It started out promising.
I found Kaylee through suggestions on a wedding page on social media. Her portfolio had stunning images, her reviews were raving so I sent her a message as an excited newly engaged bride. Her vibe was great at first, I expressed my excitement, shared our vision and even told her the one shot I have longed for as one of my bridesmaids had it done at her wedding and it turned out SO cool, she emphasized the fact that she does it for all her couples. Fast forward to a day or two before our shoot I had messaged her again expressing excitement asking details and she had to cancel as she had unexpectedly lost a family member. I asked about rebooking before my chest surgery because it was a water shoot and I wouldn't be able to be in any contact with bodies of water especially lakes for 6 weeks after. She suggested her second shooter because she was fully booked every weekend both days and couldn't make anything work before my surgery date. I declined the second shooter even though she expressed that she would be the one editing the photos. We fell in love with her portfolio and vibed with her, I didn't know her second shooter so didn't feel comfortable. I had suggested a different location as well and being further away that didn't work out which I understood with distance and time. At this point I just wanted to find someone who could do our shoot before my surgery so asked about a refund. I was told there's no refunds, it's a complementary engagement shoot ( paid $500) to book that went towards our wedding. After many back and forths Kaylee found us a spot before my surgery. It didn't feel so vibin anymore but I believe in second chances so we agreed to the date and carried on with the ideas for poses, outfit suggestions etc. The day before the date Kaylee had found for us I had a bachelorette party for my one of my bridesmaids in the same location we were doing our shoot and I ended up being drugged and found myself waking up in hospital the next day. I immediately contacted Kaylee to let her know what had happened and asked about the potential to rebook she was very understanding and sincere and agreed which I greatly appreciated because I was in no shape to stand let alone do a full beautiful photoshoot in a body of water.
Fast forward to October 6th we were planning a sunset shoot for the lake. We were on our way and due to TONS of traffic on the highway we ended up running behind, I updated her the whole way there with ETA's. We were super close to our destination so I quickly changed as I knew multiple outfits wouldn't be an option anymore due to the sun starting to set. I ended up ripping off my nail so I was in a world of pain and lost all train of thought, could not think of all of the pose ideas I had sent to Kaylee and wanted to do because I was so focused on the pain.
We met her it seemed good we went out onto the lake and took some photos. She suggested a couple poses and after about 10-15 minutes I had to ask her is that all, what next. What pose should we do now as I couldn't remember anything being focused on my pain. Meanwhile I completely forgot about the one COOL shot I wanted to get of the champagne shooting at the camera, the very shot I told Kaylee about when we first connected.
She gave me turn around times and we parted ways. That night I was sent previews that I was able to share with my family and friends but they were all very blurry, taken far back and I wasn't able to make the quality any better. I went with it and thought these are just the previews probably some rawer images.
I asked a few days later about the COOL shot we didn't get that I really wanted and I was told it was too dark the champagne wouldn't have shown up on the camera however upon looking back through her photos and the photo that she posted of a couple's engagement shoot they had champagne and it was the same time of day as our shoot just not on the water. Very disappointing as it was my one ask if her and she told me she does it complementary for every couple.
A week passed and I watched as Kaylee tagged couples in their ready sessions talking about how stunning they looked and how fun the shoot was. Her work was definitely beautiful so despite the interactions I was excited to see our beautiful sunset shoot!
I had been speaking with other vendors so I was in touch in my emails regularly. I noticed our shoot from Kaylee was in there one day. I went to her pages and looked. There was none of our photos on there which was fine, she probably doesn't post all her clients previews anyhow. So I waited to see if she would message and let us know our photos were done, tag me any sort of interaction to follow up ensuring we recieved our photos and we're happy with them.
I looked through our photos and a huge wave of disappointment and regret hit me. I stuck it out with Kaylee instead of getting a new photographer because her work looked stunning and I believed in her skills. Our photos were nothing like any of the other shoots. They were dark, the sunset in the background was overly edited, the majority of the photos were taken from so far back you can't see our faces.
It's October 25th and I still have yet to hear anything back from Kaylee. It's clear she lost her excitement to photograph us and just quickly edited our photos to get it over and done with.
We will be having to find another photographer now who can do an engagement session that we can put on our save the dates and move forward with that we can count on to bring our vision to life on our big day.
Overall I give one star because in the beginning her vibe was good and she was understanding of my unexpected situation otherwise everything else was highly disappointing.
