Simistar

Quote: Originally Posted by drtracy While I am by no means an expert on Internet Law. I do know that there is no basis for any claim that he might make unless you were not telling the truth. What's he going to say, really? "Yes, I did all of those things but I don't want anyone to know." Arggg... it's so frustrating that people don't seem to understand, if you don't want bad reviews don't do bad work! Simistar, your review was and is greatly appreciated by a lot of people, don't let yourself worry about it, IMHO. You wrote a fair and honest review and it's wonderful that BDW stands by these reviews so that b2b know they are getting the best information that is available. Oh, I was definitely telling the truth! :-) In fact, I saved all our e-mails back and forth with him and his company etc etc... What would be great is, if he read this review and actually paused for some self-introspection and thought, hey, maybe I can do things better... But I guess we all know that likely won't happen...:-)

Quote: Originally Posted by Adlergray Just and FYI he said he wouldn't send a videographer to Tulum for a short amount of time and hasn't gotten back to me about what a short amount of time is so I think I'm just out my deposit but on the bright side I got Cici Dumas!! Ooohh...I'm SO sorry you lost your $500! (maybe, magically, he'll come through and send a videographer...? ) But sincerely, you will be glad you booked someone else, even minus your $500! (Actually, we had wanted Cecilia Dumas as well, but she was booked our wedding date....) Good luck!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tammy Host i also just wanted to post a heads up that Michael Maurus did contact me and wants this thread removed or he has threatened legal action against the OP and third parties (i don't think he understands internet laws very well). when will vendors ever learn...threatening legal action for a review made against them is never the right approach. it just gives them more negative publicity. WHAAAAAAT?? Really?? Yikes! What/who's "the OP"...? Is that ME? Good luck suing me... I ain't got nothin' to take!:-) Unless he wants my visa and student loan debt...?:-) Okay, but for realsies... do I need to be worried...? And Tammy, if YOU want me to take it down to avoid the hassle, I don't mind... but I don't want to take it down just b/c HE asked for it... Also, I was curious... I used to see small ads for his company at the top of the page when I logged on to BDW...haven't seen those in the past day or two...did he remove those as well...? Sigh. Sorry to be such a trouble maker!!

Found the pics! Here it is: (it's on an alligator clip)

If you're still looking -- I'll happily sell you one I bought! I bought it from gabbymac.com for about $40... but I never wore it, so I was planning on selling it anyway...just been to lazy to post it for sale:-) I know I took a pic of it to post, just have to locate it...It's some kind of ...orchid (?) I think :-) Selling it for $20 (plus shipping)... Lemme know!

Quote: Originally Posted by www.storybyphoto.com To the Original poster here. If you have a handful of images that mean much to you and you cant work it out with your photographer, contact us via the forum or our website and we would be happy to have one of our photo editors on our team take a look and see about tweaking a "few" for you as a courtesy. The bottom line is people should be happy with their pics! gino & heather W-o-w...Gino and Heather -- you just MADE my day!! That is VERY generous of you to offer to do this I will PM you right now! And BTW, the phrase "polishing a turd" not only made me lol, it actually describes some of these photos perfectly :-) Seriously, everyone has been so kind and supportive...big props to Sunbride too! She's already cropped a few of my pics on photoshop for me! VERY sweet...and above and beyond... Quote: Originally Posted by airampz I cannot thank you enough Simistar, I sent you a PM and you told me all I needed to know. I can't believe the nerve of this guy. Just be glad that he would never be used by anyone here!! You are MORE than welcome!! Hopefully YOU will have beautiful pictures now!:-)

Quote: Originally Posted by nibsmom Yeah, I was seriously considering booking him too a while back. When he found out that our wedding was at the Moon Palace, I got an email saying "the Moon Palace doesn't allow outside photographers. You should really do some research before you ask questions." I was like....NEVERMIND! Oh my gosh, I am hearing SO many stories now! (Too bad I didn't hear them BEFORE, lol:-)) I also got a message from a vendor who wanted to remain anonymous, but who said he was at a wedding Michael Maurus was shooting and said he couldn't believe what he saw Michael do... He was standing behind the minister as the bride began walking up the aisle and he started barking directions at her on where to look, etc as she walked up the aisle...DURING THE CEREMONY!! The anonymous vendor said the bride visibly recoiled! Funny thing is... I read that and thought, yeah, that sucks big time, but at least that bride got some shots of her walking up the aisle! I don't have ANY! lol:-) (well, I have about three as I'm ABOUT to walk up the aisle...which I don't count:)) Also, another bride told me she sent him some e-mails asking about his services and after a few e-mails he replied to her that she should find someone else to shoot her wedding b/c her and her FI didn't seem like a good fit for his company!! Quote: Originally Posted by nibsmom Are you getting any of your money back? I know I would try to! At least you and your DH look great in the photos, even if they aren't exactly what you wanted. I'm sure you can find someone to doctor them up for you. And, maybe when you have the funds, you could do a second TTD somewhere closer to home, or on an anniversary to make up for it! We're not even going to BOTHER trying to ask for any money back... We just want to be DONE with him and his company! But I like your idea of an anniversary TTD shoot! Good excuse to go somewhere hot and sunny again:-) Oh, and thanks everyone for the suggestion of contacting Sarah...I sent her an e-mail and will wait to hear what she says:-)

Hi there, There's a whole thread for December 2009 brides! http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t39724 No sure if ALL of them are getting married in Cancun, but I'm sure a good number of them are... Here is a good site for figuring out what the weather will be like...also provides historical data (so you cna know whether it typically rains on your wedding date:-)) Weather History & Data Archive : Weather Underground I got married just this past December closer to Playa Del Carmen than Cancun, and the weather, for the most part, was great!! December is out of hurricane season... It does tend, I think, to be a bit windier at night, the temperatures aren't as scorching as in the summer months (which may be better for some people...) and you might get a day of rain (we did)... HTH :-)

Quote: Originally Posted by Adlergray OMG We Booked with them in Jan for our Dec wedding!!!! I don't wan't my wedding day to be anything like this thank you for posting this or I never would have know....Now I just have to get out of this and find a good photographer minus our 500.00 deposit (crap!!) Oh no! I'm so sorry! This was another thing I was worried about in posting a negative review... But Morgan's idea sounds wonderful! It may have not been in your original plans to get a videographer, but honestly, I think you're better off swinging that kind of deal, where your deposit goes to a videographer, than having him be your photographer. Had I known how bad it would actually be, I would have given up the $1000 or so we'd already paid in deposits! Quote: Originally Posted by Tammy Host luckily the forum is protected by law from these types of lawsuits. This is REALLY good to know! I worry every time I open my home e-mail account now that I'll have a nasty e-mail from him or his company... hasn't happened (yet) though Quote: Originally Posted by KimmyG Thanks for your honest review. Although the poses may look silly and were not what you were going for, you should know that you were a BEAUTIFUL bride Awwww... thank you Seriously... you have all made me feel much better... I think just writing it all down made me feel better too :-)

Quote: Originally Posted by SunBride I am thinking this in our Dreams Tulum threads so that the brides who are starting out and still looking for a photographer and who don't venture around the whole forum will see it. People should do the same for other resorts in the mayan riviera. I wasn't actually sure which part of the forum to post this review in, so I think that's a great idea! Also Sunbride -- I just sent you another PM, but it didn't go through b/c it said your box was full...I'll try re-sending after you've cleared some space:-) Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan Thanks for posting such an honest review. I know it's really hard to do. I was also cracking up at some of the things like your confused guests and your hand in the air. My friend had a terrible wedding photography experience. We mock some of the poses everytime we get together. So we sort of turned a negative into a fun joke. Yes, well, as I said before...not much we can do now but laugh and make the best of it:-) It does make for some interesting conversation when people ask us about how our wedding was:-)

Ladies... You guys are so wonderful! I was really worried some people might think I was being too harsh...(and I even held back a bit!:-)) Thank you so much for all your kind words of support... it makes me feel a TINY bit better about the whole mess:-) Quote: Originally Posted by emme I give you so much credit for keeping your humor about the whole situation...because your captions about your "arms in the air" pictures were hilarious!! BELIEVE me..it's taken me months to have a sense of humour about it:-) But seriously...how can you NOT laugh when you look at some of the pictures?? They're just THAT bad! Quote: Originally Posted by drtracy I am so sorry for your awful experience! If it makes you feel any better at all (probably not) after PMing you I didn't use Michael for my TTD in Cancun. So, if nothing else you've at least helped me avoid the same issues (for which I am eternally grateful) Again, I just really hope to help future brides from going through the same thing! Your siggy and avatar pics look really nice, so I'm happy you found someone else that took great pics! :-) Quote: Originally Posted by TammyB WOW, what a horrible experience, I' am so sorry. Did you at least get some photos that you like? Yes, I suppose if I'm looking on the upside of things, we did get a handful of nice pictures... (not sure if a "handful" of good pictures is worth the money we paid for them, but at least it's SOMETHING! :-) ) Quote: Originally Posted by SunBride Perhaps some of the photos can be fixed? It's very easy to crop the photos that are too far (use photoshop rather than some quick program like the one that comes with your computer or Picasa, as the latter compress your files when you crop) as long as they are high enough quality. What size are the files? they should be like 3-5MB each and that would be enough to zoom in to make you guys larger (although still not nearly as close as your should be). Thanks Sunbride! We did get a CD with all the pic in high resolution... Thanks for the advice about Picasa etc b/c I probably would have used that:-) I think I'll look into buying Lumpaix or photoshop or something.... Quote: Originally Posted by Abbie our very own mod sarah does albums Sproullie Designs - Home (her website is very basic at the moment because its under construction but trust me, she's good!)[/url]. Cool! I didn't know she did albums... I will e-mail her to ask about pricing etc:-) And again, if anyone has any other DIY flush-mount album suggestions, lay them on me!!!

Overall… As I’m sure you can tell by now, we were VERY disappointed with both Michael Maurus AND his work. In fact, I was so unhappy when I saw our pictures… I actually cried. A few times:-) Sad and embarassing, but true. In fact, I was so embarrassed by how bad they were, I didn’t even post any links to them on here. Both my DH and I just felt…not happy after our having our pictures done with him, especially after our TTD session the next day. Far from making the newly married couple feel special, he made us feel like we were a huge pain in the ass and like we had to walk on egg-shells lest we offend his fragile ego. That said, there ARE about a dozen or so REALLY good shots that will hopefully be enough, combined with the resort photographer’s pics of our reception and our guests’ pictures, to make a nice enough album. I hope:-) If you have ANY questions at all, please ask away... ! As I said above, I’m just hoping to save someone else the same hassle we’ve gone through. And again, if anyone has any recommendations on a site that sells flush-mount albums direct to people who aren’t pro photogs, pls pass them along! Also what software is best to design with…Lumapix? Again, any recommendations are appreciated! :-) Hope this helps someone, and yes! I'm FINALLY done :-)

Post-Wedding Customer Service and Editing… As I mentioned above, many of our TTD shots were taken from SO far away, we’re like little specs in the distance! When I asked about having some of them cropped and zoomed for ordering our prints (that were included in our package), we were told the pictures had already been edited and they wouldn’t zoom and crop them for us. Seriously?? You call THIS edited?? Can you even tell it’s us?? It’s like we’re in a “Where’s Waldo” book! :-) Here are some more for fun…can you find us in the distance? So, since we didn’t want all our pics to be from so far away, we decided to NOT upgrade our included album to a bigger size and just DIY one. (which I still have to do! :-) BTW, if any of you girls have suggestions on where to DIY a flush-mount album, I’m all ears!!) I would guess that even if you use an associate of Michael Maurus’ at Cancun Wedding Photography, you’d get the same editing. So something to keep in mind even if you’re considering hiring a different photographer from Cancun Wedding Photography. Also, we found him/his company to be far from helpful in the customer service department. We sent his office assistant/him several e-mails asking where certain pictures were… us walking down the aisle, the pictures WE SAW HIM TAKING of our rings etc. and EVERY SINGLE time, we got an e-mail back, once sentence saying, “All your pictures on the CD.” Umm, yeah... thanks a pantload. (Still going...)

The TTD session the next day… The graciousness and understanding Michael showed us on our wedding day for being so behind schedule was nowhere to be found the next day! He showed up for our TTD shoot with his attitude though! Whoa! He had told us before that he had never shot at Secrets Maroma Beach. So in the few days we were there prior to our wedding, we scouted out a few places we thought might make for some cool pictures… When he got there, I mentioned that there was winding staircase might make for a nice shot. His response -- he told me he doesn’t like being told how to do his job!! And if that wasn’t bad enough, he turned to my DH and told him he’d better watch out since I we just got married and I was already being bossy!! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?? I very nicely (I really did NOT want to piss him off! He had our TTD shoot and wedding pics in his hands!!) said I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to tell him how to do his job, but that I thought he hadn’t shot at the resort before and I was just trying to help with a nice location. His response -- all resorts are the same. In any case, we went to the staircase and we could just tell he was being all moody and grumpy and barely snapped any pictures there. So, we asked where he’d like to go…that there were hammocks, a chess board etc to choose from. Again, he said he didn’t want to be told where to go or how to do his job. (Okaaaaay then! ) Then we moved on to doing our beach and in-the-water shots… Again, many of the pictures he took were VERY posed. (*see above for shot of me with my arm in the air! LOTS more where that came from:-)) Near the end, DH and I just did our own thing and had fun in the water :-)Still, though, many of these pictures were taken from REALLY far away and without some serious zooming and cropping, you can barely tell it’s us in some of the pictures! (*More on that in a minute...…) But what upsets me MOST about this shoot is that he took our rings and got some shots of them in this flower/bush and that was the only time he took our rings to get pictures of them, so I was really looking forward to seeing those. (The only other pics we have of our rings is during the ceremony, there are some shots of me holding my DH’s ring…there are NO close-ups of MY ring at all!) Anyway, we NEVER got those ring pictures he took!! We asked about them like five times…and each time his assistant would just e-mail us back saying we had all the pictures that were taken on the CD they sent us. We kept replying that WE SAW HIM TAKE THOSE PICTURES! I mean, he physically took our rings from us and we SAW him take the pictures! But no….we have ZERO pictures of our rings! (Still going...)

6. When we asked for less posed shots and more “naturally-occurring†shots, Michael said he preferred shooting that way, in a more “photo-journalistic†style. He sells himself and his company as providing “magazine quality†photos…but honestly, that’s not what we got. I believe there is a special skill to capturing these kinds of photos. I actually work in news (both newspaper and TV) and know it takes a certain eye, talent and skill to capture just the right moments. Capturing my MIL with her mouth open or her eyes closed for half the pictures, doesn’t count! So, yes, many of our photos weren’t “posedâ€, but they weren’t anything special either. We have a ton of random shots of our guests doing nothing special and usually caught with their mouths half open or their faces turned at a weird angle. Some examples to show what I mean: Oh, look, my FIL's side! Even better, just some people looking confused! And how about these GREAT shots of the sides of people's heads?! We have about 80 more pictures like this... (Still going...)

3. He missed some very key moments that we now will never have pictures of… There is not ONE shot of us walking back down the aisle together after we’re married!! We have about two shots of us ABOUT to walk and then nothing. WHAT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER DOESN'T GET SHOTS OF THE COUPLE WALKING DOWN THE AISLE TOGETHER??!! When we asked about this after, his assistant (we could never get a hold of him only his office assistant) told us that Michael said b/c we were running late, it had gotten too dark to take any pictures of us walking down the aisle!! What?? So, he could take two shots of us standing, ready to walk down the aisle, but then suddenly three seconds later it’s too dark?? And also, THAT’S WHY WE ASKED HIM REPEATEDLY ABOUT BRINGING ENOUGH LIGHTS FOR A SUNSET WEDDING!!!!! And seriously, couldn’t he have just snapped a few anyway even if he did think it was too dark?? Gimme a break. 4. Keeping on the “it was too dark” theme… Michael was supposed to stay until the end of our cocktail hour. Even if we’d been running on time (we were about half an hour behind) it still would have been dark for our cocktail hour! Again, this is something we had warned Michael about and asked about him having enough lights etc. He came to us not long into our cocktail hour and suggested he leave now b/c it was too dark to get pictures and instead give us an extra half hour the next day for our TTD session. At the time, I remember thinking, well, what’s the point of making him stay? He won’t have the right lights to make any of the pictures look nice… Plus, since my hair was NOT how I wanted it, I figured I could fix it and get some pics done the next day with how I wanted it. Looking back though, this kind of makes me mad thinking about it. Seriously, he knew he was going to have to be taking pictures in the dark during our cocktail hour and he should have planned accordingly. We now have no pro shots of our cocktail hour. 5. Just after the ceremony, we wanted to do group shots.. you know, me and my mom, me with his family, all of us together, etc etc… We had asked Michael to do this beforehand in our e-mails, but when we asked him on the day-of, he got kind of cranky and left.. Don’t know where he went! But he left his assistant to do our group shots. The feeling I got from him was, he was too good, too much of an “artiste,” to do group shots. I didn’t see him again until he was asking to leave early. (Still going...)

HOWEVER, some things I can say were his fault… 1. After all our e-mailing and him agreeing to taking some fish-eye lens shots, he didn’t even bring a fish-eye lens with him!!! So, we have ZERO shots with a fish-eye lens! Very disappointing. 2. He didn’t bring enough lights/proper lights for a sunset wedding (or have his camera on the right setting??)… Our pictures look like we got married at midnight!! Some of our guests’ pictures have WAY better light than Michael’s! Here are some side-by-side comparisons...my DH's cousin's pics are on the left, M.Maurus' are on the right... Here we are signing documents (so both pics taken at same time): Here we are during the ceremony: And another example: (Still going...)

By the time I got down to the beach we only had about half an hour or less to do bride-and-groom shots. So, I ended up being so rushed we just did what Michael told us to for poses (and then I had to get outta there b/c guests were arriving!) Anyway, we ended up with VERY posed-looking bride-and-groom shots, which we didn’t want. I don’t blame Michael entirely for this, as it was our fault as well for running so behind. For example, we have about ten shots of me like this, with my arm in the air…Why? Why would I put my arm in the air like that? I don’t know :-) Here are two... Oh, and look! BOTH arms this time! :-) And for fun, again at our TTD session the next day:-) Mostly we just did what he said b/c we didn’t want to piss him off! I would never even want to show that to anyone let alone print it and frame it. (Still going...)

Leading up to our wedding… I had read here on BDW and on other sites that it’s a good idea to get a “must-have†shot list together for your photographer…You know, “mother-daughter picture,†“bride walking down aisle†etc…that kind of thing. So I sent Michael/his assistant a shot list a few weeks before the wedding. (and included the request again for the fish-eye lens for some shots, proper lighting, etc). Frankly, I don’t think he even looked at it. Also, after we had already paid two of our deposits and with only about a month and a half to go to our wedding, I got a message from a girl on BDW asking me if I had already booked Michael Maurus. She even sent me her cell number to call her if I wanted. So I did. And she basically told me that Michael Maurus made her cry on her wedding day and that he was very difficult, had an attitude, and had given them crap pictures. Of course I freaked out a little, but she also said she thought maybe he was just having a bad day and that maybe I would have a completely different experience with him. Frankly, there was nothing I could do anyway. We couldn’t afford to just say bye to the money we’d already paid as a deposit. But at least I knew a little bit what to expect…at least I thought I did :-) What he actually delivered on the wedding day… Okay, so before I get into how the day went, let me preface this by saying I was running waaay late! Anyone who read my review may recall how the salon at our resort completely screwed up my hair! It was a bit of a nightmare and I had to rush and re-do it basically right at the time I was supposed to be meeting Michael Maurus and my FI on the beach for some pre-ceremony bride-and-groom shots. Because I was so behind, I sent one of my friends to go meet Michael in the lobby. I also handed her a couple pictures I’d printed out (probably all from girls on here!) with a variety of different poses and shots that I really liked. These were for MY reference, so if there was time, I could ask him for a certain pose or shot. Anyway, I asked my friend to give them to my FI. But she misunderstood and gave them to Michael. Michael’s reaction? He took them and threw them on the ground!! He said he wasn’t there to copy someone else’s work and said he QUIT and he wasn’t doing this job!! My friend started crying and begged him to stay, that she didn’t want to be responsible for us not having wedding photos… And he finally agreed to stay. (*I told my friend later, she should have just let him go! :-)) On the upside, and this is the one thing I will give Michael credit for, he was very gracious and understanding about us running so behind. He met my FI (now DH :-)) on the beach and took pictures with just him while I was fixing my hair. (I didn’t find out until much later in the night about him threatening to quit!) (Still going...)

For example, we REALLY liked pictures where the photographer uses a fish-eye lens. Here’s an example, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about.. (I just took this from somewhere and pasted…I apologize if it’s your picture and would like it taken down, please just let me know!) We asked if he had a fish-eye lens and if he could give us some pictures like this. He assured us he could and would - and even e-mailed us some more samples of his work where he used a fish-eye lens. (There weren’t any on his website.) FISH-EYE LENS – CHECK! Also, we were concerned about lighting since we were getting married at sunset and I know sunset there happens in like five minutes and then it’s dark! So we wanted to make sure he would have the proper lighting etc. He assured us he did have the proper lights and had photographed many weddings that happened at sunset and in the dark and sent us shots of a full wedding he’d done in the dark. All the pictures were beautifully lit, even though you could tell it was dark out. PROPER LIGHTING – CHECK! We also talked with him about what kind of style we liked…that we’re not very formal people and we preferred less posed shots… We liked a more photo-journalistic style. Again, he sent us some pics that looked nice, not too posed etc. NOT TOO POSED-SHOTS– CHECK! Read on and you’ll see he didn’t follow through on ANY of these! (Still going...)

This is WAAAAY late in being posted, however, I wanted to make sure we were completely finished doing business with Michael Maurus and his company (Cancun Wedding Photography) before posting. As you can probably tell already, this isn’t going to be a favourable review:-( I really had to think about writing this, but I’ve had so many girls message me asking about my experience with Michael Maurus, that I felt I should. (I recall the debacle over the “Photographer/Vendor-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named†when there was a bad review written about her!) But when we booked Michael Maurus, I actually couldn’t find any full reviews of him… So, I hope this saves some future brides-to-be out there from the stress we have gone through! A warning… it’s LOOOOOOONG! Just want to make sure I’ve covered everything and gave context to what happened. But feel free to skip over parts :-) Okay, so first off, some basic info… We were married in December at Secrets Maroma Beach. We purchased the “Love Story†and “TTD†package from Cancun Wedding Photography, which includes: Three hours of coverage (him & an assistant) on the wedding day, one hour for a TTD the next day, CD with all images in high resolution, a number of prints, etc etc… Total cost, with taxes, came to about $1500. Why we booked him: We decided to book Michael Maurus for a number of reasons… He offers short-term (3 hours) coverage, which a lot of photogs don’t.. We had trouble finding a professional photog who was within our budget AND who was available our date! As I said above, we hadn’t been able to find any full reviews of him anywhere, but the pictures on his site looked nice. We e-mailed MANY times with him before booking and even spoke to him on the phone to make sure he could deliver what we were expecting. And seriously – anyone who knows me, knows I’m NOT a difficult person! We really just had three things we wanted to make sure he could deliver on… (Still going…)

That's so weird! I think I somehow I got un-subscribed to this thread as well! Hopefully posting again will do the trick... I too apologize for taking up space:-)

Quote: Originally Posted by Simistar I think the name of the one who shot our reception was...Edward...? I know I wrote his name in my review (link above) but can't think of it right now I looked at my review...His name is Edgar! Doh.

Can I come to your wedding? LOL :-) I would LOVE to get a pair of Havianas at a wedding! Great idea:-)

This thread made me laugh for a couple reasons.. 1. My FI walked down the aisle with both his parents...it was a last minute decision...and I didn't know until just now that it's a Jewish tradition...b/c wait for it...his family is Jewish!! That's so funny they never said anything...and I'm pretty sure my FI (now DH) had no idea! (and probably still doesn't :-)) 2. They also didn't have enough room in the aisle! The three of them kind of had to squish in:-) So, if you are going to do this, maybe ask that your aisle be made a bit wider than usual:-) And as everyone has laready said...do whatever YOU want! It's your wedding!