Oh, how I adore everything from Cards and Pockets! When we finally decided to go with their dark brown pocketfolders for our invitations, I placed an order for 200 of them. As it turned out, I was only sent 170 of them, rather than the 200 I ordered. With just a quick e-mail explanation of what happened, Cards and Pockets immediately sent me 30 more pocketfolders with no questions asked. Now that's customer service!

I purchased 2 display floor easels for $75, and they were amazing! (http://www.save-on-crafts.com/easels.html) I had both an enlarged engagement photo as well as an enlarged bridal photo that needed to be displayed at the ceremony, so being able to purchase TWO easels for the price of what other places charge for one easel was a great find! If you're in need for easels because your venue doesn't provide one for you, I highly recommend purchasing your own (actually, two of them!) from Save-On-Crafts.

My husband and I stayed at the South Coast Plaza Westin on the night of our wedding. When checking in, we mentioned that we were newly wed just hours before, secretly in hopes that she'd give us a small upgrade in our room, but she didn't even blink an eye and just said, "Congratulations." No matter, the room we were given was clean and gave us a huge comfortable bed to rest on after the hustle and bustle of the wedding. I would recommend The Westin for anyone looking for an elegant place to stay before, during, or after their wedding.

Where would I be without Costco Travel?! I use them for almost every "big" trip I take, which included our honeymoon to Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica. The service I received from Costco Travel was (and is always) top notch, as they even help accommodate your flight times, travel arrangements, etc. They immediately send you an e-mail upon booking your trip, and you receive your travel documents a few weeks before your trip. And better yet, if you have an Executive membership with Costco, you can even earn a small percentage back on the cost of your trip! I adore everything Costco, especially Costco Travel.

My husband and I booked our Couples Swept Away honeymoon through Costco Travel and our trip was nothing short of fantastic! I mean, what do you expect when you're at a beautiful Caribbean resort with all-inclusive meals and water sports with the one you love? Our honeymoon overlapped with New Year's Eve, which was amazing because the resort had a FULL buffet filled with food choices from around the world that surrounded one of their many pools. If you stay at Couples Swept Away, I would highly suggest you use one or two of the days to book an off-site excursion (not included in your package price). We went horseback riding on one of the days and also paid for their "shopping excursion" which was nice because the van takes you to various shopping joints in the vicinity of Negril. Our room was turned over TWICE a day, and even when my husband tried to slip the young gal a tip for her hard work, she politely refused. Take advantage of their many pools, exercise facility, tennis courts, and oh, did I mention, the beautiful white sand beach of Negril!

If I had to summarize Hana’s work in 3 words, they’d be: modern, stylish, with a touch of gracefulness.

I hired Hana, of Hana Chung Photography, to be a second shooter for our wedding and in all honesty, it was the best decision I made for the wedding. On the morning of our big day, Hana arrived bright and early at the same time as our main photographers, and she was instructed to do two things: take photos of anything she wanted (specifically detail shots), and not to interrupt our main photographers. Hana is one gal who can follow directions because, oh boy, did she deliver! Heck, if I knew how great her photos were going to turn out, I would’ve scrapped my main photographers (whose work I ended up really disliking) and just hired Hana to do it all! Not to mention, she’s just an absolute sweetheart to work with!

After leaving the hotel in the morning to get to the church, I don’t remember seeing Hana again until after the reception was over, and I’m amazed at the bounty of beautiful images she captured without me ever seeing her – a talent of a true photographer. Hana has an incredibly great eye for details and her devotion to what she does really shows in her work.

I highly recommend Hana of Hana Chung Photography. She was one of my favorite vendors and she’s well on her way to rock star wedding photography superstardom!

Tim Coy of Pacific Events was one the easiest vendors to work with! We discovered him after hearing him DJ/MC at a friend's wedding, and my husband and I immediately fell for his smooth, professional voice. Nearing the wedding day, Tim sent us a suggested timeline of events and questionnaire for us to complete. He was prompt to show up and set up on the big day, and he said/played/directed exactly as we wanted! We received many compliments on Tim's DJ/MC service from our friends, even from my own mother who couldn't even understand a word he said! :)

I bought 200 clear cello bags for my DIY peanuts & Cracker Jack favors (pictured above), and Paper Mart had them for the cheapest price. They were a pleasant company to deal with, the item came exactly as described, and their prices are hard to beat.

*Updated 10/6/09*

Kindly take note that Jeff has SEVERELY edited his vendor's response since my last update on 9/26/09. He has edited his review to the point where various of the items I specifically mention and refer to in my 9/26/09 updated response will no longer make any sense. If you would like to view Jeff's original vendor's response that he posted here on Project Wedding, please feel free to message me.



*Updated 9/26/09*

I feel it is only fair to other prospective brides that I update my review with the current on-goings with Connie & Jeff's Photography.

[To gain a full understanding of the entire situation, please read my original review first (written below the line), followed by Connie & Jeff’s Photography vendor response to my review, and lastly, my updated review.]

On September 20, 2009 (one year and 4.5 months after my original review was posted, and almost one year and 10 months since our actual wedding date), I received an e-mail from Jeff of Connie & Jeff's Photography. In his e-mail, he "sincerely" apologizes for various transgressions in our past client/vendor relationship, going so far as to say that he takes “sole responsibility” for our relationship going bad. He mentions that he has revamped various aspects of his business model since then (he says, as a result of my original review) and in the closing of his e-mail, he asked that I remove my original review here on Project Wedding.

My husband and I discussed Jeff’s e-mail at length and thoughtfully dwelled over Jeff’s apology and this entire situation throughout this past week. You can imagine my surprise when I go back to re-read my PW review on Connie & Jeff’s Photography to find that Jeff had written and posted a vendor’s response to my review. Please be aware that this vendor’s response was posted after Jeff’s supposed I-take-sole-responsibility “apology” e-mail to me on 9/20/09.

In his vendor response, Jeff does not seem to be taking “sole responsibility” for the bad relationship, as he had written in his e-mail to me, and points out such things like how it was difficult for he and Connie to bare it when I did not want to take their “fun” poses. I find for a vendor to mention such a trivial thing in his/her vendor response to be childish and petty at best.

I hardly think that just because Andy and I refused to do some of Connie & Jeff’s suggested shots due to our personal preference and feeling uncomfortable with it, that that would have magically made us love the end product of their work. Is it not the job of the photographer to constantly evolve their work and find poses and situations where the bride and groom act, look, and feel comfortable, and not vice versa? Just because one thing works with another couple does not mean it will work with all couples and photographers should never force their clients to do something just because they like it. As professional photographers, they should know this and most definitely NOT have written a response to my review stating that I “not no (sic) nicely, but rudely” denied their “fun” poses.

Jeff mentions in his vendor response that he is “very easy going and reasonable about any given situation.” He also writes that I “respond[ed] back with a very mean email” when we had confusion over my mailing address when our disc of wedding images were done. I am not denying that I should have updated Connie & Jeff with our current address as soon as we had moved, but understand that my frustrations with Jeff were a result of his constant “bottom line” attitude towards us.

When I first e-mailed Jeff with our current mailing address, he wrote me back with a curt “We sent your photos out to the address on the contract....Does your mail get forwarded....If you need a new DVD..it will cost...” I feel there could have been a more polite way for him to inform us of the predicament both parties were in.

I wrote about my aggravations about the situation on my personal blog in January of 2008. Would you believe that Jeff actually contacted me and demand that I take my blog post down? I found his behavior to be outright childish and unprofessional. Would you also believe that Jeff e-mailed me back and told me exactly how I should have politely asked him to re-send a disc of images? He even went so far as to instruct me VERBATIM how I should have penned such an e-mail.

What Jeff doesn’t realize is that there were various times throughout our client/vendor relationship that I could have also asked or demanded of Jeff that he treat Andy and I with the same respect and professionalism that he expected of me. Jeff’s bottom-line approach towards us during a time when we should have all been celebrating was quite off-putting from the beginning and the cause of my “very mean e-mails.”

I mentioned in my original Project Wedding review that throughout our entire wedding process, Andy and I constantly felt like a business transaction to Jeff and Connie. When we were late to our engagement session, Andy and I hadn’t even brought up the idea of rescheduling the photo session with the photographers, and it was Jeff who immediately blurted something to the effect of, “We can reschedule, but it will cost you $X for us to come out again.” While Andy and I take full responsibility for being late to the engagement session, I was completely taken aback with his “it’s going to cost you” attitude from the get-go, and I feel there was a kinder and more reassuring way to tell us that we had other options.

Back in January of 2008, Jeff promised that so long as I not write or spread any more negative comments about them, he would ensure that all images to be included in our album would be color-corrected and that he would spend extra time on our album to make sure that it was “beautiful.” When we received our wedding album, we could visibly see no difference whatsoever between many of photos included in the album compared to the same raw, unprocessed images from the disc of wedding photos that we received, even though we were promised that all photos would be color-corrected. I do not feel that all images in the album were color-corrected, nor we were given the option of viewing the album layout and design before it went to print, as we had asked.

For Jeff, as the album designer, he worked on our album for x-amount of weeks and then he never had to think about or see it again. But for Andy and I, we keep the wedding album forever, and now we’re “stuck” with an album with un-touched photos and wording included on the pages (i.e. “We Do” and “Only the beginning…”) that we NEVER would have allowed to go to print had Jeff asked for our approval beforehand. Sadly, we paid $5,000 for Connie & Jeff’s photography/album services, and not one photo that Jeff or Connie took on our wedding day is displayed on the walls in our home, nor are we proud to take out the album that he designed and show it off to our friends and family.

Also, I found it very smug of Jeff to write in his vendor response that I “obviously love [their] pictures” just because I uploaded them onto my Project Wedding biography. To equate uploading photos onto my Project Wedding biography to “obviously loving [their] photos” is quite a stretch and a bit arrogant on their behalf. I uploaded many of their photos simply because it showed various aspects of our wedding that our second photographer failed to capture, not because I “love” them. Please take note that since reading Jeff’s vendor response to my review, I have deleted many of the photos that Connie & Jeff shot from our wedding off of my Project Wedding biography photo log so as to prove to other prospective couples that I do not “obviously love [their] photos.” The mere fact that Andy and I have no enlarged photos from Connie & Jeff’s Photography hanging in our home is proof enough that we do not “obviously love [their] photos.”

As for their remarks about our second photographer, I find them to be completely unfair and out of context. Firstly, I would like to point out that no where in our signed and agreed upon contract did it state that second photographers are not allowed. Secondly, our second photographer was not treated as a “vendor” because she was not considered to be one of our vendors. In fact, Andy and I paid for her reception meal at full price just like all of our other guests, and we even had her seated at the same table as my younger cousin, with whom she went to high school and college with. Our second photographer was literally just another camera taking photos, because we knew she wanted to get into wedding photography, except that she simply had more inside access to Andy and I and our family than did our other friends who took photos. The small nominal donation we rendered to her was simply for her to edit all the photos that she eventually gave us, and not for her time actually taking the photos at the wedding.

Do Andy and I think that Connie & Jeff’s work is worth the $5,000 that we paid them? Absolutely not. Are Andy and I satisfied with the work that Connie & Jeff provided for us? Absolutely not. Do I think their work is good enough to recommend to other brides? Absolutely not. Do Andy and I regret our decision to hire Connie & Jeff’s Photography? Absolutely we do.

It is obvious that Connie & Jeff are taking great strides to turn the tide in their favor - which they have complete right to do - as four 5-star reviews and 10 positive client testimonials about them have been posted just in this past week. Unfortunately, due to this entire situation, I am unwilling to heed Jeff’s request to remove my original review from Project Wedding and I hope that my situation has showed an accurate portrayal of our utterly negative experience with Connie & Jeff’s Photography and how they conduct business. While I am glad to read that other brides have had positive experiences with Connie & Jeff’s Photography, I still stand firmly behind my original review and DO NOT recommend other brides to go with this photography duo.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or would like for me to go more in-depth.


*End Update*


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I’d like to preface this vendor review by stating that Connie & Jeff's Photography fulfilled ALL terms of the contract in a very timely manner; however, this is an honest review about how Connie & Jeff handle their wedding photography business – both professionally and personally – and I DO NOT recommend other brides to sign with Connie & Jeff’s Photography.

My husband and I initially met with Connie & Jeff early last year 2007 and we decided to hire them to photograph our wedding on the spot – not because their photography talent was unprecedented, but because we felt that their style was “good enough” and the package they offered was hard to beat. I had been researching various photographers for months before our initial meeting with Connie & Jeff, and found that their photo package was one of the best that I came across. Enter here my first (and my most UNforgivable) mistake – not asking the photographers enough questions at the initial meeting & hiring them on the spot.

It is my honest feeling that the level of photography skill that both Connie and Jeff possess is nowhere near equivalent to the amount of money that they charge for their services. Their “eye” for wedding photography and details seem mediocre at best. My husband and I hired a second photographer (an old friend of my husband’s from school & church) for our wedding – a real up-and-coming photographer who had no real portfolio to show us. Let it be known that the wedding photos that she shot, re-touched, and produced for us far surpassed the quality, style, and eye for photos that Connie & Jeff generated for us.

The posed photos that Connie & Jeff had us do throughout the wedding day seemed very generic, out of date, and very rehearsed for a photography team that states they shoot in “photojournalistic, traditional, and artistic style,” as per their website. For example, when Connie had the groom + groomsmen all pick me up for one photo, I distinctly remember one groomsman nervously saying, “Are you sure about this…?” Connie’s response was a curt, “Trust me. I do poses like these for weddings every weekend.” I clearly remember Connie’s response because I remember the way that it made ME feel: generic, posed, and like “just another wedding.” In fact, when I peruse through the gallery of wedding photos on Connie & Jeff’s website, I see many of the same poses that my husband and I were asked to do in many of the photos on their site.

My husband and I received approximately 1,500 images from our wedding day. However, a simple cursory glance through the disc of images is where I learned that more is not always “better.”

§ Their website states: “All weddings are shot in photojournalistic, traditional, and artistic style.”
o I do not feel that occasionally taking a few off-centered, off-angle shots equates to a “photojournalistic” style. During our initial meeting, I remember Jeff pitching to us that he was the one with the eye for album design & photoshopping, while Connie was the one with the eye for detail in the photos. I can find fewer photos than are fingers on one of my hands that exhibit true, raw emotion of the wedding day and genuine artistry in the eye of the photographer.

§ Our signed contract states: “Special Design Images (Black/White, Sepia, Special Borders, etc.)”
o Little did we know that that meant only 25 images – chosen by Connie & Jeff themselves – being re-touched for “special design.” And if we wanted more photos to be “special designed,” we’d have to pay for each one to be re-touched by Jeff. Here is where I was kicking myself in the rear for not asking enough questions at our initial meeting. Had I known that such a minuscule percentage of the photos would be re-touched (25 photos out of a total of 1,500 = 1.67% of photos re-touched!) and that we would have to pay for each additional re-touched photo, I have to wonder why the couple was not allowed to choose which photos would be re-touched themselves?
o 10 out of 315 total photos from our engagement session were re-touched. Each additional engagement photo (above the 10 included) to be re-touched by Jeff would cost us $10/photo. Again, something that we should have asked about during our initial meeting.

§ We were informed that all photos that were included in the wedding albums would be re-touched.
o The lighting in the church for our ceremony resulted in many drab-colored, yellowish hued photos of us during the actual ceremony, while many photos of the reception are in a garish orange-colored hue. When my husband and I chose these photos to be included in the albums, we were under the impression that said photos would be color corrected to reflect a more natural photograph, because who wants to remember a drably tinted colored photo of the groom kissing the bride during the ceremony? We were surprised when we received our wedding albums and, when flipping through the pages, it did NOT seem as though all photos included in the albums were, in fact, re-touched, as per the agreement. We were quite disappointed.

On multiple occasions in dealing with Connie & Jeff, my husband and I felt more like a business transaction, rather than a couple whose satisfaction was of the utmost concern. The most repugnant offense was when we were informed that our wedding albums were ready! Here were our 3 options for retrieving our albums:
1. We could have picked up the albums ourselves from Connie & Jeff’s HOME in Chatsworth. (Their business office is in Beverly Hills, which is where we initially met them, signed our contract, and where we assumed that they conducted their business.)
2. We could have had the albums mailed to us for $100 which included shipping, handling, and insurance.
3. We could have had Connie & Jeff deliver the albums to us for $1/mile, roundtrip, from their home in Chatsworth. (i.e. Delivery to a home 40 miles away from Chatsworth would cost $80.)

Please tell me in which situation mentioned above you felt most like a treasured and important client?

While I realize that a couple’s wedding day is never as special or meaningful to anyone other than the couple themselves, I believe that it is the duty of the photographer to capture just how special and meaningful the wedding is, even if the photographers don’t feel it themselves. It is true that the wedding day goes by in a blur, and that a couple can never truly ever relive their wedding day…except through their wedding photos! Sadly, my husband and I are disappointed and feel nowhere near the happiness we experienced on our wedding day when we look through the wedding photos that Connie & Jeff took for us.

At this time, you may be wondering why in the hell did we hire Connie & Jeff? The thought occurred to me, a few months after hiring them, that we made a huge mistake. It did cross our minds to forgo our $1,000 deposit and sign with another photographer – but we didn’t, and it’s the one regret that I still harp over to this day. Hiring Connie & Jeff’s Photography was the one, most costly, mistake we made in regards to our wedding, and I hope that my mistake is your gain, as I do not recommend any other brides signing on with them.

One person who can do simple Photoshop skills plus one person with a mediocre eye for photography does not a wedding photography team make.

There's nothing else I can add to previous bride's reviews that would showcase how extremely talented Mahtab is at altering wedding dresses. She is amazing in the work that she does, and is incredibly sweet and kind on top of it.

I took my dress to Mahtab thinking that it was too small and needed to be let out in the bust. She took a look at the dress and assured me that there'd be enough material to let the dress out; however, as it turned out, we were able to zip it up all the way, and she simply had to (1) alter the hem, (2) sew in bra cups, and (3) put in a bustle. The dress was completed in about two weeks and it looked amazing.

At such reasonable alterations prices, I highly recommend brides taking the drive down to Lake Forest for Mahtab to work magic on your beautiful too large, too small, too long, or too short wedding dresses.