Elopement photographer
I booked with Evalyne & Co for my elopement in July and chose the 2 hour “To Have and To Hold” package, paying $655 plus tip. I was initially impressed by the quality and true to color editing in her portfolio and excited to work with her. Unlike other photographers I’ve worked with, there was no questionnaire or discussion beforehand about must-have shots, preferred poses, or specific moments that were important to us. At the time, I trusted her experience and assumed she would guide the process. We received sneak peeks the next day, which was exciting. Both her website and my receipt stated a 6 week turnaround, and in person she told me 4–6 weeks. However, the full gallery wasn’t delivered until the night before the 8 week mark. This delay was not communicated directly; I only learned about it through her editing queue on Instagram stories. When I received the gallery, I was disappointed with the overall editing and photo selection. Out of approximately 159 photos, only around 11 felt truly usable. Many images appeared very dark, some skin tones leaned orange, and even the ocean appeared green in several photos. Some important moments were barely, if at all, documented. For example, the ring exchange resulted in only one photo of my husband putting the ring on me and none of me putting the ring on him. Walking with my dad down to the ceremony location by the ocean, which took several minutes, was also undercaptured, with many photos blurry, awkwardly timed, or unflattering. I understand documentary-style photography includes candid moments, but I expected the final gallery to be curated to include the most flattering and meaningful images. When I asked about adjustments, she stated she had “over delivered” by providing more than double the promised number of photos. While technically true in quantity, I would have preferred fewer, more carefully selected and polished images. She offered to re-edit five photos and stated additional edits would be $15 per photo, which was discouraging because I felt the gallery should have been fully polished before delivery. After I originally posted this review on Google, a portion of it was later shared publicly on social media along with several of my wedding photos in connection with the review. The post showed only a small excerpt of my review without full context and included multiple photos from my gallery. Her post had hundreds of thousands of views and a large amount of public attention, and comments were made about my appearance, my husband’s appearance, and members of my family, including people zooming in on photos and sharing screenshots in the comments. The video was eventually removed, but the situation was very uncomfortable and upsetting to experience, especially considering these were private wedding photos from a once in a lifetime event. Around the same time, my original review was removed, so I am reposting my experience here for accuracy and transparency. I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews, but wedding photography is a significant investment and a once in a lifetime service. Based on my experience with communication, turnaround time, editing consistency, additional editing fees, and overall professionalism, I cannot say that my experience matched the expectations set by the portfolio and pricing. Another thing to note is she somehow has managed to delete my Google and Facebook review, which makes me think she has done this in the past with other negative reviews. I would be very cautious.
By Keziah S.