Saturday, January 5, 2013

Finally Completed Vendor Reviews! Proud of Myself

Momental Designs

Kristy Rice created our custom save-the-date flipbooks.  I reached out to Kristy with my unique vision since I needed to find an illustrator for this project.  She was very thrilled with the prospect of getting an opportunity to make these come to life for me.  Kristy even did a lot of research in the beginning with how to put together a flipbook.  Throughout the creative process, there was a lot of back and forth and opportunity for revisions.  Kristy and her team worked to make sure that everything was in line with my vision.  There were times when we were on different pages with how it needed to come out.  There were some creative differences with the save-the-date flipbooks but we managed through these by being mindful of the budget, etc.  Due to the recurring drafts, I do have to admit that the timeline to reach the end product was much delayed than the original estimate provided. 

Also, Momental Designs does everything by hand so that’s how my flipbooks were put together.  When I received the shipment of all my flipbooks, I was very excited with finally getting these but then unfortunately, I noticed that about 10-15% of the flipbooks were made with poor quality.   The outcome of these 10-15% of the flipbooks was that the spines were not properly glued on, some of them were peeling off, the pages were not flush and even, the spine was not even with the rest of the pages, etc.  In bringing these up with Kristy, she said that the damage must have occurred during shipment and did give me a refund for the amount of shipping needed. 

One of the biggest downsides with Momental Designs is the delayed communication.  Response rates were slow.  It was getting to be difficult to talk directly to Kristy and you’d have to go through her assistants.  Appointments were mixed up, schedules conflicted, etc.  The only way to communicate with them is via email.  There was never a time when someone answered the phone.  You could only talk to Kristy once you’ve set up a phone appointment.  The timeline provided is most like going to be underestimated with a lot more time needed to get to the end.  You need to leave extra time to take this into consideration. 

Lastly, I started exploring the possibility of doing my invitations with Momental Designs too.  While her style of illustration was needed to make my flipbooks come to live, Kristy’s overall illustration style did not at all match with my contemporary vision of my invitations.  The initial drafts were completely not what I had in mind in my vision and were disappointing.  After getting my flipbooks successfully, I decided to go in another direction for my invitations. 

Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of the custom save-the-date flipbooks.  Despite the time crunch, I enjoyed the creative process.  I was glad that Kristy helped me make my vision come to life with her talent.  I will always be in awe of the outcome of the custom save-the-date flipbooks.  They were a hit and are highly unique.  You don’t see anything quite like it around for save-the-dates. 

Sherdellah Designs

Sherdellah Designs created my complete custom storybook wedding invitations.  It was a very elaborate design process to make the storybook invitations come to life.  With the storybook nature of the stationery, there were a lot of content and miniscule details to iron out.  Due to the custom nature of the project and the attention to detail needed, the overall project timeline was longer than estimated and it took quite a while longer to finish the project and have the invitations printed.  It was coming down to the wire of getting these mailed out in time.

Working with Sherdellah draws out various strengths and weaknesses that came out during the creative process.  Sherdellah will be very detailed, thorough, and timely in her communication (i.e. drafts, revisions, price quotes, etc.)  My only feedback about working with Sherdellah is that her discipline in the strength I just mentioned makes for a weakness when it comes to her flexibility and ability to accommodate.  There were some points in the process where I felt like there were extra costs and fees that came about which I did not expect.  For contrast purposes, there were other designers which I got quotes from and other vendors that I worked with for my wedding whose styles were a lot more “free-spirited” and accommodating than the rigid feel I got from Sherdellah. 

There was also one time when we were exploring the prospect of proceeding with day-of-stationery in which Sherdellah’s price quote that she owed to me was much delayed because she lost the notes she took from our initial phone conversation discussing the vision.  We lost more time because it was only after I kept following up and asking about the quote that she informed me the reason for the delay.  It would’ve been more ideal for her to have been more forthcoming in her misplacing her notes.  Ultimately, I decided not to do the day-of-stationery with Sherdellah due to the cost being way out of my budget. 

Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of the custom storybook invitations.  Despite the time crunch, I enjoyed the creative process.  I was glad that Sherdellah helped me make my vision come to life with her talent.  I will always be in awe of the outcome of the custom storybook invitations.  They were a hit and are highly unique.  You don’t see anything quite like it around as far as wedding invitations go.  

KTB Weddings

TRUNCATED REVIEW:  Kiss the Bride (KTB) Weddings was owned and operated by Ezra Primack.  What was initially a love affair on his magazine editorial type of work turned into a real-life nightmare.  I fell in love with Ezra’s work and photojournalistic style that he ended up being the first wedding vendor I booked.  We even re-worked our wedding date based on his availability and he was booked before I had the venue and before I was even engaged.  The victims of the nightmare ended up being me, my husband, and a forever-tarnished memory of our wedding.  Even though I encountered red flags with Ezra and his service along the way, I was not strong enough to cut my losses and find a new photographer before my wedding.  The red flags included lost photos, unreliability, no proof of quality photos from wedding days, canceled meetings, slow communication, and poor customer service.  In hindsight, I kick myself for not cutting ties with him and finding a new photographer at the last minute.  It has ended up being one of the greatest mistakes of my life.  After the wedding, Ezra took 11 months to finally give us everything we paid for (which was quite a lot, it’s not like we went cheap on our wedding photography).  Through the 11 months, every day and week was a worry that he would go missing in action and take our photos hostage.  It would take weeks for him to respond via text message.  There was zero communication over email or the phone.  And to consider, I was one of the lucky ones that actually maintained communication with him whereas others got married before me, completely lost track of him, and still don’t have their photos.  Ezra experienced a theft on his camera equipment which left him in an unfortunate situation but that was probably his karma.  When we got our photos, the quality of the photos was awful and he missed key shots from the wedding day.  He didn’t take any photos of my wedding reception space and my reception venue and had the audacity to say that the reason why he didn’t take any of those was because the venue was ugly!  My photos were nothing like the high quality of work that originally attracted me.  11 months of waiting (which was extremely long for wedding photos) for underwhelming results.  Ezra Primack, again with his ridiculous audacity, has started up a new wedding photography business called Truelavie.  The man has no integrity and is shady so prospective Truelavie customers beware and consider this your fair warning.  Also, don’t be fooled by his attempts at playing the guilt trip game and his “public apologies”.  Ezra Primack completely smudged and ruined what was supposed to be one of the most wonderful days of our lives.  Ezra completely spit on the whole essence of wedding photography. 


NOTES:  1)  I have attached in the Yelp images all screen shots of my text messages with Ezra demonstrating the ridiculous roller coaster he put me through.  2)  This is my abbreviated review for Yelp.  Here is my complete story:  http://allets888.blogspot.com/2013/01/full-ktb-weddings-review.html.  3)  Feel free to directly contact me if you’d like to further discuss my experience with KTB Weddings.  My email address is ALLETS888@aol.com.  

FULL REVIEW:  Ezra Primack of Kiss the Bride (KTB) Weddings is horrible, immoral businessman/criminal who rips out the beating hearts of newlyweds everywhere.  This is my detailed account of the extremely negative and very unfortunate experience I had with Ezra and KTB Weddings.  Prepare yourself for the long story I am about to share.

What has become one of my biggest regrets IN LIFE is booking Ezra Primack and KTB Weddings as my wedding photographer.  I will never stop kicking myself for letting myself get tricked into this tangled web of lies and tears.  Ezra of KTB Weddings was the very first vendor I booked for my wedding – before I had a venue, a set date, and before I was even engaged. 

I had my eyes on another photographer who did not turn out to be available for the tentative wedding date we selected (it was initially the 09.10.11 date).  Thinking that my wedding date was going to be more of a popular one, I panicked thinking I wouldn’t be able to book a good photographer.  I made it a priority to find and book a photographer which is how I ended up booking the photographer as the first service/vendor I booked for my wedding.  Wedding photography was one of my top, top priorities and getting awesome photos was a top priority for me.  Isn’t it ironic that I say that now after this has become one of the worst nightmares of my life? 

I came across KTB Weddings and Ezra’s work on The Knot.com website and I was instantly enchanted by the photos and amazing editing work that I saw.  I knew at the time that this was the photographer and photojournalistic style I wanted.  I was bummed that he wasn’t going to be available on 09.10.11 that I even ended up changing my wedding date entirely to accommodate Ezra’s availability.  My wedding ended up being changed to 10.21.11.  He seemed like the NICEST human being on the planet before we booked with him (of course he would be, right?).  I remember now that he actually was subtly pushy in getting me to expedite making my final decision about him as soon as possible so that the booking, confirmation, and deposit could be all settled quick. 

Here are some of the puzzling factors I encountered with Ezra on the journey towards my wedding.  Only in hindsight do I now realize that these were all red flags which I failed to see along the way.  If I would have had the ability to recognize these as red flags…if only.  And if I would have had the courage to walk way towards the end and just cut my losses, give up my deposit with Ezra, and find a new photographer…if only.  I didn’t want to go through that process of having to admit and recognize there could be a problem and jeopardize this perfect vision I had of wedding planning.  I didn’t want to have to shift gears and find a new photographer one month out before my wedding when the red flags built up the most.  If only…  If I was brave enough, I would’ve saved myself almost a year of heartache and tears.  Instead, I kept swallowing the situation as it was and just pushed forward.  It was only later I realized my mistake.  Hindsight is 20/20. 

Back to the puzzling factor/red flags:
1)      After our engagement session, I wanted to get a better sense of the quality of work from the actual wedding days of his clients (most of his work on his website at the time was work from his engagement sessions).  He didn’t seem forthcoming on helping me understand the quality of his wedding day work.  He couldn’t speak to it and tried to show me some on his iPad after our engagement session but it wasn’t that clear.  He asked me to come to his studio to look at albums but my schedule just didn’t allow for that.  He couldn’t direct me to any posted photos of his wedding day work online.  I found that odd. 
2)      There was one time where his assistant told me that my husband and I had to re-do our engagement session because Ezra lost our images.  I was annoyed when I read this because I had just started a new job and couldn’t take time off to re-do an engagement session.  I purposefully accomplished this before I started my new job because I knew it would be difficult to get time off with the new job.  Come to find out later that it turned out to be another couple’s engagement session images that were lost.  I was relieved.  But in hindsight, this is a red flag that he would even “lose” a couple’s engagement session photos.
3)      It did take longer than the average time to get our engagement photos.  It took around 3-4 months.  That’s the amount of time (or less) that photographers return official wedding photos in. 
4)      Communication from his assistant and administrative team was slow and painstaking throughout my engagement and wedding planning time.  Customer service was of poor quality.  Communication was not thorough and was slow.
5)      Ezra did not demonstrate any approachability, interest, or cooperation to speak with me as my wedding date neared to go over all of the details.  I did this a lot with all of my other wedding vendors so I found it odd that it was so difficult and like “pulling teeth” to do this with him.  We also had some last minute challenges with the church related to taking photos after the ceremony and I didn’t feel confident or that Ezra was available to work with me through this challenge.  I would expect him to be available on the phone so we can discuss the situation, but he wasn’t.  Having found that out last minute and not have a cooperative photographer was completely nerve-wracking in the last couple of days and HOURS leading up to the wedding. 

Another example of these negative behaviors on his part is that he wasn’t available to give me the photo frame and guest book in advance and insisted that he bring those with him on the actual wedding day.  I wanted it in advance so that I could have already given it to the venue and so it would just have been already there for the wedding day.  I wanted that for piece of mind.  Doesn’t a bride deserve piece of mind?  But no, he insisted I couldn’t and that he would just bring it.  My nerves were right because I would come to read reviews later where he ended up failing bringing these on the wedding day for some other clients.  Thankfully, he did end up bringing these as he said he would but why wouldn’t he accommodate me getting these in advance for my piece of mind?  It probably wasn’t ready due to his procrastination and disorganization.  If communication was effective all along, perhaps we could’ve resolved this more ahead of time.  But of course, poor communication helped nothing at all.

Lastly, Ezra’s behaviors were demonstrated by in an extreme case when he canceled a meeting we were supposed to have at the VERY LAST MINUTE.  I finally was able to get Ezra to commit to meeting with me before my wedding to go over all of the details (i.e. I had a comprehensive list of every single photo I wanted to have taken on the big day).  I had specifically planned it so that my Wedding Coordinator was going to attend this meeting with me so that Ezra and my Wedding Coordinator could meet each other.  My Wedding Coordinator and I both rearranged our work schedules to fit in this meeting with Ezra.  As we were headed to the meeting location, I receive a call from Ezra saying he was stuck in Las Vegas on a photo shoot still that he was working on all day and would not be able to make our meeting.  First of all, you were stuck ALL DAY at a photo shoot in LAS VEGAS and you are telling me about the cancellation 30 minutes in advance??!?!?  Have some decency to tell me earlier in the day so that we could’ve avoided having left early from work to make the meeting.  No consideration or courtesy at all.  I was completely shocked by this cancellation and could NOT believe he just did that.  I was LIVID.  How could he do this to me when my wedding was coming up so fast?  But in reference to one of my previous paragraphs (several ones up), I was too “chicken” to cut my losses and make a change with my photographer.  If there was any moment I really should have done this, it would have been after he canceled this meeting on me last minute.  But alas, I had no such courage to make that call.  Ezra was able to reschedule the meeting two days later.  When I met with him, he did not seem engaged AT ALL.  I was trying to review the flow of the day (we had a long wedding day) and the photo list I compiled.  I was trying to set my expectations for him on that day.  I am the bride and he is the vendor so you would expect that HIRED vendor to bend and flex to the bride’s every need, want, and desire.  Ezra seemed completely disengaged, uninterested, and disenchanted.  It seemed like he was “too good” or “above” this process whereby I reviewed these details with him.  What the heck?!?

Again, these red flags came up and I ignored them.  If only…

Let me now tell you a little bit about how the timeline unfolded after my wedding:
1)      He gave me a quote of approximately four months for post-production though I was not clear (due to his poor communication) if that referred to only the edits of the raw images or the comprehensive edits too. 
2)      I had one clarifying question about the shot of the wedding rings at approximately four months after the wedding.  This was resolved fine.
3)      I didn’t even start bugging and confronting him about the wedding pictures until six months after the wedding.  That’s TWO more months after the estimated timeframe. 
4)      Around four to six months after the wedding, I started feeling anxious and started noticing all of the negative reviews on Yelp and various websites about KTB Weddings.  I picked up the intensity in my follow-up (but was still professional and nice) around April 2012.  I told him I was getting nervous because of all the reviews I was seeing.  He freaked out when I told him this and quickly sent me an email (which was obviously a pre-typed template he sent to many of his clients) explaining his situation.  We all now know his situation is that his camera equipment was all robbed when he was moving his studio.  He lost raw images and edits as a result of this theft which caused him to refund money to a lot of clients and let go of his editing staff.  All of this caused a backlog because he became a “one-man” show.  The email he sent me described the situation in great detail.  I CANNOT BELIEVE HE WAITED SIX MONTHS TO TELL ME ABOUT THIS SITUATION!!  It wasn’t only until I confronted him about the negative reviews that he told me.  What if I hadn’t?  I doubt he would have been forthcoming on his own.
5)      I finally got my contact sheets and raw 2500 files seven months after my wedding (May 2012).  When I got these, I immediately noticed and told Ezra that I remember (in my foggy memory since it had been so long!) taking pictures on the wedding day that weren’t amongst the 2500 raw images he sent.  He then admitted to a mistake that took place with compiling my first set of edited photos.  He said that there were 500 “key images” that were not included in this upload in May because they were dropped in a separate folder that were ignored and left behind for purposes of the upload.  He said that these were the best photos from his wide angle lens.  I was bummed to hear that I couldn’t quickly see the “best” photos from my wedding.  Because honestly, I was not all that impressed whatsoever with the other 2500 raw images.  It was disappointing and underwhelming.  More about the overall quality of his work later in the review. 
6)      He informed me that the Comprehensive Edits after this point would take approximately 30 days.  Another extreme lie and inflation of timeline on his part. 
7)      Then we had miscommunication on when he was going to send the remaining 500 raw images.  (See I felt better with each step I made.  Obtaining the raw images meant at least I had those in my possession if he were to ever go “missing in action”).  I assumed he could just upload those 500 raw images so I could obtain them.  However, he only sent me the Contact Sheet for the 500 key images but not the actual raw files themselves.  I was not pleased with discovering this “miscommunication” because I thought he said he committed to uploading the raw images too.  He kept saying his intent was just to provide me with the Contact Sheet so I can easily submit my 50 image selections that were going to go through the comprehensive edits.  He didn’t end up sending the 500 raw images until August and that was only because of another “miscommunication”. 
8)      In August 2012 (approximately 10 months after my wedding), my follow-up was becoming more and more intense and I was becoming less tolerant of this preposterous situation.  I demanded everything that was owed to me as soon as possible.  I thought that I was finally going to get that.  He let me know he was uploading “everything”.  After days and weeks of technical difficulties downloading his files from the server, I was disappointed to find out that his definition of “everything” was just that was going to re-send all Contact Sheets, the 3000 total raw images, and the raw images from the engagement session.  He had not finished the Comprehensive Edits and did not include these in the upload.  I was frantically looking for the Comprehensive Edits because that would mean this nightmare would be over.  But they were nowhere to be found in the upload.  So disappointing to find this especially after significant technical difficulties in the download process.  By the way, the contract stated I would receive a CD with all of the images but all images were obtained through Ezra uploading the photos on his server and the client downloading them.  There were multiple instances where power outages took place delaying the upload, servers went down, glitches happened, etc.  It was painstaking and it would have been easier to have just gotten CDs.  It was a complete alien request when I asked him if we could meet up and exchange hard drivers or CDs or something so that I could avoid the difficult download process.  It was now 10 months and I finally at least had all 3000 raw images but I was still owed the Comprehensive Edits.  Remember his editing style is why I was originally gravitated to his work.
9)      It was finally September after a lot of harassment, prodding, and nagging that I received my Comprehensive Edits. 

Let’s now talk about the quality of the wedding day photos and the Comprehensive Edits.  Remember after my engagement session when I wanted to better see the work from the wedding days?  Well that was a right hunch because the resulting quality of photos he took from my wedding day were extremely poor and negative.  Someone who was attentive to detail could see all of the sloppy details in his photos – faces cut off, heads cut off, individuals blinking, instead of hanging my dress somewhere, someone was holding the dress hanger so you can see their fingers, etc. 

The comprehensive photo list I had reviewed and given to him?  He probably only accomplished 50% of it if that!  There were so many details missing from the wedding photos.  I worked so hard on the details, stationery, and decorations of my wedding day.  Yet, he missed all of these. 

Also, my biggest pride and joy in my wedding was actually my wedding venue, Seven-Degrees.  It was our complete pride point of our wedding.  I was in absolute love with this place.  There was not a SINGLE shot of the uniqueness of Seven-Degrees and its architecture.  Nothing. 

You know what else he missed?  Wedding receptions at Seven-Degrees come out very unique with the mirrored ceiling, lighting, table layouts, etc.  Ezra did not take A SINGLE SHOT of my reception space.  NONE.  ZERO.  NOTHING.  Sure, I could go back to Seven-Degrees and take photos of its architecture and outside.  But there was not a way to recreate my actual wedding reception. 

It was utterly heartbreaking.  Do you want to know how he DARE responded to my confronting him on the missing venue photos?  HE HAS THE NERVE TO SAY THAT SEVEN-DEGREES IS PRETTY UGLY AND THAT HE DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD MAKE A GOOD SHOT.  EXCUSE ME?  HOW DO YOU GET TO HAVE AN OPINION ON WHAT IS GOOD OR NOT WHEN IT IS NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT YOUR WEDDING.  He said it was the photographer’s discretion on what he thought would make for good photos. 

That’s another regret because I now know his style wasn’t my style at all.  Maybe because he’s a male and couldn’t have the attention to detail important to brides.  But yet there are other male wedding photographers who can do this.  He was into taking candid shots while you moved instead of static shots.  I think that’s why he didn’t take a lot of the photos he thought would be BORING but yet that were so important to me.  Remind me again whose wedding this was?  AND I EVEN REVIEWED MY EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT PHOTOS I WANTED DURING THE LAST MEETING.  BUT WAIT, I DID SAY HE WASN’T ENGAGED DURING THAT MEETING.  OBVIOUSLY!!!!  The photos came out nothing like I had envisioned.  After all of the drama and pain of waiting for the photos, this was what I was left with?  Heartbreaking and gut-wrenching.  It was barely the work of a professional.  My heart kept sinking and it felt horrible. 

I was gravitated towards his magazine editorial and photojournalism editing style from his website wayyyy back from 2010.  Seeing my Comprehensive Edits finally in September (11 months later!) was so disappointing and underwhelming.  It was BARELY underwhelming.  There was no excitement reaction from me upon seeing these.  An incredible shame based on why I selected him as my photographer to begin with.  My photos did NOT come out like the photos I saw on his website from 2009 and 2010.  I did not even cut corners in budgeting for my photographer.  I did not cop out on a “cheap” wedding photographer.  I paid more than average price for Ezra and KTB Weddings and I couldn’t believe this is what I ended up with.  A nightmare and barely stellar results.  At the end of a long 11 months, yes, I was relieved I finally had everything but was just so regretful of how it all turned out.  There were a lot of tears cried and pain felt.  A lot.  11 months of it at least.

There was never any honesty on his part.  I found out during my painful 11 months from some other source (which I can’t remember from what exactly now) that his theft incident took place at the end of the busy wedding season in 2011/end of summer.  That means that the theft took place BEFORE my wedding and he dared not even tell me about this?!??!?  He didn’t bring it to my attention or make me aware.  If he did, it could’ve been the kick I could’ve needed for an escape route and to cut my losses.  No such escape route was given to me due to Ezra’s cruelty and maliciousness.  In fact, this means that the theft incident probably already took place by the time I had my final meeting with Ezra (the one that he canceled on me).  During this final meeting, there was actually something odd told me to from Ezra.  During that meeting, I told Ezra I noticed that Sue Park was no longer on his team and was no longer corresponding with me.  He explained this by saying that he fired her for losing clients’ photos due to not storing it remotely on their “cloud” system.  I think back now and wonder how accurate this portrayal is.  There were other just instances of bad luck that his business encountered.  I wonder to what extent these are lies or just purely bad luck?  He gave me a discount a couple of months before my wedding because he said that his business’ accounting system was hacked and he lost a lot of information.  He was providing discounts for clients to assure them that their confidential credit card information was not compromised. 

It was completely ridiculous to wait 11 months for my wedding photos.  There was no clarity on what the post-production process was like.  There was ZERO communication over email or by phone.  Voicemails left were ignored.  Phone calls just kept ringing.  His voicemail box was full and at capacity very often.  He only accommodated phone calls like once or twice throughout the whole post-production time.  May 2012 was probably the very last time I spoke to him on the phone. 

It amazed me how he continued to shoot weddings in 2012 for pre-booked clients while he had this building backlog of wedding photos he still had not reconciled with clients.  If he was fair, he would have stopped consuming his time with the 2012 weddings and focused on getting rid of his backlog.  He would also be fair by warning the 2012 couples of his situation and give them a chance at an “escape route”.  But of course he is an evil individual that probably did not do this.  I have been in touch with other clients who got married before me and my husband who were still waiting for their photos.  Some of these couples lost all touch with Ezra COMPLETELY.  I was lucky that he was still responding to my text messages albeit responses would be weeks apart from each other.  Each time this happened, I was afraid he would just go “missing in action” before I got everything I needed.  I think I was able to get my photos partly because I just kept nagging, being overly persistent, setting deadlines, and threatening legal action.  When I would set a deadline on when I needed to hear back from him, he would always wait to the last minute to give me my response.  It was like pins on needles wondering if he was still around.  At one point, he gave me “information” for his lawyer and where legal action should be directed to.  I don’t know if that information was accurate. 

But I can’t believe all the others that were in worse positions than me.  How could he do this?  How could he be such a tormentor to what’s supposed to be a happy memory?  Now all of the couples, including me and my husband, have tarnished memories of this whole experience.  We will NEVER be able to think about our wedding without remembering the nightmare we went through with Ezra and KTB Weddings.  There was a time when he actually wrote a manifesto that he posted on the “My Experience with Kiss the Bride Weddings” Facebook page where a lot of clients go to congregate and discuss our negative experiences.  He wrote a loooong manifesto defending himself and taking absolutely ZERO accountability.  Within a week or so, he deleted his manifesto. 

I was so traumatized by this whole experience that we decided to do a one year anniversary do-over photo shoot where me and my husband got back into our wedding day attire and hired another photographer to take shots of us again.  This helped to alleviate the pain a little bit that Ezra left behind on us but it doesn’t change the fact that Ezra has completely tarnished memories of our wedding day (photograph memories literally). 

Ezra now has the nerve to start new wedding photography company called “Trulavie”.  It’s obvious this is Ezra’s new wedding photography business.  The music, the website style, the fonts, they are all the same.  He has a history of entrepreneurship and having his own business start-ups if you Google his name.  It makes me absolutely livid to think he can get away with all of his wrongdoings and just start up something new and fool new, innocent couples.  It makes me angry.  It is ludicrous that he would do this.  My only hope is that people will come across my long story and see the truth.  Ezra, you have absolutely shattered one of the most important days of our lives.  Karma will come back and take care of you. 

Studio 205 Films

Peter Chang of Studio 205 Films was one of our most special and best vendors.  Not only did we book him to do our standard cinematography and videography for the wedding day, but Peter helped us with a very special project.  If it weren’t for Peter, I wouldn’t have seen my stop-motion vision come to life.  We really wanted to create a stop-motion video and have it incorporated somehow into our wedding.  I was looking for various videographers and cinematographers to help make my vision come to life.  When I first started chatting with Peter about packages for the wedding day, we instantly clicked as far as discussing the stop-motion project and we got into the groove of discussing different ideas for it right away.  I was pleased to see his mutual interest level in the project because I knew we were going to end up with an awesome outcome.  Together with our ideas, we shot and put together a kick-ass stop-motion short video that we played before our grand entrance at the reception.  Peter’s talents really helped make the project come to life. 

As far as his work on the standard wedding day cinematography, Peter’s talent and work speaks for itself.  I knew that I wanted to have Peter shoot my wedding day because I was so touched with all his other work that I viewed.  He has a certain magic in capturing and putting together pieces of the special day.  You’ll end up with a quality cinematic end product that you can cherish for years to come.  I can’t think of an area in which Peter needs improvement in as a vendor.  He is a straight-up and personable type of individual and a great vendor to work with for your wedding.  He communicates timely and commits to you wholeheartedly on the big day.  You will have tons of fun with Peter’s light-heartedness on your special day.  You won’t be disappointed with his talent and work!

System 3 Entertainment

We were so highly fortunate to have come across Michael and System 3 Entertainment at a wedding expo.  When we stopped by his table, we took a stab at spinning his wheel.  He was doing a promotion and giving out a chance for a couple to win free DJ services.  My then-fiancee spun the wheel and to our surprise, we actually landed on the ONE spot for a free DJ at our wedding.  We were so lucky to have met Michael on this day and win this opportunity.  It’s not like we won a service that was of low quality or anything like that.  This was a legit business with Michael as a very talented DJ heading up the business.  We didn’t even really believe we just won that and were cynical so Michael even sent us an email right there on the spot from his phone confirming what we had just won.  He let us know that he was going to be in touch as the wedding got closer.  We were still far out from my wedding date and were not even thinking about DJs yet. 

Sure enough, Michael contacted us months down the line and we started the process.  We were so lucky because he was going to pull out all of the bells and whistles for us with all his cool DJ props that he had.  But we actually didn’t need any of that since our reception venue was so high-tech and equipped with top-of-the-notch equipment.  Michael wanted to pull out all of the stops for us but we didn’t mind because getting his talent and this free service was already good enough for us. 

I have to say that Michael was one of the top two vendors I worked with for my wedding.  He definitely was the vendor with the best and most professional style of communication.  His communication and planning process was very organized, thorough, accurate, and timely.  I never had to worry about following-up with him.  The actual day of the wedding and his MCing the reception also went off very well.  I was very satisfied with the outcome.  The only thing that did not go according to plan was that our first dance song was played in its entirety when we had only wanted to do our first dance to a portion of the song. 

Overall, we were so fortunate to have stumbled upon Michael, his free promotion, and his talents and skills.  He was a great part of our repertoire of wedding vendors. 

Empora Flora

Marisa Perring of Empora Flora completed all of the work and carried out my décor vision for my wedding day.  I came across Empora Flora on The Knot and her talents and skills did not disappoint.  I have to say that Marisa’s personality and talent made Empora Flora one of my top vendors for my wedding planning process.  From the beginning, Marisa and I just clicked and were able to capitalize on the momentum with how to make my vision come to life.  This was made easier since the decoration style I was looking for matched more of the style that Marisa favors for weddings, which made the process very convenient.  From the beginning, Marisa was so easy to get along with and she made you feel comfortable and at ease throughout the whole process.  Marisa ensures to provide thorough details on everything you need from a décor standpoint.  She also will hear out your concerns and makes suggestions to accommodate any existing constraints.  Marisa wants to be your partner to help make your vision come to life.  She even helped to create a special display of paper cranes for us and worked that into the total package.  The only constructive feedback I would have to give is regarding timely and thorough communication.  Communication was never to a point where you never heard back from her but it took relatively longer than other vendors and/or follow-up was needed to hear back.  All in all, the outcome of her décor and design work came out so beautifully for our wedding.  Beyond the wedding, I also kept in touch with Marisa regarding some challenges we had with our photos after the wedding.  She was very understanding and even gave us some of the high-resolution photos she took on our day.  I couldn’t have been more thrilled to have partnered with Marisa on my wedding flowers and decorations.  My reception was gorgeous, beautiful, magical – you name it – and I owe it all to Marisa and Empora Flora. 

Sweet Traders

Rachael Louw operates a quality operation in Sweet Traders bakery.  I was so fortunate to have come across her business and service to get my special wedding cake created.  I wanted to incorporate my wedding themes into getting a different, unique, and gorgeous wedding cake made.  Rachael was open to creating a wedding cake that just fit my vision and she was able to successfully make my vision come to life.  It resulted in a very unique, special, and beautiful wedding cake that was like eye-candy at my reception.  Specifically, my wedding motifs included paper cranes, branches, and crystals.  I was able to communicate my ideas to her and she helped refine the vision of the wedding cake with other visual ideas and images I had collected to show her.  One of the most unique elements of my wedding cake was incorporating sugar “paper cranes” sporadically placed on the cake.  I think this was the trickiest part of the design but she was able to get back to me and confirm that they tested making the paper cranes and were able to create this successfully.  Rachael got my wedding colors just right and the paper cranes placed on the wedding cake made the end product stand out and pop that much more.  The flavor of the cake and the creams were so delicious too!  Rachael is very warm-hearted, flexible, and goes to great lengths to make your vision and dreams come to life.  Rachael was able to clearly articulate how the pricing works for the wedding cakes.  Her prices are very much within reason for the quality of services and products that you get.  She was great to work with and communicate with during the wedding planning process.  I can’t say any more great things about Sweet Traders.  I am so glad I stumbled up on them.  I will never forget how my wedding cake turned out!

Harmony Alterations

Harmony Alterations run by Theresa is an independent alterations and seamstress service that specializes in wedding dress alterations.  They are located across the street from the Mariposa Bridal boutique and therefore a lot of brides who purchase their wedding dress from Mariposa will get referred over to Theresa for their alterations since Mariposa does not have an in-house seamstress and alterations service.  Theresa and her team do very quality work in the alterations for the wedding dresses.  They’ve been doing this a long time and the quality shows.  She knows just what you need altered to make you look your best on the big day.  However, for that quality, the price is definitely on the higher end to get your wedding dress alterations done.  There were no challenges with Theresa’s service the first time around with my wedding.  The dress was ready right when she said it would be. 

There was one challenge that I did encounter the second time I used her services.  I also did a one-year wedding anniversary do-over photo shoot in which I needed my wedding dress re-steamed and prepped for the photo shoot.  After going through a difficult ordeal with my wedding photographer and photos which contributed to the need for me to do the do-over photo shoot, I discovered a more unfriendly side to Theresa’s customer service.  I had brought back my wedding dress which was already preserved.  It had been left in its preserved state and I needed to bring it back to Theresa so that she can prepare it for the photo shoot.  I didn’t think it would be a big issue to transport the wedding dress in its preservation box and have it be taken out at her shop.  It was certainly easier to transport a fluffy wedding dress in a neat box rather than to put it in your car all opened up already.  When I arrived, Theresa wanted to see the dress again to remind her of what she needed to do.  She was very upset that the dress wasn’t already opened up and ready for her to see.  She was grumbling about having to help open up the box and undo all of the tying down that the preservation company put into place.  I let her know that I didn’t mind undoing all of it and getting it out of the box if she could just give me some scissors.  This isn’t something that I do every day so it took me longer to get it all undone.  It was clearly visible that she was very impatient with the process and just kept grumbling and complaining that this wasn’t part of her job to help with this.  I found this experience very unwelcoming and very uncomfortable especially after having been completely satisfied with her service the year before.  She made uncomfortable comments like she didn’t want to be held liable for any damage that may be incurred through the process of getting the dress loose.  Yet, when I was going to try and do it myself, she still took charge and did it herself.  If she was going to just do it herself, then why grumble and make it an awkward and uncomfortable moment to begin with.  Honestly, going through a difficult ordeal with my wedding photographer that was beyond my control is already tormenting enough without Theresa having to make the moment worse and remind me about the unfortunate circumstances that put me in this situation.  There was no apology offered either on her part. 

The other thing that I regretted was that a few weeks prior, she had quoted me a specific price to get the dress re-steamed and prepped.  Once the dress was finally undone from the preservation box, I think she saw the dress and then increased the price by a significant amount in contrast to what she previously quoted me.  Her reasoning was because the dress had a lot of pick-ups which she just re-noticed when the dress was out.  By that time, the moment was just so awkward that I said ok, whatever so that I could get out of there.  The dress was steamed and prepped well just like it had been the previous year but my last encounter with Theresa unfortunately just left a really bitter taste in my mouth.  She was very nice and pleasant for actual brides getting ready for their wedding.  She was very warm before my wedding and treated you with golden gloves as you are a bride getting ready for your wedding.  She wanted to make sure that you had your dress perfect for the big day.  Maybe it was because I was no longer a bride getting married that I was waived from quality customer service on her part.  The monster in Theresa really came out to claw me.  If it hadn’t been for this last encounter, I would’ve had rave reviews for Theresa and her alteration services.  The only thing that I would’ve griped about was the costliness of her services.  It’s unfortunate too because I really loved the Mariposa Bridal boutique where I got my dress from and who referred me over to Theresa.  Standard brides getting ready for their wedding will most likely get awesome service but just get ready to pay a higher premium for her services. 

Mariposa Bridal

Mariposal Bridal boutique is an awesome place to search for and buy your wedding dress.  The boutique is cute and has a great ambience to search for the dress amongst so many choices.  I always had positive experiences at Mariposa thanks to the attendants that helped out.  They were very effective at listening to the styles you were looking for and made sure to bring out dresses that matched that style and your budget.  They were also able to give their opinion and share their knowledge to help you make your decision.  Even though I did make my dress purchase here, I did not feel that they would’ve pressured me if I hadn’t.  They were very unbiased and was just effective at tending to your dress shopping needs.  The prices of the dresses are also reasonable.  They were sure to communicate updates about the status of your dress.  There was one mistake they communicated to me about the process of hemming my dress but they made up for it by taking care of the cost of part of my alterations.  I appreciated that they were upfront about that and provided a fitting resolution.  Unfortunately, they don’t have in-house alterations and will refer you to the seamstress across the street (you can search for my separate review on Harmony Alterations).  Overall, Mariposa provided me with an amazing wedding dress shopping experience and ultimately my dream wedding dress. 

[Seven-Degrees]

Seven-Degrees was our ultimate wedding reception venue.  There’s nothing but praise I have to say about the Seven-Degrees team.  It was an amazing dream come true to be able to have our wedding reception at Seven-Degrees.  Seven-Degrees was only our second venue that we visited and we know from the second we stepped foot on the venue that we just had to have our wedding reception at this location.  My husband and I were impressed by the modern and contemporary feel of the venue.  It’s located in a hidden spot on Laguna Canyon road and from the outside, you may not think there’s anything special with the location but once you start stepping in and noticing the details, the architecture, and the layout, you know how special the venue really is.  The modern and artsy theme fit well with the feel of our wedding.  When we left there from our visit and tour, my husband and I couldn’t stop thinking about Seven-Degrees and all that the venue had to offer for a wedding reception.  We were blown away and the more we thought about the place, the more we realized we needed to have our reception there.  The tour we had just impressed the heck out of us.  It is such a versatile location and you can treat it as a blank canvas to do anything you want there with your reception.  At the same time, they have all of the state-of-the-art technology that is ready to be incorporated into your reception to make the end result out-of-this-world.  There are so many different layers and textures within the venue itself which makes for an awesome time and great photographs.  You have endless opportunities to be creative with this space for your event. 

When we were ready to get serious to discuss packages and price quotes, the director of the venue, Dora Wexell, was so pleasant to work with.  She understood our budget constraints and worked within our parameters and needs to get to a mutual price quote and package that worked for us.  There were several revisions to the price quotes but she continued to listen to our concerns and answer our questions so that we can feel comfortable.  In the end, all of the communication, effort, and revisions paid off when we were able to get to a package that suited our needs and worked with our budget.  Yes, there were definitely some give and takes and compromises but it all ended up working out in order to be able to have our wedding celebration at this amazing venue.

The entire team was amazing and helpful for the most part.  All parts from the beginning with Dora, to the payment details, through the elaborate process of planning the actual event were organized, efficient, and productive.  The entire team was completely professional and their only mission is to make sure that you get the event of your dreams.  They stayed focus on moving the process along to make sure that we were prompt with the planning timeline and reached the desired end result.  Each member of the team was professional and talented in their skills to help make this process transpire.  The only constructive feedback that I have would be that I felt the receptionist and my event coordinator could have been more approachable, relatable, and warm in their interactions (i.e. lack of smiles, etc).  No doubt they were talented and skilled in getting to the end result but I felt that the approach was stiff, rigid, and just strictly business throughout the process.  It was just missing a little bit of that fun element as the planning ensued.  Despite this, I had no qualms or concerns about the actual quality of the planning and communication they provided.  Despite this, they still bended over backwards to meet your needs and expectations.  Only towards the end did I feel like my coordinator was more warm and relatable.  I wasn’t really concerned about this style but rather, it was just something that I noticed and maybe it’s just her personality.  All in all, the big day was amazing and something to remember forever all thanks to the hard work that their team carried out.  I loved that the coordinator was strictly assigned to make sure everything ran smoothly on the big day.  I was glad that I didn’t need to hire an outside coordinator because Seven-Degrees took care of everything. 

Even after the wedding, Seven-Degrees continued to blow me away.  Unfortunately, I experienced a difficult ordeal with my wedding photographer and photos.  As a result, I decided to have a one-year anniversary wedding do-over photo shoot.  We decided to go back to Seven-Degrees to have the photo shoot at the venue again.  (I loved having an excuse to return to the place I loved so much).  When I made Dora aware of what I was looking for, she was completely welcoming and flexible in allowing us to return to the venue to do the photo shoot.  I am so thankful that she was so accommodating especially after the sensitive circumstances I battled that got me to that point. 

Seven-Degrees completely exceeded all of my expectations.  All of my guests were also blown away with how the reception turned out.  It definitely made way for a unique, creative, and innovative event.  I will forever be in debt and thankful to Seven-Degrees for just making my wedding dreams come true.  I will always have warm memories of my experience planning my wedding reception with Seven-Degrees.

Karen Lee

Karen Lee is an amazing make-up artist for all your engagement and wedding day needs!  When my friends and I were searching for the right make-up artist vendor to do my hair and make-up for the wedding day, the quality of her work just instantly stood out amongst the others.  I was so pleased with choosing her to do my hair and make-up.  Her services are offered at reasonable prices for the quality that you are getting.  Karen makes sure to listen carefully to your vision for how you want your hair and make-up to be on the big day.  She will help make that vision come to life and make you gorgeous for the big day.  I felt so comfortable with Karen especially in my case where she was able to effectively replicate an up-do style I brought to her attention.  I didn’t fret or over-communicate how my make-up should be and I felt completely at ease with trusting her to do her work.  The result was amazing not only for me but for a few of my other bridesmaids who got their hair and make-up done with Karen and her team.  The girls came out gorgeous on the wedding day and in the pictures.  I love that Karen gives you a touch-up kit when you’re done working with her.  The kit is complete for all your touch-up needs throughout the day.  This was especially helpful with the long wedding day that we had.  I also hired Karen again to do my hair and make-up when I had a one-year anniversary wedding do-over photo shoot.  Karen was awesome enough to work me into her schedule to help me re-do my look from the big day.  It was a good excuse to have Karen make me up again!  I can’t say enough good things about Karen and her talent!

St. Lorenzo


TRUNCATED REVIEW:  Total regret getting married in a Catholic church.  St. Lorenzo was completely ridiculous, closed-minded, not flexible, strict, complicated, binding, and overall just a stressful experience.  Excuse me, but I thought wedding days were meant to make the bride and groom happy.  Yet this church did everything in their power to make our wedding ceremony nasty.  Awful wedding coordinator for the church by the name of Nuca and the music coordinator, Jane, wasn’t all that either.  I don't ever feel comfortable returning to church here as normal parishioner.   

Read my full review on my experience with St. Lorenzo Catholic Church here:  http://allets888.blogspot.com/2013/01/full-review-of-st-lorenzo-catholic.html

Unfortunately, I completely regret having my wedding ceremony at St. Lorenzo Catholic Church.  The whole experience was negative and has left me feeling traumatized about St. Lorenzo.  I want to preface review by saying that I had challenges with the team of individuals I dealt with.  None of my negative feelings are directed at Father Tony. 

It’s very unfortunate because I grew up in this church was drawn to the idea of having my ceremony at the church I grew up in especially since they just built a new church that was contemporary and beautiful.  Now, after the negative experience, I have yet to come back there for Mass and I am really reluctant to return because it brings back the negative experiences about my wedding ceremony and the planning process.  Perhaps the negativity can be attributed to the Catholic ceremony style in general or maybe it was just the wedding coordinator (Nuca) that does the weddings at St. Lorenzo.  I regret having a Catholic wedding ceremony and should’ve just done a generic ceremony at my reception venue. 

The entire planning process was drenched with a lack of cooperation, lack of any flexibility, lack of accommodation, and lack of courtesy.  It was such a bitter process to plan the wedding with this approach.  What is supposed to be a fun process was challenging and stressful.  Nuca and the music coordinator, Jane, made me feel like screaming at times but I had to remain professional.  I consider myself to be creative and I felt entirely stifled with the parameters they threw on me…and it’s my OWN wedding.  It sure didn’t feel that way AT ALL.  I felt completely stifled with what I was able to do with very limited opportunity or wiggle room to do what I wanted.  This is why I regret having a wedding ceremony at a Catholic church and I unfortunately only realized this after-the-fact.  From the music selection to where the photographer and videographer can shoot during the ceremony was completely limited.  It was a battle with Nuca to figure out the attendance of sponsors for the rehearsal.  We had a lot of primary sponsors and our desire was not to require all of them to attend the wedding rehearsal especially since many of them are aware of what they would need to do.  Nuca insisted her requirement that each primary sponsor had to attend the wedding rehearsal.  This is just another example where cooperation and flexibility was lacking during the planning process. 

Then there was another challenge with the office manager/receptionist/secretary who caused confusion with our wedding date.  We had pre-reserved the date of our wedding well over a year in advance.  As months passed by and we were getting ready to plan the event and set up meetings to meet with Father Tony, the church dropped a bomb on me that Father Tony was not going to be officiating the wedding because he was going to be out of town.  They assigned another priest to do the ceremony instead.  I have nothing against the other priest.  My negative sentiment was because they confirmed before Father Tony was available and then they changed the plans on me like it was no big deal.  No courtesy with this whatsoever. 

One of the biggest mishaps of all was regarding being able to take portraits and photos at the church after our ceremony was over.  We found out only during the rehearsal the day before the wedding that we were only given 10 minutes to take pictures at the church after the ceremony.  We had a large wedding party and it was completely impossible to take all the pictures we needed to in 10 minutes without feeling rushed and stressed.  Nuca said that we only had 10 minutes because there was a funeral right after.  Well we checked with the office and were informed that the funeral was not even taking place until later on that day like in the late afternoon or evening.  After futile inquiries, we were denied being able to get more time.  When we were done with the ceremony, we literally walked down the aisle and made a U-turn back to the front of the church to start the picture process.  This left this part of the ceremony completely impersonal without getting any chance to greet our ceremony attendees after the ceremony was over.  Indeed, it was very rushed and stressful and just so much pressure to get this done.  This is NOT how a bride is supposed to feel on her wedding day.  When I confronted Nuca after the wedding, I told her how I felt and that I found out the funeral wasn’t until later in that day.  I let her know that it was completely unacceptable for her to not have forewarned me about this detail earlier on in the planning process.  I let her know I was completely upset about this.  Her only rebuttal was unbelievable to me.  She said that “she mentioned it during the rehearsal”.  As I mentioned, the rehearsal was only one day before.  I asked her if she thought that a one-day advanced notice was sufficient to make me aware of something that was so big and something that was completely unacceptable to me (to have 10 minutes to take wedding portraits?!).  Even if the rule was true, this did not leave me with any advanced notice to pre-plan and work out a game plan with my wedding photographer.  She couldn’t respond further after I gave this response. 

All in all, I feel like St. Lorenzo Catholic Church (maybe all Catholic churches?  This is certainly my perception now) are just regimented Nazis that want to control every aspect of the wedding ceremony.  I hate to break it to you but weddings belong to the couple and are supposed to be a special experience.  I wish that St. Lorenzo would’ve respected more of my wishes and would have been more flexible with my vision.  Instead, I was left with bitterness and an ugly experience.  It wasn’t worth getting married in my childhood church at a beautiful location to have dealt with this drama and unpleasant people.  

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