Closer to Love Photography

One of my favorite vendors to work with. What makes Sammy so great is his passion and vision. On the day of our wedding, I was so worried because we had forecasts of rainy weather. Our original schedule (as suggested by venue coordinator) was to take pictures down by the beach during cocktail hour. (It ended up raining during cocktail hour) Again so thankful for Sammy and his team for their vision. Sammy took all our beach pictures before the ceremony and while the cloudy weather stressed me, he said it actually is better for our pictures. The results definitely showed!!! Sammy was positive all throughout the entire process and his service was great. What I loved most about working with him was that he is so personal from the start. God bless you and your family Sammy!

It’s hard to put into words how awesome Closer to Love Photography is!!! Since the very first day I contacted them inquiring of their wedding packages to now, after they have photographed my engagement session and wedding, they have been so easy to work with, fun, professional, helpful and kind. I chose Closer to Love Photography because after looking at their work I realized that there was no one I could better trust to photograph one of the most important days of my life. I noticed that their work was consistent, beautiful, and truly captured the unique feeling/​emotion of each couples day. I just received my wedding album from them this week and it brought me to tears! I am so so very thankful I chose them as my wedding photographer!!! The photographs they have taken of me and my husband and our wedding day are PRICELESS. They perfectly capture every little moment that you don’t want to forget, and bring the whole day to life again! I am overjoyed with how beautiful and timeless the photographs are. When I first considered hiring them I was torn because they were a little out of my budget. I did anyhow and looking back, after seeing the way they captured my engagement session and wedding, I would pay double. It is so worth it. The love, joy, and emotion they captured is incredible. I can’t say enough how highly I recommend them to photograph your wedding! They are truly talented and amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you CTL!!!

My husband and I met Sammy 3 years ago when he photographed my sister in law’s engagement session. I was so impressed by his sweet and charismatic personality and the way he interacted with the couple but I was even more blown away by how well he captured the moments even more beautifully than I had seen in person! I knew then that I wanted him to be the one to capture my big day as well.
The day finally came when my husband proposed to me late last year and the very first email I sent out regarding my wedding was to Sammy. I was so grateful that he remembered us and am still even more grateful and privileged he was able to be our photographer.
From the first initial meeting until the day of the wedding, Sammy was an absolute pleasure to work with. Being in front of the lens can be a scary thing and my husband and I were so nervous the day of our engagement session. But Sammy made us feel so comfortable, and confident like no one else was around. The day ended up being such a blast for all three of us and we couldn’t be happier and in a better mood the whole time and even afterwards. Needless to say, the photos came out so incredibly beautiful and even better than I had ever imagined.
Anyone that’s been married knows how quickly the Big Day approaches and that it goes by in the blink of an eye. Sammy was so thoughtful when he pulled me aside right before the «First look,» and reminded me to embrace and treasure every moment of the night and to have fun and enjoy it. That was probably one of the best advice I was given that entire day and it is just one of the ways that Sammy shows his clients how much he cares. You can be confident that he will be there to capture every moment so that you can be ease free and enjoy your Big Day the way you deserve!
I can go on and on about Sammy and Closer to Love. He is not only one of the most talented professionals we’ve ever come across but he has the most genuine, sweet and loving personalities and is so passionate for what he does. We would recommend him to any and every couple out there not only looking for beautiful and timeless photographs but an experience that you’ll treasure and be proud to truly call the «Best Day Ever!»

We love Sammy and Closer to Love. We used Closer to Love for our engagement, wedding, and day after photography.
We were both uncomfortable and nervous about having our picture taken, but Sammy made us feel so comfortable.
Our pictures are beautiful, and we will definitely hire Closer to Love again.

Words can’t explain how much I admire CTL Photography. We just had our engagement session a couple days ago and still in love with every moment of it. I wish we could do it again! We’ve never been photographed before and Sammy completely made us feel comfortable and we felt closer than ever taking our pictures. Beyond friendly, and I just can’t wait till our wedding day! The pictures are just unique and natural. There exactly the kind of pictures we were looking for. Highly recommend CTL, it’s a blessing we found them!

I wanted to write a review about Closer to Love Photography because of the excellent service that was provided to my now husband and I. When I was searching for someone to take our engagement pictures I went through tons of sites and photographers day after day. But when I got to some wedding pictures that Sammy from Closer to Love Photography took I knew we had to meet him. Sammy Cosa captured action and intimate pictures extremely well. So I immediately called Sammy and he set us up an appt to go to his office. It was a drive for us but worth every mile. Sammy welcomed us and made us feel so comfortable. He went over every detail of his contract, showed us work that he has done in the past, and made sure he knew what we were looking for in a photographer. So we went home and went over everything and called Sammy to book him before someone else did for the same day. Sammy took our engagement and wedding photos and they are amazing to say the least. He is beyond talented very professional and so is his staff. We had not ever took any professional pictures but Sammy guided us and made us feel comfortable throughout the entire shoot. During our engagement pictures it started to sprinkle but Sammy made the photos look like it was a perfect sunny day. Sammy was always on time and captured our wedding from beginning to end. I can look at the pictures and remember the day like it was yesterday. His pictures are very detailed. I would refer Sammy to any couple. He definetly deserves more than 5 stars. Our family and friends love every single picture. Sammy and his assistant Adam were a blessing to Howard and I. He truly values his company and his clients and you see it from day one. I can’t thank Sammy and Adam enough for their service on our wedding day. It was worth every dime and if we had to do it all over again we wouldn’t do it without Closer to Love Photography.

«A memory is only as good as the photographs»
You only have so many times in your adult life where you can howl at the moon. Your wedding is one of those few occasions. Closer To Love was a must have for our wedding. I have admired their work they had done for other weddings for so long and was so excited to have them shoot our engagement and wedding. They even surpassed my high expectations I already had.
Sammy Cosa was an absolute pleasure to work with. He is very friendly and very humble. He was very helpful on how to pose, where the best locations were, and the results were incredible. Oh, and he worked great with my husband who doesn’t really like taking pictures and got him to completely participate. This really made me feel at ease with our wedding day. They were there early and ready to rock. They work very hard the entire time capturing every moment, every teardrop, every detail, and every person. They worked great with everybody and the quality of their work speaks for itself.
The entire set was natural and beautiful. My husband and I remembered the morning of the ceremony in a blur but after seeing the photos, all of the feelings came back, this time in full color. It really does help to see things from an outside perspective and it takes an enormous amount of trust in the person capturing those moments for you to do them justice.
Choosing Closer To Love as our wedding photographers was by far the best decision for our wedding.

Sammy shot our wedding last July in Southern California. We found him through my best friend who also used his services. His work speaks for itself– absolutely beautiful– he is ridiculously talented. Both my husband and I are very shy especially with photos– Sammy made us feel at ease and helped directed us on poses (we needed a lot of help!). He also does a great job of capturing the details of the wedding. The price is what you would expect from a quality photographer– and the package comes with the Engagement session which is nice because you get a chance to see his work before the big day! He was very responsive and very sweet throughout our interactions. Finding a great photographer should be your biggest priority with your wedding and we couldn’t have been happier with Closer to Love! While we were not featured on their blog, they posts most of their weddings and you can see how beautiful the work is– check it out for yourself!

CTL is as Unilocal would describe it with 5 stars: «Whoohoo! As good as it gets!»
Even though CTL was the first and ONLY photographer my husband and I met during our search, we knew right away that we had found the perfect person and did not want to look further. The first time we met Sammy in his studio in Fullerton, we felt like there was a true connection. It was as if we were chatting with someone we had been friends with for years! We were looking for a photographer that captured images that were romantic, timeless, and effortless. Sammy proved to be all of the above and more.
Sammy’s very professional, easy to work with, genuine and such a great person all around. Our photos came out exceeding all of our expectations. Our wedding photos were even published on Style Me Pretty! :)

Sammy & Natalia at Closer to Love have photographed our family pictures over the years and are such a joy to work with. My parents were celebrating their 50^th Anniversary but didn’t want to have a big party. Sammy came out and did a special photo shoot of my parents and and our family. His photos are more like works of art. Sammy has such a creative eye and is truly a gifted artist.

I researched Photographers for weeks and talked to many, but Closer to Love Photography stood out of all the rest! From the minute we stepped into their beautifully decorated office and were greated with homemade lattes, I knew this was the best decision I had made!
The Cosa family were so easy to work with answering any of our questions and sharing their love for photography. They are genuine and real and wanted to actually get to know us as a newly engaged couple. We were so encouraged by them!
We used them for both our engagment and wedding day and both went beyond our expectations! My husband and I are in no way models but Sammy made us feel so comfortable and helped us relax and just be our selves. He captured so many precious memories that we will enjoy of the rest of our lives. What I love most about Closer to love is their abilty to capture REAL moments. We never looked posed or awkward. The only direction he gave on the wedding day was to look at each other and be in love with each other!
I would 100% recommend them to anyone and everyone and already have friends using them!

One of the best decisions my wife and I made for our wedding was having Sammy and Closer to Love capture our wedding through their photography. Like most people getting ready for their wedding, we spent countless hours browsing the internet and looking through different portfolios for photographers. There are a lot of good, talented photographers out there, but everyone capture the moments in different ways and processes them in different ways. We had worked through a wedding planner (Aquafuzion, based in Monrovia, also very awesome), so we first had looked through their preferred vendors, and it wasn’t until later that I saw CTL’s website. Immediately my wife and I loved the cute rustic website, and their pictures were just gorgeous.
We met them at the studio in Fullerton, and got a chance to really sit and chat with Sammy. For what we were looking for, he was perfect. Yes, he is really young. Of course, experience matters with things like this. But his work belies his age, and he has many years of pure photography experience, and his portfolio speaks for itself. The man has talent and skill, and has a knack for capturing the right moments with the right shots. He was so friendly, kind, attentive, accommodating, just a really good guy. It was really a pleasure to meet him.
We had our engagement session in 2 different locations and he was very accommodating. He contacted us beforehand to make sure we knew what to expect. The great part is he is a great director. We didn’t have to worry or think about anything, he guided our poses and smiles perfectly. It was an intimate few hours as it was just him and us, so it gave us a chance to spend some time and feel comfortable with him.
Wedding day, he was there early and ready with exactly what he needed to do. We had talked about what kind of shots we really NEEDED to have, and other than that, he made sure he got all the shots we would need. Unfortunately, Natalia wasn’t able to make it, but one of his other colleagues came to fill in for her and he was great as well. Super comfortable having him there, and not once during the day did we worry about how our photos would turn out.
We got our DVDs with the photos pretty quick, and they were great. Perfect post processing, captured the essential moments, and have zero regrets. I had friends on Facebook ask about him, and I referred them to him without hesitation, and I think one of them did book with them. My wife’s sister just got engaged, and the first thing I did was give her the info for CTL and my videographer.
We didn’t get the wedding album through them, but they looked really really nice during the consultation visit.
Conclusion: photo style is very natural, rustic/​vintage vibe, but with very modern editing and shot selections which make for photos that really capture a wedding perfectly. Our wedding photos on his blog were from April 14, 2013 (Arthur & Lana). He’s super young, but still experienced and has obvious true talent, loving wife/​husband team, and super friendly guy who is professional yet very amiable. Book them immediately.

We couldn’t have chosen more talented, attentive, and accommodating photographers than Sammy and Natalia with Closer to Love Photography. We were blessed to have them photograph our engagement session and wedding day — and they were BEYOND amazing from start to finish.
They captured not only the essential, emotional, and beautiful moments we hoped for — but even captured the breathtaking and timeless moments we may have never otherwise seen.
We cannot praise their talent and professionalism ENOUGH.
We’re so grateful to have worked with them and would undoubtedly recommend them to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Absolutely amazing! Sammy and Natalia are beyond talented. Their love for their job shows through in everything that they do.
When looking for a wedding photographer, I wanted the beauty of the day to show through the pictures and tell the story. Some photographers over edit, where as some photographers don’t capture enough of the details. Closer to Love was the perfect combination in what I was looking for. I decided to fly them from LA to SF Bay Area for my engagement pictures and wedding day, and it was worth every penny.
My husband and I now have a 5-​month old daughter, and I’m looking forward to Summer 2014 when I go to the LA area for her 1-​year old photo shoot with Closer to Love!

Sammy, thank you so much for your response. And here is mine back. I deeply acknowledge that you are both truly talented artists. I want to address a few more points in his comments:
1) yes, we asked him to drive 1.5 hours from his studio to meet us in Fullerton because after driving 6 hours from San Francisco to meet him in person, we hoped he’d be willing to travel 1.5 hours to help us out. It’s not that we purposely did not want to see his studio, it was just too far. I had thought that was a very kind gesture on our behalf to drive 6 hours just to meet him in person, and for him to drive 1.5 hours to see us. I thought it was a fair and understood trade.
2) on travel, we offered what we felt was reasonable: full coverage of 2 nights of hotel, rental car, and gas. We offered $ 500 total, of which the $ 100 in gas was a part. In fact, this was something he had already agreed to yet was not able to deliver on later:
For anyone curious, here’s the conversation:
From: «Zhao, Yue»
To: Sammy and Natalia Cosa
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 2:04 PM
Subject: RE: Engagement session at the beach
Hi Sammy,
Would you be okay with a lump sum per photographer for the travel? I’ve done the LA to SF travel often, and it usually comes out to be ~$ 150 per plane ticket if we book early, $ 100 for night of hotel, and $ 50 for a rental car, making it $ 450 for 2 photographers and $ 330 for 1? (we’re likely to do the 2 photographer option =)
Best,
Yue
From: Sammy and Natalia Cosa [mailto:closertolovephotography@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 5:09 PM
To: Zhao, Yue
Subject: Re: Engagement session at the beach
Hello Yue,
Yes that sounds right! Traveling north is very affordable and it takes about an hour to get there with a plane so we love it! Do you happen to know your Wedding Date yet? We are almost fully booked for 2013 and are quickly booking for 2014 so we want to make sure we are available:) If everything goes well, you can add the $ 450 to the Package price and we can book our flights/​hotel/​and car.
Please let me know your thoughts!
Sammy
From his response, my further conclusion is that they only wish to take on brides who cater to their needs, particularly financially. But even more scary, he went back on his word regarding costs. This is one way to go about building a building a business, particularly if you have talent (and they indeed do have a lot of talent). But I want to warn the other potential brides out there that this is the attitude I perceived.
And so, I wish them the best of luck.

We used Closer to Love Photography for our wedding and engagement photos and were very pleased! Sammy is unbelievably talented and his work is nothing short of amazing. Every photo he gave us was perfected and flawless. like right out of a magazine! Sammy is very personable and easy to communicate with. He would answer any questions we had in a timely manner. Our wedding and engagement session took place in Arizona. We were able to fly him and his assistant in for the BIG day. They were right by our side every second of the day and captured all of our most important moments. It’s unbelievable to think that when the wedding day is over, all your left with is what was captured in photos. Needless to say we wanted to make sure we booked the right person for the job. we definitely did! We would recommend Closer to Love Photography to all of our friends and family!

We used Closer to Love Photography for our engagement photos and we couldn’t have been happier with them. They are very professional, worth every penny, and extremely helpful. They really will do whatever it takes to get the shot. Sammy fell in to the ocean (with his camera) trying to get the perfect shot of us on a rock! I would definitely recommend them to all of my friends!

In an industry saturated with wanna-be’s, Closer to Love is the real deal :) They are true professionals, honest, caring, affordable, easy-​going, knowledgable, flexible, overall AMAZING photographers! And they are soo much fun to work with! My husband and I are SOO happy we chose them to photograph our engagement and wedding. On our wedding day, they were so patient, kept us on track with time, endured the FREEZING cold beach weather during a December wedding without making us feel rushed, and were simply amazing! Everyone who has seen our photographs say that they look like they’re straight out of a magazine. We will treasure the priceless memories captured through our beautiful photographs for a lifetime!
We recommend them to all our friends who get married, and recommend Closer to Love to you without hesitation! YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

Sammy and Natalia are an amazing husband and wife photographing team. I had been following their blog and work for a while now and knew when the time came I would go with them and I am so happy I did. They nailed it! They did such an amazing job with our pictures I love each and everyone of them, they are also very personable and made us feel very comfortable. They make sure to capture the important moments, they have a complimentary engagement session included in their package and after we saw the results we knew we picked the perfect team to capture our big day. I highly recommend them, they are extremely professional and a joy to be around. Thank you Sammy and Natalia from Closer to Love Photography!

My husband and I cannot say enough wonderful things about Sammy Cosa. We still feel like we made one of the best decisions ever by hiring him for our wedding day :)
Not only is he a consummate professional with one of the most endearing personalities ever, but he is an incredibly talented and creative photographer, who has such an amazing eye for capturing beautiful things. We immediately fell in love with his work when I first spotted in numerous publications (Style Me Pretty, People Magazine, etc — he’s famous!). Being that I used to be a photographer back in my heyday (having even worked for The OC Register), I was very cautious and even downright picky when I was selecting a photographer. I interviewed several photographers and liked their style, but didn’t quite feel that sense of assurance that our big day would be captured to our high standards.
After looking at his pictures some more, reading about his faith, and corresponding with him via e-mail…I had this instinct that he would be our photographer! Sure enough, after we met him and saw how amazing he is, we knew he was «the one» ;) Seriously, I can’t say enough positive things about him! Sammy is incredibly energetic, optimistic, sweet, friendly, caring, kind-​hearted, trustworthy and makes you feel super comfortable because he truly treats his clients like his friends!!! :) This was especially important to us because my husband is a bit shy, so I really wanted to make sure he felt comfortable — and he himself constantly praised Sammy for how comfortable and natural he made him feel in front of the camera.
Sammy was always super responsive and supportive throughout the entire planning process. He always contacted us to see how we were doing; anytime we had a question, he literally responded to us within a few minutes, which we really appreciated because we know how busy he is! He was incredibly accommodating with some of our requests regarding budget, the timeline of our wedding day, location changes for our e-​sessions, certain shots we asked for, etc. Sammy truly pours so much of himself into his clients and really makes himself so accessible, which we loved!
During our engagement session (which is included in all of his packages), Sammy was extremely mindful of our time and ensured that we always changed into our next outfits within a timely manner, as well as captured all of the shots we were interested in. We absolutely LOVED our engagement session pictures! They were so unbelievably beautiful and stunning that they literally brought tears to our eyes, as well as to the eyes of our close family and friends! That’s a true testament of Sammy’s amazing work! :)
I didn’t think it could get any better, but on the day of our wedding, Sammy really went above and beyond :) Along with his second shooter Brian Evans, Sammy ensured we made the most out of our beautiful venue and took pictures of us in some really unique places! They were both extremely kind and respectful to our families and guests, as well! Sammy even carried my dress, as well as all the bridesmaid dresses, from the hotel to our car… and from the car to the venue — that’s how helpful and genuinely kind he is! :) All of our guests kept raving about how amazing both of them were that day!
Both Sammy and Brian did a great job of making sure my husband and I didn’t see each other in advance, which we also appreciated, since they knew how important that was to us! Even though people say your wedding day goes by so fast that you don’t remember it, I actually remember almost everything — and I recall always seeing Sammy and Brian photographing something! They were truly both so hardworking and were always quick to accommodate any of my last minute photo op requests (i.e. pictures with certain friends as they were leaving, pictures of details I forgot to mention previously, etc). At one point, I actually had to ask Sammy if he ate because I didn’t recall seeing him eat, since he was scrambling all the time ;) And of course, he asked me, «Did you have enough to eat?» since he’s ALWAYS concerned about the well-​being of his clients! So nice!!! :)
Both Sammy and Brian had tons of super cool and creative ideas for different shots, including a last minute evening shot, which we were insanely in love with (at least, the picture they showed us — can’t wait to see the real thing!). They both even stayed later than they needed to, just to ensure that we got all the shots we wanted! I seriously cannot wait to see our pictures! Sammy, if you’re reading this, I’m on standby :)
But really, we cannot say enough positive things about Closer to Love Photography. Sammy is truly a good-​hearted person and amazing photographer, who we admire deeply. We already talked about how we’re planning on hiring him for maternity pictures, family pictures, etc. in the future!!! :) He’s the only photographer for me and my husband!!!