A day that was meant to be so special, turned out to be extremely devastating. I found Haley on Instagram after our first engagement photographer cancelled on us a week and a half before our scheduled shoot day. First off, I want to mention how difficult and rare it is to get a day off with my fiancé since we work opposite schedules. Second, we needed to get our engagement shoot done ASAP because we needed to send out our save the dates ASAP considering we were having a destination wedding in November 2020. So, when our first photographer cancelled, I hopped on the first response I received back because I was desperate to get our shoot done ASAP which was the biggest mistake I made. I sent her a deposit and it took her days to confirm receipt of deposit which was a little concerning considering what we had just experienced and it was scheduled last minute. She assumed I should've known she was out of town because "she posted it on IG" which I hadn't even been following her yet, so I had no clue. Considering this is our first ever engagement shoot and we were planning on having it at a botanical garden in Palm Springs (we are based in LA), you would think she'd offer to hop on a call to feel out the vibe or try to get to know us a little, but instead I'm trying to ask all sorts of questions to get a better idea of what to expect. I am in the same industry as her (makeup artist) and I work with brides all the time so I know how stressful it is and how comfortable you want them to feel because they chose you for such a special moment in their life. I did not get that feeling from her and at the end of the day, she just did not handle things professionally. So I stop getting a response from her 4 days out and then I reach out the day before with some last minute questions and still CRICKETS. I figured we had already sent her the deposit and confirmed location and date and not exactly a time but an idea of when, that we will just meet then although she hadn't gotten back to me in days. Day of, I let her know our ETA (through email, our only method of communication) and asked for a phone number to contact her and still nothing. Once we arrived at the location, I emailed her a few more times, messaged and commented on her IG (which she has since deleted), called her (found her number through FB) and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I start panicking because we just drove nearly 3 hours and the location we were shooting at was closing in an hour and we're starting to realize that we may have just been scammed by our photographer. My heart drops and I'm bawling my eyes out sitting in my car at the location literally watching another photographer shoot another engaged couple and just at a complete loss for words. I cannot even describe how devastated we were because we just spent so much time driving out there and knowing we probably won't have another day off together to make the trip for another month or so and I was hoping to get the save the dates out in 3 weeks. Finally hours later, she emailed us saying she just landed from a flight and accidentally booked us for the next day and that she's WILLING to do a free session for us anytime. Why on earth would she think we would ever consider shooting with her again? So that we could potentially be ghosted again? Also, I would never feel comfortable trying to shoot something so vulnerable and raw by somebody that made us feel AWFUL. I hope she never makes anybody else feel the way she made us feel again. read more