After posting this review, I was contacted by Elijah, who was quite receptive and genuinely concerned about "missing the mark" at my event. This was impressive and refreshing. While there are no "do-overs" for my last event, I would use them for my next.
NOT QUITE IN FOCUS.
We hired this company for our wedding reception. We purchased 4 hours of the photo booth + 2 hours of a roaming photographer. This was not an expensive venture, but I'd pay a little more to eliminate the nickel-n-diming and the stress of limited communication and last-minute responses.
COMMUNICATION: Elijah wasn't very easy to reach, but was a pleasant enough guy. I felt that I had to stay on top of things or he would never get back to me about questions. When I sent emails to him, he would only answer a few of the questions - not all, which required additional emails. I did receive a lot of detailed information because I asked for it. He didn't volunteer a lot of information. He sent a contract that had incorrect information in it. This took a couple of tries. He told me to check back a couple of weeks before the event to choose a background because they would have purchased more by then. When I followed up and asked to see the samples (maybe online?), he seemed confused as to why I was calling and said I could choose the background when they show up at the event. Hmm... I really wanted to get all of this done in advance.
PHOTO BOOTH: The photo booth worked well. There were lots of fun props and the template I provided in advance was set up and ready to go. We didn't opt for email or facebook connectivity. It was open (without walls or a roof), which was cool, but we didn't think about the sun and shadows (this would have been something to consider before deciding on placement, but it wasn't mentioned to us). Note that if your space isn't big enough, the camera will be closer to the spot where people sit/stand and, therefore, fewer people can fit into the shot (our issue - not theirs, but another thing to consider that wasn't mentioned). Our attendant was very friendly and professional.
ROAMING PHOTOGRAPHER: Our attendant was also our photographer. This was confusing because Elijah and I discussed two separate people (and reference was made to two separate people in our email correspondence). I added two people to the headcount for dinner based on my communication with Elijah (yes, you have to feed them or allow them to go get food and pay for the food).
I would have like to have had an attendant the entire time and a photographer for the entire two hours. The photos were okay - not terrible and not terrific. I don't think she was able to move around the party freely because she was also watching the photo booth. There were areas/people that we don't have any photos of, yet several of the same areas/people. Overall, I think she did the best that one person could do.
GETTING DIGITAL COPIES: We received the flash drive for the photo booth that night. Awesome! I sent Elijah an email about the flash drive for the roaming photographer and he said that we had received it that night and that I should ask my husband. We hadn't received it. I finally reached him via telephone and explained that I needed it before left the country in 2 weeks. Two days before we left, I still had not received the flash drive. I called and couldn't reach him. The next day, we received a "Next Day" shipment with the flash drive in it. Whew! That was close. He waited until the last minute to send it. Our event was on May 16. We received the flash drive on June 2.
PAYMENT: I was able to make a deposit via PayPal (I didn't want to get stuck with a big bill at the end of the event). I wanted to pay the balance via PayPal or Visa, but there is a fee for that (what?!), so we had to carry the cash on us throughout the night. read more