musey's reviews

Their photographers are talented--there's no denying that.

What turned us off was that the specific one we met with (the studio has 5 or 6 photographers) was pushy, an honestly, a bit like the used car salesman stereotype. I hesitated at first to list a negative review for the whole studio based upon this one guy, but he was the studio's representation that day.

He wouldn't provide pricing information until we went in for a consultation. Fine. When we sat down, he shoved a few photo books across the table and left the room for more than 10 minutes. When he came back, he delivered an over-rehearsed sales pitch, bragging about the high quality of their 'art' and telling us we won't find better in the price bracket (which still hadn't been 'revealed' to us). Once we finally got the chance to ask about packages, he handed us a sheet outlining our options. If I remember correctly, packages started at $4000.

I wish he'd let us ask sooner, because the meeting then felt like a huge waste of time--as the top of our budget range was nestled firmly at $3000. We told him so, thanked him for his time, and got up to leave--at which point he said "Wait, maybe we can work something out!"

He proceeded to draw up an estimate, writing it down on a piece of paper, and then slid it across the table saying "How does that look?" (~$3200). FI then said that he didn't understand, how would it be possible to book him below the base package price. The guy said that he'd be do it for us outside of the studio umbrella, but we could NOT tell the other studio members because he could lose his job.

!!!!

Um, okay, this is when the red flags started popping up.

Needless to say, we did not book with David Michael.

For the record, we ended up booking a different photography team for nearly $4000 anyway. They won us over with their friendly and upfront personalities, instead of wheeling and dealing.

I had a great experience at La Soie. The salesgirls were not pushy at all, and I actually had a lot of fun with them. I loved that they didn't try to push dresses on me... they'd make suggestions but not in an obnoxious way.

I had fallen in love with my dress, originally, at Jobyna's bridal in Glendale... it was 30% cheaper at La Soie.

This review is for a TASTING only.

We visited very recently. The salesgirl was somewhat helpful, but seemed distracted/disinterested, though they were not busy at all. She prepared 3 cake combinations (of our choosing, free of charge) for us to try. While she was off doing this, she gave us 2 small photo books to look through, and a price list (very reasonable, $250ish for a cake to feed 90-125).

The cake itself was just okay, kind of dry--I've had better from a box. The custard fillings were good, but nothing to write home about. They have TWO (only two) frosting choices: whipped cream and buttercream. This means your cake must be WHITE. This was the dealbreaker for us--we want a chocolate/brown or orange frosted cake.

It's a good option if you're on a very tight budget and want an all-white cake, but otherwise I'd say don't bother.