1 star is even too much. When we first met Samineh, she led us to believe that she was going to provide us the best service and agreed to photograph our engagement, tea ceremony, and wedding in Aug. 2019. When she sent us the contract, I noticed that she didn't include the tea ceremony we had talked about during our meeting, and when I told her it wasn't in the contract, she responded with that it's fine and to not worry as it will be included. This was the very first mistake.
Over the next few months, we met Samineh and our wedding planner to discuss the timeline and she never once brought up any issues about the tea ceremony or extra hours required.
Fast forward to a week before our wedding, this is when Samineh told us that the tea ceremony WILL NOT be included in the package and we would need to pay extra. This was absurd, we had already paid her in full - almost 10k, and she had told us from the beginning that everything would be included. We even hired a third photographer out of her recommendation who will continuously shoot throughout the wedding. When I had shown her the messages where we talked about the tea ceremony, she denied them and continued to say it was not part of the contract. You can imagine how stressed we were one week before our wedding! Luckily, we had a family friend (who also attended our wedding) help shoot our tea ceremony in our home.
This was the kicker. Because Samineh didn't shoot the tea ceremony, she refused to come to Fairmont Hotel to shoot the wedding. Our wedding planner + designer had to force her to come. When we met her at the hotel, she was so horrible to us, she wouldn't listen to us when we wanted certain photos done. She was yelling at our guests after the ceremony to leave and when we wanted to take a group photo, she refused. We had to ask her several times to take it until she finally took it. Mind you, we hired 3 photographers.
During the reception, we noticed all the photographers had gone missing. My husband found them all having dinner (which we also paid for) for over an hour. We were fine with them having dinner, but when we asked them if one of them can go back to the reception to take photos, Samineh said no. She said none of her photographers can take photos without her. This is crazy! We had a whole hour of no photos. My husband let it go because this was our wedding night. They actually left soon after the cake cutting because they were only hired for 10 hours. This was the second mistake, she said if we wanted her to stay, we would need to pay her extra again.
3 days after the wedding, we left for our honeymoon. During this time, Samineh sent us an email stating how we breached our contract. If we want to receive our photos, we would need to pay her extra for the tea ceremony. She is so manipulative. We tried to talk to her saying that it was not included. She denied it and stated that it was part of the contract. Holding ALL of our wedding photos hostage was unbelievable. When we returned (because we were out of the country), Samineh refused to talk to me in person/on the phone stating that her lawyer would not let her and that "this was all business". So eventually, we decided to pay her the extra money instead of risking ALL OF OUR WEDDING PHOTOS.
She is terrible at communication, always has an excuse as to why she couldn't message you. I had to reach out to her each time because I was afraid she would delete our photos. Finally, on May 5, 2021, we received our photo album. We had to ask for many of the photos to be re-edited because it looked like she didn't edit them properly. All the detailed photos of our reception (décor, flowers etc.) were nice but once It came to us, portraits, and our family, they were mediocre, bland, and had terrible focus/lighting.
I would never in a million years, ever, recommend Samineh, Belluxe Photography to anyone. She is so heartless and takes advantage of her clients, all for money. This is not love, and this was not the wedding photos we had imagined. This was the worst experience and I hope no one ever has to go through this. read more
