My husband and I selected Cornerstone to photograph our June wedding because the price was right…read moreand Mark (the owner of the company) really seemed to get what we were looking for - a combination of photojournalistic and posed photography, focusing on some urban landscape backgrounds in Chicago. After our first consultation with Mark, where we viewed a few portfolios and discussed our preferences and ideas for our wedding day, we felt comfortable in deciding to work with he and his photographers. He subsequently emailed sample photos of two photogs to choose from, and based on what we saw and liked, we selected Christina.
Before the wedding, Mark was very accessible, flexible and responsive to our requests and questions. He was not, however, helpful in facilitating our first meeting with our chosen photographer Christina, although in our initial consultation, he really hit home the importance of meeting in person with her. It took a month or so to finally get in contact and meet up with Christina. When we did, we thought the meeting went well. We reiterated the things we'd told Mark, and Christina was attentive and a good listener. She even called the day before the wedding to confirm our plans. On that call, she asked for a list of people who she "must photograph" together, and I reminded her that we preferred to capture the reception as it occurred, instead of posed shots.
The day of the wedding, Christina was on time and easy to work with. I did feel as though I had to do some directing with the family shots, which I thought she'd have more input on, and that made it stressful. In every iteration of the family shots, she made the whole group (whoever was in the shot) hug each other. This would have been cute for a few, but was overkill for all of them to follow this format. At the ceremony and reception, all seemed to go well and no issues occurred. We were very happy with Christina's attentiveness and hard work - she was running around all night and we even kept her for an extra hour. She even followed-up with an email a few days later with a photo she said was her favorite, which was nice and thoughtful.
Then, we received our proofs. They came to us over two months after our wedding day, so we were VERY anxious to see them. All of the posed photos turned out really well. As suspected the family "hugging" photos were a bit much, but other than that, we were pleased. Then, we got to the wedding and reception photos and were utterly disappointed. These are the main reasons why:
1. We got married in a beautiful, candle-lit event space with exposed brick walls and concrete floors - a very unique space (A New Leaf). None of the photos captured the feel of the event because they were all shot with a VERY bright flash.
2. Our ceremony was held in an attic apartment space with hardwood floors and tiny tea lights, but due to the flash, it looked like we were in a white-walled apartment. Had Christina used a tri-pod with a longer shutter speed, she would have captured the feel we paid for with the event space.
3. All of our ceremony photos are from one perspective - with my husband's back to the camera, because she didn't move around the room to capture us saying our vows
4. The reception photos consist of waist-up snapshots of people Christina asked to put their arms around each other and pose, all with VERY bright flash. Again, the feel of the space was not captured.
5. There was an outdoor patio with glass floor tiles and twinkle lights in the trees where all the people who were not dancing (about half our guests) were congregated. Christina took no pictures of that space or those people and their interactions.
Needless to say, we were highly disappointed with the finished product. When I expressed our disappointment to Mark, he was defensive and argumentative, instead of apologetic and open. He provided a "reason" for every complaint I had and his emails read like a long list of excuses and sounded like he did not want to take responsibility for his employee's work. At one point, I asked him to read my email and not respond because I was tired of hearing all the reasons why Cornerstone was not at fault.
After this all occurred, I went to Cornerstone Photography's Facebook page and found that a selection of my proofs had been posted a few weeks after my wedding, as a promotional tool. One would assume that if they could be posted on Facebook, we could have been given a preview. Apparently, no one thought of this, and we didn't see any proofs until they were ALL ready in mid-August.
I would not recommend Cornerstone Photography to anyone.
