Melissa shot our wedding in the beginning of September. Rating her is pretty hard, so i've been dwelling on it a bit.
On the photographic side she is excellent, has a great eye and amazing talent.
On the business side of things she really needs to grow up.
We chose Melissa after interviewing 4 or 5 other photographers, as we loved her enthusiasm and style. Our only concerns were that she was new at being the lead photographer in weddings.
We did get many photographs which we were very happy with , as stated above she is a great photographer. Her issues are mainly based on lack of communication and maturity.
Things that went wrong:
Her or her co-photographer were suppose to come get photos of the grooms party getting ready and we were stood up without word whether they were coming or not (her answer wasn't an apology or anything other than "I told the bride we weren't going and she was suppose to tell the groom" (asking the bride on her wedding day to play secretary? really?)
She had asked us to save a seat in the limo (taking the seat of another guest) so she could shoot the rides over and back in there. Not only did we not bring a camera as we didn't suspect to need one, she decided not to come in the limo (ie no photos of the ride, which we wanted) again no apology or explanation.
She had repeatedly assured us she would get all the normal group shots (bridesparty, groomsparty, with parents etc etc) and we didn't need to worry about it. In the chaos that followed all organization was left to me (the groom) as Melissa was very quiet and never took charge as she said she would. The extra photos/groups that we requested were begrudgingly shot (but turned out great).
Melissa had assured us that she had scouted the location, which became very apparent that she had not, requesting that we do all our group shots in front of a chainlink fence.
At the wedding reception we were to have two photographers one shooting a photo booth and one doing crowd shots and eating, toasting etc. The 2nd photographer i gather came down with a migraine and was sitting in the car (This i guess was the 3rd and a last minute sub as second photographer as originally we were told it would be her husband, then she was having an 8+ month pregnant lady as second). Again when we asked about this she never took responsibility but made the excuse that she was sick in the car.
On the communication front:
She continually promised us copies of the contract, repeatedly saying we'd get it that night or the next day, we finally received it on October 23rd (the wedding was Sept. 3rd). She also likes to refer to the contract when it is in her favor (we asked for copies of other photos taken as we were missing ones we knew were taken and would have rather a bad copy than none.) and she stated that it the contract called for X number of photos and she wouldn't be supplying anymore. Though when we point out that she was in breach of other parts of it (8 hours of two photographers) it is ignored.
When we originally asked about the things detailed here, she first didn't respond and then after follow up said she would respond the next day. We again had to follow up with her to get her to respond a week later. She has yet to respond to further emails despite several attempts to follow up with her.
I think when we got our photos we would have recommended her to others but with our interactions since then (or lack there of) I'd recommend looking elsewhere. more of a 2.5 star review. read more