Hi, I posted on my August 2012 board about our engagement shoot, but then i figured it might be good to hit up the local board too, seeing as this is pretty much a rave of how much i love our photographer!
we chose Neal Urban (out of Buffalo, NY), and while his stuff is expensive (3-4k), it is clearly a step above most of the other photographers. DEFINITELY worth the extra money. The only tough part is that he books about 2 years in advance... though he's a little more flexible if you just want an engagement or portrait session. He's very laid back and gave us easy direction "stand here and pretend you like each other" and basically let us be ourselves. Not pushy in any way, but definitely knows how to communicate what he wants/needs to get a good shot.
our package includes an engagement session, entire wedding day no matter how long (2 shooters), rights to all the photos, and about 100 that we can choose to have him specially edit. he also offers albums if you want that.
he did a sneak peek blog of our engagement session in case you'd like to view his work. seeing these makes me SO excited for next year's wedding
enjoy:
http://www.nealurbanblog.com/journal/2011/6/22/im-only-as-good-as-my-clients.html