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.
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.
