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Monkeymole Photography Reviews

Monkeymole Photography

Monkeymole Photography

Barnsley, South Yorkshire
4.4 out of 5 rating, 18 reviews
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Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 rating
4.4 out of 5 rating
18 reviews
87% recommend it
  • Quality of the service
    4.4 out of 5 rating
  • Response time
    4.3 out of 5 rating
  • Professionalism
    4.3 out of 5 rating
  • Value for money
    4.4 out of 5 rating
  • Flexibility
    4.3 out of 5 rating

Badges

  • Sian
    Sian N. Sent on 14/11/2024
    1 out of 5 rating
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    Devastating Experience

    I am absolutely gutted to be writing this.

    I thought we had hit the nail on the head when we booked Ashley. Prior to and on the day, I have no complaints. Communication was on point, he turned up when he said he would, and he fits in like a guest you’ve known for years.

    Following the big day however, radio silence. We never got the previews we were promised, even when he posted on Instagram weeks later that all couples should have them. We chased this politely just to make sure nothing was amiss with our photos, but we were ignored. We were willing to overlook this, the previews were a bonus, not part of the contract, but unfortunately this was just the beginning.

    We were ghosted for 7 weeks following the wedding, then our gallery arrived in the middle of the night. I want to be clear, the amount of time we waited for our gallery is not the issue, we would have happily waited longer had we had just one or two photos and a reassuring response that our gallery was in good order. Customer service really does go a long way.

    At first glance the gallery was aesthetically pleasing, he certainly takes a good photo, then it hit me. There was not a single full-length photo of me in my wedding dress alone. Absolutely devastated is an understatement. I wouldn’t have thought I would have needed to ask for this, your wedding day is such a blur of moments and feelings you should be able to trust your photographer to orchestrate these key shots. This is something I will never have now and it’s heartbreaking.

    Key members of our family hardly feature in the gallery at all aside from the group shots. We were asked to fill out a questionnaire before the wedding with key family and wedding party names and requests, Ashley knew who these people were, the questionnaire was pointless. Furthermore my husband has no photos getting ready with his groomsmen despite Ashley spending time with them on the morning. There are photos of him getting ready alone, but he seemingly has no friends. We asked as part of the questionnaire for prompts and guidance to make the group shots look fun and less staged, all we ended up with were family and friends standing in a line. I sensed there was no effort because this couple weren’t making it to the ‘gram. I cried for hours.

    After the upset had subsided, we attempted contact with Ashley a few times to see if there were any of the missing photos he could look for, hopeful they were just missed, and to chase our USB which had still not arrived. We heard nothing so my husband wrote a negative review. Lo and behold we received an email the following day stating that he had supplier issues and that he had final decision on the gallery, he was happy with what he had provided and didn’t feel any further communication with us was necessary. He sent us a link to order our own USB which has still not arrived.

    Like another reviewer has said, I am confident Ashley is taking on too many weddings and has very little time to dedicate to quality control and customer service. My recommendation would be to book someone who spends a little more time focusing on you as valued customers rather than appearances. What you see on social media is most certainly not what you’re going to get. A wedding day is the happiest day of your lives after all and a photographer is a significant cost, make sure you’re 100% confident of your choice.
  • Nethers7
    Richard N. Sent on 13/11/2024
    1.2 out of 5 rating
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    Disappointing…

    “The chief of mischief” according to his Instagram, but the “Master of awful customer service” according to his actual actions.

    I’ve been hesitant to write this review but over the last few weeks I’ve seen other comments about couples being ghosted and recently I’ve had someone reached out to me directly after seeing that I’d left a comment to try and get a reply from Ashley on Instagram.

    It’s relieving to know you are not alone, although it’s not enjoyable knowing others have gone through the same.

    For your wedding day the Photographer can be one of the biggest outlays.

    The stress, effort and time spent agonising over getting the right person for you is considerable. So, by way of a review, this is also a warning to anyone looking to sign up for a package with Ashley.

    Ashely before the wedding and on the day (in November) was great, hence wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, however what has followed since has been the worst customer service experience I’ve ever had.

    Before the wedding, and then at the end of the wedding day as Ashley said goodbye, he stated that we’d have a couple of sneak peaks sent over within a couple of days to be able to share with our family and friends. We didn’t ask for this, but it does seem to be standard practice within the industry.

    A month later on Christmas Eve Ashley posted on Instagram saying that all couples waiting on sneak peaks from pre-Christmas weddings now had these, so we reached out in case we had been forgotten.

    But again, we received nothing back and still we had nothing.

    We tried to contact Ashley after 5-6 weeks to ensure there was no issues with our images, as anyone would. What we did have was 8 weeks of radio silence.

    Eventually in week 8 we got our Gallery. No apology, no explanation on the radio silence / ignored emails or phone calls, just a generic message from the Gallery system.

    Since receiving the gallery in Mid-January we’ve tried to contact Ashely several times regarding some of the biggest issues;
    1- There is no full photo of my wife in her wedding dress.
    2- Despite asking for a list of key individuals to take photos of throughout the day, we just ended up with several photos of the same guests and very little of our families.
    3- 9 months later we still have no personalised USB stick of our Gallery.

    I’ve quite a few friends in the industry and like anyone, have the ability to order custom made USB sticks from sites like ETSY or Not on the High Street where individual small businesses make items like to order and therefore tend to have slightly longer lead times. These lead times are maybe 4-6 weeks, not 9 months.

    We’ve had two messages in 9 months from Ashley.

    I’m hopeful that maybe we’ll get a response and some solution to main missing photo but nothing is going to undo the hours I’ve spent consoling my wife about this or the sadness she’s felt regarding this – who doesn’t capture the bride in the dress on their own, it’s literally one of the most important wedding day photos?

    Sorry Ashley, but it just doesn’t sit right not letting other people know our experience.

    I can only advise you all to look elsewhere.
  • E
    Emily M. Sent on 08/11/2024
    1.4 out of 5 rating
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    No customer service

    Book a photographer with good communication and delivers exactly what they say they will. Unfortunately, in our experience, this wasn’t Ashley.

    We got married in August. As Ashley came to say goodbye in the evening, we got advised we would receive some “sneak peak” photos soon. These were never seen and emails chasing this never responded to.

    Prior to our wedding, we received a questionnaire with special requests/ instructions for the day. I’m not entirely sure of the purpose of this as the few requests we did make were not acted upon.

    Upon receiving our wedding photos/ seeing regular Instagram story posts, it is evident Ashley has overbooked his diary with weddings leaving little to no time for editing / quality control or customer service.

    Whilst we have some absolutely brilliant photos that Ashley took, we have at least 40% of our photos leaving us wondering why they were included within the album.

    An AI editing system??

    The impression we got was ‘make as much money as I can with as little effort as possible’.

    I’ve held off writing this review for some time, however after seeing another recent review that I could not relate to more, I wanted to warn others of our experience.

    Unfortunately, I can’t say I can recommend and I can only hope others don’t have the same experiences.
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  • S
    Simon C. Sent on 25/08/2024
    5 out of 5 rating
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    An excellent experience

    Trying to avoid using cliches to describe how remarkable a wedding photographer Ashley but it’s difficult. Aside from his superb ability to capture the day, his incredible editing skills and his total professional dedication to his craft - what makes Ashley / ‘monkeymole’ stand out is his amicability and all round conduct on the day. Ashley has this ability not only to document the event impeccably but also walk you through any anxieties, uncertainties and enhance your wedding day experience all round. Needless to say, cannot recommend him enough: a maestro. Simon & Elly.
  • L
    Leanne S. Sent on 02/08/2023
    5 out of 5 rating
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    The best thing you will ever do….


    There are quite literally no words to describe how Ashley MADE our wedding day.

    We knew from our first zoom call that Ashley was the guy for us! He was friendly, knowledgable and had EPIC banter.
    We wanted natural photos, which weren’t staged but captured our day perfectly and that is exactly what we got…AND MORE!

    Ashley is the WHOLE package! Photographer, seamstress (our bridesmaid dress broke 5 minutes before walking down the aisle and this legend fixed it), food critic (take his recommendations), polo supplier and nerve calmer.

    I promise you by the end of the day he’ll feel like family and you’ll be sad to see him leave.

    He captured every moment perfectly and we couldn’t be more grateful that we get to relive these special moments for the rest of our lives.

    Ashley, thank you so much for being you and capturing us being us! 🤍📸
  • Jordan
    Jordan R. Sent on 19/10/2022
    5 out of 5 rating
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    The best in the biz!

    I absolutely could not recommend Ashley enough if I tried, it was a dream to have him there on our wedding day. We originally approached him as we knew we wanted a much more relaxed approach to our wedding photography than you traditionally find. My husband is pretty camera shy and we didn't want to be standing around all day waiting for various family members to smile for the camera. We got exactly what we wanted and more, our gallery is truly an absolute dream. Ashley made me feel at ease from the moment he arrived, providing me with sweets, drinks etc to get me through the day. So many guests commented on how brilliant he was, it just felt like having an extra pal there. You can tell he is truly passionate about weddings which is exactly what you need on such an important day. Thank you again,
    Mr & Mrs Ringrose x
  • Chloe
    Chloe B. Sent on 08/09/2022
    5 out of 5 rating
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    Best Photographer!

    CAN NOT recommend Ash any more highly!!! Our wedding photos are truly beautiful and we will treasure them forever.
    Booking Monkeymole photography was one of the easiest wedding decisions we had to make. Ash instantly put us at ease on our first zoom call and made the whole process seem so effortless - from detailed questionnaires to find out exactly what we were after to keeping us all relaxed in the morning.
    Not only an incredibly talented photographer, but a genuinely lovely person we were honoured to have at our wedding. Thank you Ash!!
  • B
    Bethany Sent on 03/09/2022
    5 out of 5 rating
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    The most incredible photographer!!

    Wow where can I start! I am so blown away by our gallery, Ashley captured every moment from start to finish and it’s an incredible feeling to truly relive our special day through these stunning photos. Not only is Ashley an insanely skilled photographer, he is the loveliest, kindest and funniest person who will have everyone laughing and smiling all day long! He made me feel super confident and natural in front of the camera particularly on the wedding morning and his overall communication before and after the day was super quick and efficient! You will certainly be getting everything AND MORE with Ashley as your wedding photographer!

    Beth & Tom 3rd July 2022, Hazel Gap Barn
  • E
    Heather W. Sent on 08/06/2022
    5 out of 5 rating
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    Incredible

    Absolutely wonderful from day one. The most natural pictures that ever felt like a photoshoot. We now have genuine pictures with such happy memories and are over the moon. Thank you so much Ashley!
  • C
    Chris Sent on 13/06/2020
    5 out of 5 rating
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    Thank you Ashley for making our day so special and giving us amazing photos to remember our day with for years to come.

    Well what can I say? Not only was Ashley a pleasure to have around on our wedding day but the photos he took are incredible and captured our day perfectly. I could not be happier with the end result and we would happily recommend Monkeymole to anyone. Thank you Ashley for making our day so special and giving us amazing photos to remember our day with for years to come.
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