While Heather may be a talented photographer, her personal circumstances repeatedly interfered with…read moreher professionalism. As a mother of eight, I understand that family comes first, but when clients pay premium prices, they reasonably expect reliability, timely communication, and respect for their time. My daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law hired Oats and Honey Photography for engagement and wedding photos. My daughter felt an immediate connection with Heather and believed the higher cost would be worth it. As a young couple in healthcare and students with demanding schedules and limited finances, this was a significant investment. As her parents, we paid the $1,000 deposit to secure the wedding date. After the contract, deposit, and questionnaire were completed on April 17, communication issues began almost immediately. My daughter repeatedly reached out to confirm receipt of the questionnaire with no response for weeks. When Heather finally replied, location suggestions were outside her service area and would have required additional fees, despite my daughter clearly stating travel and budget limitations. Heather later suggested locations within range but failed to provide promised example photos. After weeks of silence, my daughter proposed alternative locations, which Heather approved. On June 5, Heather listed June 18 as available and confirmed it. Days later, she reversed this, saying another client had booked the date--despite having already confirmed it with my daughter and waiting three days to notify her. The session was eventually rescheduled for June 20. After multiple follow-ups, it was confirmed, only to be canceled by Heather less than two hours before the appointment due to an "urgent situation." Given the couple's healthcare schedules, this cancellation was extremely disruptive. Heather offered to waive a travel fee as a "courtesy," though the contract clearly states travel fees only apply beyond 90 miles round trip. The location was less than half that distance, making this offer misleading. At this point, my daughter respectfully requested to be released from the contract and refunded the deposit, as no services had been provided at all. Heather refused, insisting she was entitled to keep the $1,000 because the contract was signed. Despite repeated communication failures, scheduling errors, and a last-minute cancellation, Heather showed no flexibility or decency. Even more upsetting, my daughter received a generic "your session was so beautiful" form email after the canceled session--adding insult to injury. Heather then "released" my daughter from the contract only after securing another wedding for the same date, meaning she lost nothing. Heather often portrays herself as the victim on social media, but her contract allows her to keep large deposits while providing no services whatsoever. This is not professionalism--it is exploitation. Taking someone's hard-earned money without delivering anything in return is unacceptable and unethical.

If I could give Heather 100 stars, I would. Not for all the regular reasons, but for the unique…read moreones. The ones that not all businesses and groups have. Heart. Heather has done photos for my family over the years, starting with the birth of our third son. A medication free hospital birth with a 10lb 9oz baby boy. She somehow managed to make those photos beautiful when you can imagine there were absolutely 0 moments that anything felt beautiful at all. She followed that up with his 1st birthday cake smash and then glitter photos of our 4th child and first daughter. We've done confetti minis with our four kids and my niece and loved every one of those as well. Those aren't the clincher though. We scheduled beautiful Mother's Day minis for May. They go fast so I snuck in and got my family booked for them in January! Beyond excited because her set up is set to be fairytale like. February 11th, 2019 My mom went to the ER in severe pain. Turns out it was a kidney stone, but they never told us that. Instead, they told us of an enormous mass on her liver that needed to be biopsied. They completed the biopsy the following day and told us it might be 5 days before we found out what it was. February 14th, our family doctor who is normally jovial came into the hospital room shrunk down to the smallest version of himself I've ever seen. Cholangiocarcinoma. Less than 1% chance of survival. Happy Valentine's Day. He all but cried as he held me and my mother in that hospital room. We've a large family spread out over Illinois and then in Texas. Our oldest sister was here within 4 days. I got a hold of Heather Parks. I'm glad it was via messenger because I would never have made it to say out loud. "Can we switch those mother's day photos? My mom has terminal cancer. We found one doctor in Chicago who will operate. Out of a board of 100, he was the only one who said he would do it." "YES!" She came to my little sister's home and did photos of my mom and her daughters. You have to see them. Those images. They were the last images we have. Knowing the imminent nature that we needed those images done in, Heather -by the miracle of God- had them ready for us the same night. We printed through her company. We printed on our home printer (not even compareable BTW), we printed at Walgreens. We put images all over her hospital room. Nurses, students, resperatory therapists, pre, post surgical teams, CNA's you name it came in to see those images. We reminded them that she is never alone. We told them to care for her as the woman they saw in those pictures. For the six children she had and eleven grandchildren. Sure we took photos of her after surgery and in the four weeks to come but they weren't images of our mom. They were of a woman slowly and painfully losing a battle from cancer that she was, by all accounts and outward appearances, completely unaffected by just prior to surgery. Heather preserved our mother. She captured our bond and the love she has for us. If you get a chance to see those moments, you can see women who know the timer is almost out. The time you have is so very precious. Our tears are true. The seriousness on our faces is authentic because we know. This isn't her prefered area of photography but she captured it beautifully. Get photos done. Get them done by a skilled photographer. Heather is a beautiful soul and her work reflects that. It's worth the wait when she edits. It's worth the cost of the profession prints. I can see my mother's heart breaking for each of us in those glimpses. That's love. We'll have those moments eternally because she was willing to come and save them for us. February 14, 2019 was her diagnosis. March 4th, 2019 was her operation. April 3, 2019 she breathed her first breath in Light and grace of God. You never know. Heather knows. Now we know.