that were missed, but the most important stuff is all there.  Shortly after the wedding, Mariano provided us a link to our website where we could look over our wedding photos (our engagement photos had been available for us to see here for some time as well).  My husband and I got to preview our photos and then select the ones we wanted for our custom wedding album, which was to be printed on a leather-bound album with unique metal-type pages.  Once the album came in, we were astonished at how beautiful it was.  The photos on it are absolutely vibrant, and the unique nature of the album helps to accomplish this.  We also got numerous prints of our photos in different sizes, including a lot of 4x6 photos that we sent out with our thank you cards.  This also included a giant photo that's the same size as our engagment photo that we will be framing and hanging in our home.  Purchasing the rights to our photos is a separate fee, and we haven't purchased them yet.All in all, we are absolutely happy with Mariano and MG Portraits!  He was definitely the right choice for our wedding and we are so happy with the way his photography turned out.  Mariano is a very nice and professional guy; he is easy to get ahold of and returned our texts and emails in a timely fashion.  He has a true knack for taking absolutely beautiful photos that don't try to be too over the top, flashy, or gimmicky.  What you get here is straight-up, truly timeless photos that will not become dated and will look just as good ten, twenty, thirty years from now.  We highly recommend MG Portraits and will certainly be keeping them in mind for our future photography needs. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Wonderful photographer! very creative and easy to work with, not to mention his fair prices and professionalism. I will hire MGPortraits again and will refer his services to anyone I know.

Reviewed on Google Maps

We did not take the decision to choose a photographer and videographer for our wedding lightly. Only the best would suffice for our special day. After extensive research, it was clear that Mariano and MGportraits possessed the attention to detail that we required. Thank you MGportraits for your creative and professional approach!For more examples of his work click here: mgportraits.com More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Mariano was amazing! He walked me through every step of the way to ensure that my wedding video was nothing less than perfect! I came to him 2 weeks before the wedding (not recommended), and he was able to find a way to accommodate my wedding that was both in San Diego, and TJ.He asked me what changes I wanted to make along the editing process, and was always accessible. The blu-rays that came at the end were very professional, with a main menu, and the cover of the CDs were personalized with our photo.Check out a clip of my wedding: vimeo.com/search?q=gina+…Thank you MG Portraits for an capturing every moment of my special day, so I can reflect back and re-live every moment! More...

Reviewed on Yelp