My Experience with [photog named removed]

[TammyWright]

Morgan, i would send weddingwire this thread to show that others have had an issue with her as well and send them some of the emails she sent you to show her kookiness.

[LCBride2007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissyR This is sooo unbelievable. Perhaps her legal counsel needs a good talking to if they've been advising her that she has some action. Abbie is sooo right.. this is not slander but a perfectly honest review of personal experiences.. it's not like you are reporting hearsay.

I'd bet any $$ she doesn't actually have any lawyers involved here. That's just the only way she knows how to respond to criticism - to try to scare the bride away from posting her review! Any lawyer that knows anything would tell her she doesn't have any case. So either she knows that and she's just trying to scare Heather (and others) or she really isn't very intelligent (I'm betting on the latter).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alyssa Ditto. Ditto. as for my own $0.02. i find it entertaining that a 'professional' can't handle any criticism. ummm hello - not everyone is always happy with you and when multiple people (this photog has had multiple unhappy customers) say the same thing - well honey it's time to take a big fat look in the fucking mirror KWIM? and legal action? slander? ROFL then tripadvisor wouldn't exist. reviews are not slander. what an idiot! and take a course on "interpersonal communication"

seriously. i mean, if it were just 1 crazy bridezilla, that that's one thing. but when you get several people saying the same thing, maybe it's time to stop sniffing the crazy glue and look into how you can improve. but i think she's beyond help, she sounds quite unstable.

besides, what professional wouldn't see that this is just huring her business more?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tammy Host The mole has been bannedf twice. She caused a lot of drama on the forum and went on a BDW bashing rage.

Yep. And at the same time went on and on about how "useless" this forum is. If it's so useless, why are you still trying to get back on and why are you stalking us? Get a life. Move on. It's pathetic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tammy Host the sad thing about this whole ordeal is that it makes people afraid to be honest about vendors and problems that they have had. Juan Carlos had a negative review where a member wrote about his slow response time, etc and he actually came and read the review and wrote a post apologizing for the problems and thanking the bride for bringing the issues up so he can work on them...no whining or complaining about the negative post...for his post, i will always think that Juan Carlos is a stand up vendor. that is how vendors should act. there is always room for improvement. people should not be afraid to post HONEST reviews of their vendors.

Ditto. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't be afriad to post an honest review. Be respectful and mature, of course, but be honest. Once people start being afraid to be honest, this forum loses it's value.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JUSTUSTWO Oh wow...and still, they give you grief? Maybe you need to highlight that part & put it in red letters!

The problem here wasn't that the vendor had any cause to have us remove the post, but that Heather wanted it removed. We had to respect Heather's wishes.


Honestly, we all know who this vendor is. If you don't and want to make sure it's not someone you're about to hire, please send Heather or one of us a message. We will certainly fill you in.

[LCBride2007]

oh, and as for the religious theme of all of her reviews. that's fine, believe what you want. but that should not cross over into your professional relationship with your client! i'd have fired her in a heartbeat once she started shoving her religious mumbo jumbo down my throat. that would have been a huge turn off to me.

[rodent]

Photography by Kristie Reviews & Ratings, Wedding Photography, Arizona - Phoenix and surrounding areas

 

she is still going on wedding wire.

 

I remembered a situation that happened last summer that I think might help people understand why it took me so long to post an honest review about Kristie. She blows up about the tiniest thing (like heather's post in the shout box saying she might regret hiring kristie).

 

When nathaniel was running his contest for free wedding photography, I was anxiously awaiting the news of the winner. I was not in the contest. I was in the process of booking kristie for my wedding. A few minutes before he posted the winner, I said we needed a drum roll. Right after we posted, I found the little drummer emoticon.

<-- This guy

 

So I posted " I found this guy a minute too late", meaning that I found the drummer a right after the winner was announced.

 

Kristie thought I was saying I found Nathanial when it was too late, because I was already booking her. I don't understand why she thought that, because I had been posting on his contest thread all throughout. I spent about an hour on the phone with her explaining what I meant & reassuring her that I want to hire her.

 

I went back to that thread to make it say "I found this drummer guy a minute to late" just to make her feel better.

 

I am not posting this to be a jerk. I just want to make it clear why I was hesitant to ever post anything negative before & encourage everyone to be honest in their reviews. I was so upset when I learned what Heather was going through.

 

I also want this story to help people hire a photographer. I was so focused on the pictures & price. I was willing to hire someone who I knew would cause more stress for a cheaper price. She had asked me not to tell others what I paid, but I see she is posting that now so I don't need to hold up my end of the deal.

 

I can now see how much that piece of mind is worth for your wedding. There are some exceptional photographers (and many on BDW) that will be cool under pressure. I think that these great photographers would never have bothered me with the hotel issue. I would have spent my nights leading up to the wedding having fun & never wasted time dealing with the mess. It also didn't need to be a big ordeal. It could have been resolved to easily.

 

As I'm learning photography myself, I can see how much goes in to doing the job right. There is a lot of talk in the photography industry about having some sort of licensing or regulation to be a wedding photographer. I don't agree with that, but I see why there is that need. There are plenty of people with nice cameras and some can take great pictures, but there is a lot more to being a professional.

 

Basically, my advice for BDW- Hire a professional.

[Sapphire723]

Geeze... this chick sounds like such a drama llama. NO WAY I would hire her after her response on weddingwire.

 

I love the "I wasn't willing to foot the bill for an out of town phone call because I was already doing too much for the bride by trying to provide my services as agreed by our contract." I mean, if you weren't ok with having her pay for travel expenses only, then you should have charged a fee instead of whining about it when things went wrong.

 

It's just very apparent that she isn't very professional (that was her lowest score from the other brides as well) and unwilling to figure things out on her own. If she wasn't comfortable traveling, perhaps she should have brought her mommy to hold her hand instead of requiring her CUSTOMER to do so. Frickin grow up. And I love that she's now claiming that she's mostly a DW photog, even though she's still not sure how to travel.

 

i think it's very disheartening that someone this unprofessional is so outspoken about her personal beliefs. I think it shines a very negative light on those beliefs when the negative light should be on the person acting out.

[Kat81]

"So I posted " I found this guy a minute too late", meaning that I found the drummer a right after the winner was announced."

 

OMG Morgan that is BS that you have to watch the way you word things. Like WTF would she care if you did mean the other? Freakin' crazy people.

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sapphire723 Geeze... this chick sounds like such a drama llama. NO WAY I would hire her after her response on weddingwire. I love the "I wasn't willing to foot the bill for an out of town phone call because I was already doing too much for the bride by trying to provide my services as agreed by our contract." I mean, if you weren't ok with having her pay for travel expenses only, then you should have charged a fee instead of whining about it when things went wrong. It's just very apparent that she isn't very professional (that was her lowest score from the other brides as well) and unwilling to figure things out on her own. If she wasn't comfortable traveling, perhaps she should have brought her mommy to hold her hand instead of requiring her CUSTOMER to do so. Frickin grow up. And I love that she's now claiming that she's mostly a DW photog, even though she's still not sure how to travel. i think it's very disheartening that someone this unprofessional is so outspoken about her personal beliefs. I think it shines a very negative light on those beliefs when the negative light should be on the person acting out.

this happened with her before on wedding wire. i tried to tell her that she was making herself look worse with her replies. she wouln't listen to me. this was in nov or oct & i stopped talking to her after that.

i really thought with some help, she could be a big success. I spent a huge amount of time trying to help her. Yes, she did pay me for a few jobs, but it probably broke down to $1 an hour with all the time I put in. I was helping her because I wanted to see her business grow. I thought if her marketing materials looked more professional she could be successful. I had no idea how she was communicating with clients. I realized she was sabotaging herself & I gave up on helping her.

it was her idea to shoot my wedding for the cost of travel. I had already booked someone in mexico. i gave her plenty of opportunities to back out.

This whole situation makes me so sad. I was once so dedicated to helping her get her business off the ground. I don't want to see her fail. I would love to see her take my constructive critisms (I sent her a list) and make the changes neccessary. Instead she is going to think I'm the problem & a terrible person and not spend any time on self-reflection.

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kat81 "So I posted " I found this guy a minute too late", meaning that I found the drummer a right after the winner was announced." OMG Morgan that is BS that you have to watch the way you word things. Like WTF would she care if you did mean the other? Freakin' crazy people.

yeah, she also micro managed my BDW siggy & my siggy on the knot. She wanted to have a say on the pictures I put in both. It was a HUGE relief when I stopped talking to her. One of the first things I did was change my siggy to what I wanted.

I'm sure I sound like a huge push-over for this. I have an issue with being too nice for too long.

And, yes knowing what I do now I wish I would have hired nathaniel instead. I was very close to doing it when the drama first started with Kristie, but he was going to be on his anniversary trip right before my wedding. He was still willing to make it work & fly from his anniversary trip to my wedding. The guy is a true professional and I should have trusted my gut when I was considering backing out with Kristie.

This situation has taught me a lot though about how to treat customers. As I start up my family photography business (no weddings, just so it's clear I'm not a vendor), I put so much emphasis on keeping things stress-free for the people I photograph. It's not enough to just take good pictures. You want the entire experience to be positive.

[rodent]

she got someone to write this in my wedding wire guestbook

 

as a bride who is also planning a wedding away from home I have seen your review after researching Kristie to be my photographer and would appreciate if you have a problem with this vendor to keep the conversation off of this site as I do not care to read about whatever picky problems you are fighting about. Please keep in mind this is a site for reviews not arguements. If you do not like her than stop interacting with her. You have already used her services and whatever you are fighting about can't be fixed so please keep this clean for the sake of other brides. Thank you.

[Kat81]

HA HA She is just writing that because now she is freaking out. She will see, when Kristie freaks out on her.