Bride and Groom beware. I hired Katie last year for my wedding and my gut instinct after I met with…read moreher said keep looking but I was pressed for time and she lied to get our business. Katie claims to be a professional full-time photographer, this is not true, she works for a wedding venue in Mandeville full time, her photography experience is highly exaggerated.
Because we have friends and family all over, some were even out of country at the time of our wedding, we requested that Katie do a Live stream of the ceremony. She stated that would be no problem and that she had a great videographer. That "videographer ended up being her husband who is not a professional videographer by any means. We did a contract and paid an extra $500 for the livestream.
In short, the livestream never happened. I had dozens of people contacting her the day of the event via email and text after they set aside time and adjusted schedules to attend virtually as planned. Katie had months of time to prepare but did not. I provided her the information for the venue and the venue director and she never went there prior to the date of the event or even contacted Danielle, the event coordinator, to set up and test the livestream. In the video we saw (we have no usable video of our wedding now) it showed our backs in front of the pastor and Katie right behind him, you see the backs of people attending the weddings heads bobbing all over, you cant hear anything on the audio and you never see us come down the aisle. Needless to say, it would have been a better video if one of my friends had just recorded it with an iPhone.
As a courtesy, I even paid an extra $200 for Katie and her husband to have dinner while working at my wedding. How was I treated in return? When I texted, called, and emailed Katie to address the video and the fact the livestream did not work even though we paid for it, she ghosted me.
She had also promised the pictures within 2-3 weeks of the event, but it was 5 weeks before I received anything and when I did, the pictures were awful. My husband is 6'2 and I am 5'10, but taller with heels on. We both work out and are athletic-not small people. A common rule of professional photography is never shoot from down low because it is the most unflattering angle possible. Katie is 4'10 which, when we met, made me apprehensive to choose her. However, she advised that she wears big shoes and climbs up on ladders to get better shots. She did wear big shoes on the day, but she couldn't walk well in them and she stepped all over my dress before the wedding leaving black marks all over it. She did not use a ladder or shoot from up high, she kept kneeling and shooting from down low which is a rookie mistake and shows her lack of experience. Just so people know, I have a lot of experience with professional photographers since I had modeled for years worked with dozens of photographers. So, when I say I understand angles and what she should have done and not done, I really do.
She also claims she "preselected areas" to take pictures, which is highly unlikely since she never went to the venue prior. She had us walking outside in 90 degrees with full makeup on, tuxedo and dress, outside in the alleys, down dirty service hallways, and all over the place prior to the wedding to do pictures. After my experience, I would recommend any other photographer but her. I am also filing against her in small claims court for violation of her own contract and ghosting me when I attempted to address it. If I can, I will attach a copy of the judgement once it is done.
