We had an extremely disappointing experience with Alyssa Herold, owner of HJCO Photo and Cedar +…read moreSage Studio. My fiance & I hired her to photograph our wedding in April 2023. Along with the package we purchased, came a complimentary engagement session. We paid the $500 deposit, and were so excited to have beautiful photographs together that we could use for our wedding reception, website, etc. Alyssa was very kind and easy to shoot with during the engagement session.
However, the photos that we received for a "sneak peek" were not at all what we expected. I recall email conversations with Alyssa beforehand about the importance of our photos being "true to color" and timeless. She assured me that colors would be true: "but I also always ensure that colors are true. For example, if a bridesmaid's dress is teal, I'm going to show that color instead of making it a sage green. I do this because I understand you selectively picked out colors for a reason." The photos that she sent us were far from what she had promised. My hair is dirty blonde, and in the photos it looked like it had been fried to a yellow-orange. The photos were over-exposed and there were shadows on our faces which made us look tired and aged, far from flattering.
I politely expressed my concern for my hair and the orange tint of the photos. She quickly responded to let me know that she would be re-editing them and send them over the next day. Two days later, I received an email with four photos- two were less orange, one was still exactly the same, and the other was a black and white under the chin photo. I was not impressed and quite heartbroken.I expressed my concern again to Alyssa and asked her for unedited/unfiltered photos, to which she replied she wouldn't be able. I let her know that we had decided to find someone else to photograph our wedding.
We understood that the $500 deposit was to reserve our wedding date and she declined other clients on that day. We agreed to this, because we understand that she is reserving that entire day for us and if we canceled, she could lose out on an entire $2150 package. The reason we canceled is not due to anything that we did, but rather her editing and promises that weren't kept. We figured that out of the goodness of her heart, she would give us the unedited engagement photos that were already taken. That would have been nothing extra out of her pocket, but a quick upload and email. Instead, she told us that a contract is a contract, and that we could only receive our wedding photos if we paid her an additional $500+ for a separate session. We felt that was a bit heartless and was the main catalyst for making this negative review. Now, $500 wasted, an evening taken out of our schedule with nothing to show from it, and onto finding a wedding photographer for a month-away event.
