Patken vs Silverfox vs Proline

Met with a total of 7 photographers...still have appointments with 3 more. Stuck between Patken, Silverfox and Proline...Any suggestions? At the moment leaning towards Patken, would be silverfox except the Parent albums at Patken are soooooo much nicer!! Any suggestions over all for photographers/videographers??
TIA

Hi there. Of the 3 you mention, we spoke to Patken and Silverfox (and another 5 more!). We decided to use Silverfox for several reasons.
1. they offer a photojournalist for 4 hrs which saves you some money and should be adequate to capture candids at the house, ceremony and CH . After that the main photog shoulld be free to do candids.
2. With both of us wearing glasses, Silverfox said they would touchup glare at no charge while most others told us they would charge but did not say how much. We did not question Patken on this; they were the first we went to and we didn't know to ask.
3. John will let you book just the shooting, give you the proofs and DVD with this w/o ordering any album or pics. Most others require you to buy pic to get the negatives. When we went to Patken we looked a t a pkg so again this didn't come up. But they did say they held the negs for 6 mos then gave them to you.
4. Silverfox has in house graphics people doing the albums so I think you might have an easier time getting the design you want. And based on the albums we saw, they had a lot of variety so I'm surprised Patken was nicer but we did not look at parents albums.
5. We will most likely get an album but figured since John freezes your pic price when you sign the contract, why give him all that upfront money for the album, let's wait til after Sept and do that as a separate transaction.
Just thought I'd mention these things which I did not see at most other places in case they weren't covered when you went to Silverfox. Again, Patken might be comparable but we didn't know to ask when we were there. We did not pursue them because we did not like the idea of having to sign the contact and then finding out who your photog would be. That seemed a little to independent on their part for our liking. but that's just us. HTH

Out of the 3 you mentioned, I only met with Patken. I did not like their used car sales approach or the fact that you couldn't request a photographer but they did take beautiful pictures.

2 of my friends used Silverfox and their pics are awesome. Based on what I saw from their proofs, I would recommend them.

As for any other recommendations for photo/video, I'm using Imagine Studios and I love her. I also really liked Artisan, Sherwood Triart and Creative Compositions.

We're using Proline...I absolutely love their work....
My best friend used them and so did my sister....They do amazing work and they aren't in your face....HTH

im using proline, and I looked into everyone else, and their service and care, blew everyone out of the water for me.. they have been nothing but helpful, they neg. on pricing with us, in the end its higher then what we wanted to pay, not by much, but we get more, so iguess it was even priced with what we wanted.. and they worked with us on stuff i needed, and they never called me after my appointments to harrass me if i booked yet and what else could they do. that was a big thing for us. they just sent a simple card with a coupon for the photojournlist for 495 if we booked b4 the end of the month HTH

So we met with Joe from Proline today and the guy didn't even really tell us about the company. He just handed us a price list and told us if we wanted a package he can formulate one. He gave us no details and did not really even try to accomodate us. All he kept saying is, that is extra and if you want it added into the package, the price will be added. So needless to say i wasn't thrilled. Now back to Patken vs Silverfox. Any Help?

I'm biased for Silverfox...

I feel like Patken is more of a wedding-factory photographer. They don't let you know who you're photographer is until like right before the wedding and they must do thousands of weddings. Plus, the receptionist who answered the phone was really snotty. But you KNOW that you cannot go wrong with Patken because, check out the feedback on them, everything I've read about them is wonderful. And the pictures I've seen have always been gorgeous...

I liked the fact at Silverfox that you could meet your photogs, pick them, and then get to know them better their parties on Thursday - it just added something a little bit more personal. Every picture I've seen on here that is taken by Silverfox has been gorgeous too.

It's really all about personal preference, and I think they're comparable price-wise. I don't think you can go wrong with either company.