My husband and I contracted with Photography Treasures, LLC for our wedding photography. Donna, the owner, showed us some lovely pictures in her quaint little shop in old town Covington, and wrote down everything that we said was important to us. The main thing I stressed was specific posed shots and locations I wanted, lots of family, and that I did not want candid shots. She agreed to everything and seemed wonderful.
The day before the wedding, i called to tell her that, due to the weather, the ceremony had been moved indoors. She said "Fine. Sounds good. I'll be there. See you at 11:45." The wedding was for noon, and we had agreed that she would just shoot the last few minutes of of us getting ready, and then the wedding and reception, three hours altogether.
At noon she had not arrived. We called her on her cell phone to no answer. Finally, a photographer I didn't recognize showed up. I asked where Donna was and she said "Donna didn't tell you I'd be coming?" Donna had not. This photographer said she'd gotten lost and then had to set up her equipment. She was not apologetic for running late.
She snapped candid shots all afternoon, was rather rude when telling people where to stand for pictures, and my grandmother had to help organize the people, as she didn't even give directions for the wedding party to all get together. When i went to her and told her that we'd arranged with Donna to have pictures taken on the grounds of the property, it was apparent to me that Donna had never given this woman any of her notes.
Later on, when we received the proofs, (which, while online, were first available a month after the wedding) it was also apparent that Donna had not given the woman any training. Even though she'd fooled with my train before every shot, it looked balled up and messy on the floor in 95% of them. She'd told everyone to stand at funny angles, did not center her pictures, and had caught glare from mirrors and lights.in the outdoor pictures, instead of facing the woods and beautiful 100 year old oaks, our background was the parking lot.
When I'd told Donna how dissatisfied I was, she made a bunch of excuses and lied through her teeth. She claimed, among other things, that she'd never said that she would personally be coming (or coming before noon), that the glare in the pictures was simply the result of our location, candid photos are part of the package, and that a family member was supposed to be designated to coordinate the posed photos all along.
Unfortunately, she had written up the contract to say "Photography Treasures" instead of "photographer" so it wasn't specific to her being our designated photographer, among other things. Also, there were a few pictures that we really liked.
My husband and I talked about it at length and decided that we would not take her to small claims court, and would just take our losses and move on.
We got our pictures in about six months after the wedding. She had sent them off to be processed by another company, and there had been no cropping or reduction of glare. They were also given to us in a plastic bag and a proof book instead of a coffee table photo album, which she said cost extra. We just took them and left, as we were not about to give that woman any more money, after already having paid almost $800 for a photography job that had no skill or professionalism.
I loved all the other vendors we chose for our wedding, and am thankful that my husband has a cousin who is an amateur photographer, as he took some wonderful, glare-free photos throughout the day, which we have since reproduced and given to family members in lieu of purchasing anything else from Photography Treasures.
The reason I wrote this report is because I can just imagine some other poor couple having to deal with this awful woman and her company on their wedding day, and I hope that I can help someone else avoid a similar situation.
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