pickaroe's reviews

Terra took some amazing engagement pictures for us in January 2009. They were breathtaking. Her professionalism and attitude was spot on. We even stayed at her cabin for the weekend. It was a blast. I was thrilled for her to be my photographer.

Then our relationship and her professionalism did a complete 180.

The six weeks leading up to the wedding was crazy, it is for any bride. Every lose end and final bill was being tied up and paid. I randomly emailed Terra on 9/4 to ask her a question about pricing for a friend. No response. I didn't think about it until 10/6 when I needed a timeline for our venue and other vendors. I attempted to contact Terra on 10/6 with no response. I called and emailed her every other day, then every day... no response.

I had to turn in my timeline without her input... which was scary considering I didn't know how much of our time Terra needed to get our requested pictures in.

I finally heard from her late afternoon 10/14... after leaving her a voicemail and email stating that I didn't know if she was still living, breathing, working and was going to have to book someone else that evening. I had an appointment set up to book another photographer that night. I was mortified that I had to come up with another $3 - $4k at the last minute and wasn't sure I'd ever see Terra or my money...

Keep in mind my wedding was 10/16. So about 48 hours before my wedding she called to cover my timeline and let me know that she still existed. The first thing she said to me "You're freaking out on me?!?" Yes, I am. Her lack of professionalism was apparent there, no sincere apology.

I've since found out that I'm not the only bride that happened to... luckily I padded my timeline enough.

Terra has a lot of excuses. Some are valid, but after you hear so many you think "my boss would have fired me if I told him or clients that excuse for not getting my work done".

On my wedding day, Terra and her assistant showed up. They looked professional and everyone was willing to be nice to them to get through the day. I was still a bit off put by recent events but I wanted my wedding to be happy and to get some quality work out of Terra since that is what I paid for.

Instead of complaining to my mom or my bridal party, Terra approached me a few minutes before the ceremony to complain about my videographer and quoting to me that her contract states that she is to be the main shooter and the videographer is messing up her shots. I told her to handle it but was upset that a dramatic situation was brought to me shortly before walking down the aisle.

Terra and her assistant disappeared a few times.
I'm missing the recessional of the ceremony. After my husband and I walked back down there are one or two pictures of my bridal party walking back... missing several members of the party.
A group photo of all our guests was taken that I never asked for... even though she kept saying we don't have time for other shots.

At one point she told me to hurry up while my bridesmaid was bustling my dress so I had to remind her that she hadn't taken any pictures of the groom by himself and to do that while we were finishing. RUDE.

I have pictures of her and the assistant in my photobooth. Okay.

I do have a handful of creative shots from the day that I'm happy with but my ceremony pictures are taken at weird angles from the sides with lots of guests heads in them. My guests have given me more touching, well framed pictures than the ones I have from Terra.

She missed the long dip at the end of our first dance even though we had two shooters. I know they can't get everything but I heard multiple accounts that the second shooter was more friendly than professional and not even taking pictures.

I was hoping that my frustration with Terra's lack of professionalism would be offset by gorgeous pictures... but it was not.

I did receive my pictures as told. Only 10 weeks after the wedding vs. the 4 - 5 month wait other clients of hers were dealing with.

The last straw was being quoted a fee for extra spreads for the album on 12/3 then on 1/1 being quoted a price 4 times the price quoted a month earlier. I sent a response email the same day... today is about 17 days later with no response. She did send me an email saying she would get back to me in a few days but did not address my concerns.

I opted not to upgrade my album due to not wanting to give her any more money when I already feel like I've been duped.

Danielle has a creative eye and has a lot of fresh ideas. Her studio has lots of great props and set ups... although I haven't seen it since she's moved it from the garage. She makes you feel relaxed and confident even while standing around half naked... that's a talent in itself!

I loved the quality of the pictures that I received. Danielle is definitelya star photographer as far as style.

I took two stars off because my biggest frustration was getting my pictures. I took my pictures the week before Thanksgiving and received the the last week of February. That's 14 weeks to edit and print about 20 pictures! Communication through this time was pretty much non-existent. I missed giving them to my husband for his birthday, Christmas, and Valentines Day.

I set up a marathon with Danielle so I saved quite a bit of money on my boudoir session... if I would have paid more and received the same poor customer service I would have given her one, maybe two stars.

I completely, totally adore Sonya and Steve. We used Sonya for our floral through our venues package (and then added some extras) and used Steve for our officiant.

Floral:
The flowers were exactly what I had envisioned. I was really bad at communicating my vision to Sonya but with the help of some pictures I brought along she figured out exactly what I was looking for. I know nothing about flowers or decorating so Sonya was my lifeline there. She constantly mentioned that she was keeping costs down even though I was pushing to spend more, spend more! She made a few flower change suggestions to keep down materials cost and recommended using some of the ceremony flowers to decorate our sweetheart table. In the end I was thrilled with my small bill and my awesome flowers. Sonya is extremely creative and it shows from the first meeting to the end product.
Please note - our centerpieces and gazebo decorations were included in the cost of the venue package... we added on our bouquets, bouts, aisle hooks, extra arrangements, etc

Officiant:
Our original lower cost officiant reinforced the old saying, "You get what you pay for". We had to find a less flakey, more coherent officiant a few weeks before the wedding... so we booked Steve. He was great! I only spoke to him over the phone and email while setting up our ceremony details but he had all the details down. During our ceremony I put a little joke in there to get the guests laughing a bit and he delivered it perfectly! Overall, Steve was kind, well spoken, and professional. He even came to say bye after the ceremony was over. I felt bad because we forgot to invite him and his wife to the reception (etiquette and I like them).

My only complaint is response time. Emails and calls sometimes get slow responses but it's worth it 100% and you can depend on them to call/email you back and then deliver in the end.

I would (and will) recommend Sweet Pea Wedding Services to anyone looking for a great florist and/or officiant.

I used Party in Elegance for my wedding linen rentals. Zilda is very helpful and professional. Her rental service is out of her beautiful home but she has a great little studio set up for her linen service. I rented specialty pintuck linens that she made by hand. They came out gorgeous. Zilda's attention to detail is impressive. She makes sure there are no weird seams, stains, or fraying and still rents out linens for better prices than most larger rental companies.

I completely, totally adore Sonya and Steve. We used Sonya for our floral through our venues package (and then added some extras) and used Steve for our officiant.

Floral:
The flowers were exactly what I had envisioned. I was really bad at communicating my vision to Sonya but with the help of some pictures I brought along she figured out exactly what I was looking for. I know nothing about flowers or decorating so Sonya was my lifeline there. She constantly mentioned that she was keeping costs down even though I was pushing to spend more, spend more! She made a few flower change suggestions to keep down materials cost and recommended using some of the ceremony flowers to decorate our sweetheart table. In the end I was thrilled with my small bill and my awesome flowers. Sonya is extremely creative and it shows from the first meeting to the end product.
Please note - our centerpieces and gazebo decorations were included in the cost of the venue package... we added on our bouquets, bouts, aisle hooks, extra arrangements, etc

Officiant:
Our original lower cost officiant reinforced the old saying, "You get what you pay for". We had to find a less flakey, more coherent officiant a few weeks before the wedding... so we booked Steve. He was great! I only spoke to him over the phone and email while setting up our ceremony details but he had all the details down. During our ceremony I put a little joke in there to get the guests laughing a bit and he delivered it perfectly! Overall, Steve was kind, well spoken, and professional. He even came to say bye after the ceremony was over. I felt bad because we forgot to invite him and his wife to the reception (etiquette and I like them).

My only complaint is response time. Emails and calls sometimes get slow responses but it's worth it 100% and you can depend on them to call/email you back and then deliver in the end.

I would (and will) recommend Sweet Pea Wedding Services to anyone looking for a great florist and/or officiant.

Perfect! My only complaint is that I wish they had more flavors because the cake was sooo good!

I showed Debbie a picture of a cake I found in a magazine and she recreated it. I wasn't sure if she could pull it off but she did!

The basic cake was covered in my venues wedding package, then I paid $1 more per serving to add fondant and some sugar paste designs. The top tier (for us to save) was included. She also offered to include a cake stand, but we had one.

Try the red velvet cake or anything with the picasso filling. I promise you'll love it.

I completely, totally adore Sonya and Steve. We used Sonya for our floral through our venues package (and then added some extras) and used Steve for our officiant.

Floral:
The flowers were exactly what I had envisioned. I was really bad at communicating my vision to Sonya but with the help of some pictures I brought along she figured out exactly what I was looking for. I know nothing about flowers or decorating so Sonya was my lifeline there. She constantly mentioned that she was keeping costs down even though I was pushing to spend more, spend more! She made a few flower change suggestions to keep down materials cost and recommended using some of the ceremony flowers to decorate our sweetheart table. In the end I was thrilled with my small bill and my awesome flowers. Sonya is extremely creative and it shows from the first meeting to the end product.
Please note - our centerpieces and gazebo decorations were included in the cost of the venue package... we added on our bouquets, bouts, aisle hooks, extra arrangements, etc

Officiant:
Our original lower cost officiant reinforced the old saying, "You get what you pay for". We had to find a less flakey, more coherent officiant a few weeks before the wedding... so we booked Steve. He was great! I only spoke to him over the phone and email while setting up our ceremony details but he had all the details down. During our ceremony I put a little joke in there to get the guests laughing a bit and he delivered it perfectly! Overall, Steve was kind, well spoken, and professional. He even came to say bye after the ceremony was over. I felt bad because we forgot to invite him and his wife to the reception (etiquette and I like them).

My only complaint is response time. Emails and calls sometimes get slow responses but it's worth it 100% and you can depend on them to call/email you back and then deliver in the end.

I would (and will) recommend Sweet Pea Wedding Services to anyone looking for a great florist and/or officiant.

It took me a long time to finally commit and book our lighting. We didn't think of it as a priority for our small wedding budget but now that the wedding has come and gone I'm so glad that we went ahead and got the lighting. The uplights changed our venue from blah to fabulous! The paisley design on my dance floor wasn't as great as I had imagined but it made the dance floor look like somewhere you should be DANCING and tied in a few of my wedding details.

Elle had the best prices on lighting that I could find, hands down. And Lisette was so helpful at all hours of the night. I'm a night owl, I like to take care of creative endeavors after midnight. I swear she should have gone crazy from all my emails over months. I told her that we were dropping lighting from our budget twice and she still answered my emails when I revisited the idea and revised our budget to include lighting. Lisette patiently helped me to rework a package that I could afford and then let me change my mind about colors and designs a dozen times.

There is a duplicate post on PW

http://www.projectwedding.com/vendor/show/elle-music-event-decor

It took me a long time to finally commit and book our lighting. We didn't think of it as a priority for our small wedding budget but now that the wedding has come and gone I'm so glad that we went ahead and got the lighting. The uplights changed our venue from blah to fabulous! The paisley design on my dance floor wasn't as great as I had imagined but it made the dance floor look like somewhere you should be DANCING and tied in a few of my wedding details.

Elle had the best prices on lighting that I could find, hands down. And Lisette was so helpful at all hours of the night. I'm a night owl, I like to take care of creative endeavors after midnight. I swear she should have gone crazy from all my emails over months. I told her that we were dropping lighting from our budget twice and she still answered my emails when I revisited the idea and revised our budget to include lighting. Lisette patiently helped me to rework a package that I could afford and then let me change my mind about colors and designs a dozen times.

This was the only store (online or brick & mortar) that carried a band that matched my estate engagement ring. I kept going in to look at it and one day Kavita offered to let me put in on layaway so that no one bought it.

I found similar rings online but they weren't exact matches and they were priced hundreds of dollars more than what I paid for it at Emkay Diamonds.

My favorite aspects of this store is that they offer estate jewelry at great prices and Kavita has great customer service. She will even stay late if she knows you are coming in for a visit after her normal working hours. She cleaned my ring every time I stopped by to make a payment.

I am definitely making Emkay Diamonds my personal jeweler.