A Timeless Event

Although my husband didn't think a video was necessary, and that photos were enough I convinced him to hire Stephanie with A timeless Event. Stephanie was actually the only vendor whom we did not meet with face to face prior to booking. Despite this fact, I had no worries. She responded to all phone calls or emails promptly and was very professional. The day of the wedding she was very polite and great to work with. We just saw our edited video footage and I was speechless. I cannot believe the quality of work for what we paid. The day of our wedding flew by and we didn't really get to enjoy it that much because it was just so hectic. It wasn't until watching our video that i really felt like I got to live my wedding day, and see just how lucky we our to have so many loving friends and family. I cant wait to one day show our children! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING WORK!!! Everyone who's seen the video already is so impressed and has the best compliments

Stephanie was very professional. She returned emails and answered questions promptly and was very flexible with customizing a package that would fit my needs. She made sure to check all of the details prior to our wedding day. Stephanie showed up on time and stayed until the end of the reception, even though she was not required to. I wanted to stay within a certain budget for videography and I felt that the quality of the service and video footage I received was great and I feel like I got my money's worth.

A Timeless Event was super great and flexible with our needs! As well as very affordable pricing. We love our wedding dvd and all the great work that was put into it. To say several of our friends used them too for their weddings! Thank you guys for the great service!

Loved my pictures and video and the price was great! I will do business with them again in the future and I have recommended them to my friends and my friends are very happy with their video and photographs as well.

We were very disappointed in the videography services of Stephanie and Hector. They go by several different names, shooting weddings under the names of “A Timeless Event”, “All The Above Events”, and “At A Glance Productions”. As someone who is a professional editor in reality television, we opted hire Stephanie & Hector to shoot the wedding only and did not use their editing services. Instead, we paid to receive a copy of all raw footage on a hard drive.

First and foremost, when I looked at the footage they had shot of that day, I was horrified when I looked at the footage they took of my wedding dress. Before I put it on they borrowed the dress to get a few shots of it, and in order to get their shots, they took my wedding dress out to the hallway and hung it from a fire sprinkler. Yes, a fire sprinkler. One wrong move and the dress would’ve been sprayed down by the sprinkler and ruined.

Next, I went to look at the footage of the ceremony. After we synced up the video from both cameras during our ceremony with the audio, we also noticed there was a section of the ceremony that both cameras cut out during. Between two cameras it’s hard to understand how at least one camera wouldn’t be recording something as important as the ceremony at all times. Our ceremony was not a long ceremony either, at just under half an hour. They were shooting to media cards, not video tapes, so it’s not like they had to change a tape at any point. And even then, professional videographers who shoot on tape stagger their tape changes a few minutes apart to make sure one camera is rolling on the ceremony at all times.

While they had nice equipment their camera skills were well… lacking. They lacked attention to detail, getting enough to get the job done but little more than that. Their camera movements were jerky and lacked variety in shots. They had a slider, which is what they use to get the moving shots you see on their website, but they tend to use it rather sparingly. Basically, they’ll get a few flashy shots to edit into a highlight reel, but don’t really shoot anything more than that. Whenever possible, they tend to just put a camera on a tripod and leave it.

When they delivered us all the raw footage of the venue, we quickly noticed that there were no shots whatsoever of our venue. And when you have an outdoor garden wedding, you want to see shots of your beautiful venue. I’m glad we thought to follow up and ask about this, as they had forgotten to put the venue footage on our hard drive. The fact they left off a big chunk of footage when delivering “all footage” again shows their lack of attention to detail.

The biggest stylistic problem with Stephanie & Hector is that they lack assertiveness or direction. I actually worked as an event videographer, so I understand more than most how important this quality is in a videographer. At a wedding most videographers are usually fighting with a photographer to get a good spot to shoot from and get the shot. And now in today’s digital age many guests at a wedding tend to bust out their cell phones or cameras to take pictures, often getting in the way and obstructing the videographer’s shots as well. A good videographer rolls with the punches, working around obstructions to get the shots. Stephanie & Hector lack this assertiveness, and various footage either has our photographer or wedding guests obstructing the shot. Our photographers would often have us redo things while getting ready that morning or during our formal photo session in between the ceremony & reception, telling us to look left, look right, smile, or other actions or movements for photo purposes. This showed in our pictures as we were typically looking at the camera, posed, and had photos with beautiful composition. Stephanie & Hector lacked direction, typically sitting back and playing second fiddle to the photographer. They would piggyback off the photographer’s setups and shoot at the same time rather than getting their own shots, which would show in the footage when everyone was clearly looking at the photographer’s camera and not theirs. We’d even ask them “Did you get the shot?” or “Do you need me to do that again for video?” (because we’d been doing it for photo and looking at the photographer’s camera), to which they’d reply no or “We got it”, but upon looking at the footage later they typically didn’t “get it.”

The evening of the wedding, we also received various complaints from family, friends, and even the wedding venue staff about their lack of professionalism. During dinner, we served a buffet style dinner, with tables being dismissed to go to the buffet. We understand staff needs to eat, but the videographers went for seconds before many of our wedding guests had even been dismissed to receive firsts.

Last but not least, our biggest issue was that we had two of our friends perform our first dance and two additional songs at our wedding, and we communicated to the videographers this was something very special and important to us. We hired them because they had routinely worked with the DJ and promised that they would get a good quality soundboard audio from the DJ’s mixboard of these performances. We also asked that because this was very important, to please keep one camera on the performers at all time during the songs (they were shooting with two cameras). Multiples times we emphasized that other than the ceremony, this was the most important part of the day to us and capturing good quality video and audio was of utmost importance to us. They failed to keep on camera on the performers at all times like we’d requested, and in fact there is a section where neither of the two cameras are taping. Once again, with two cameras it’s a bit hard to understand how they were unable to keep at least one of those cameras rolling at all times. Which we would have gotten over, had they not messed up the audio as well. As far as the audio goes, they didn’t check the levels on their audio recorder at any point, so the “soundboard” audio was recorded so high that it was garbled and distorted. We could see in the footage that they had taped the performers’ rehearsal that morning as well, so they had an additional opportunity to check audio levels on the performance but did not think to do so.

When we sat down to edit the footage together and noticed this problem, we immediately emailed Stephanie to voice our concerns and address the problem. We ended up going through rounds of emails concerning the botched audio during the performances. However, they maintained that what they delivered was just fine, when it was in fact garbled, distorted, unusable. If they truly believed that delivering bad quality audio is fine then they clearly have low standards as videographers, and are fine with delivering mediocre quality to paying clients. We asked for a partial refund to compensate for their unsatisfactory capturing of audio & video during performances in these emails. They were slow to respond to emails, taking anywhere from 3-7 days to respond to an email, and at the end of the ordeal they offered us very little compensation in return for their mistakes.

In fact, after I pinpointed the exact portions of the ceremony and performances that they did not capture on video (even giving the exact timecode where there is audio but no video), they responded by stating “It is not my fault that you cannot edit videos properly. You took that upon yourself.”

Your wedding is a special day in your life that you can’t reshoot or do over, and unfortunately I learned that lesson the hard way.


UPDATE:

I am adding an update to this review in order to respond to Stephanie’s comments about my review. I will start by saying that at no point did I try and make it sound as though I got an edited video. I stated at the very beginning of my review they only shot this wedding and that I received all footage on a hard drive rather than use their editing services. This was actually not due to budget, but as a choice since I have both professional editing experience and equipment. It was only a $200 difference to have it edited so it wasn’t about the money, rather I wanted all footage so I could edit myself.

And yes, since I did opt to receive all raw footage from our wedding and can confidently say that each statement I have made regarding the footage itself is based upon the actual footage shot that day. There is video to support every single claim I have made in this review aside from the remarks about professionalism. In fact, if you take a look at the highlight reel they posted on their own website of our wedding (it’s the Caitlin & Derek Wedding Highlights) you can see a shot of my wedding dress hanging in the hallway from a fire sprinkler. It’s a quick shot, but there is no denying that the dress is indeed on a fire sprinkler.

This review is not posted maliciously, but merely as a critique of the services provided and to give others an honest assessment of their services. I have received zero refund from the vendor, nor am I currently pursuing one. By posting this review I realized I would not be receiving one and I’ve given up on receiving any sort of resolution to the matter with A Timeless Event. In fact, I was threatened by the vendor in return to prevent me from posting this review. I have no knowledge of “victimizing” any other vendors, as I posted several glowing reviews for other vendors we used and were quite happy with. Of all of our vendors used that day, A Timeless Event was the only vendor we were so dissatisfied with that we sought any sort of compensation for their mistakes. All vendors we used for our wedding were paid in full, almost all of whom I gave glowing five star reviews to on this website. So I have no clue where she is getting this “victimized” claim from.

In the craziness of a wedding, the last thing a bride wants to deal with on their wedding day is videographers cutting the food line. So no, I did not bring it up the night of the wedding, as I was busy trying to enjoy a wonderful evening with my husband. Because really, what bride wants to focus on the negative rather than dancing with their husband? It’s jut one of those things you let slide, but when writing this review of their services I felt it was something pertinent to include.

I will state that yes, upon initial viewing we were happy with the footage. We did a quick cursory glance just to make sure the footage worked and watched a few quick clips from the day, and it appeared as though everything was in order. This is when the email that Stephanie speaks of was sent. But when actually going in to edit the footage a bit later we discovered the missing sections of the ceremony, missing sections of the performances that day, and completely blown out audio during performances among other things.

When asking Stephanie for a copy of this glowing email I had sent her after I had first taken a cursory glance at the footage, also be sure to ask her for the email she received after I noticed there was the problem with the footage. The email detailing how my husband and I both cried as we realized they had messed up one of the most important days of our lives. Also ask her to forward you her responses to that email as well, specifically her final email where she threatened me to prevent me from posting this review, as well as insulting me personally and professionally, and refusing to accept responsibility or admit fault even after the exact issues and where they are in the footage are pinpointed.

I worked with A Timeless Event at a wedding in June 2011. Like my fellow officiant Stacy Everett, I too waited until I could see a finished product before writing a review. Two of the photos from that wedding are featured on their storefront so you can see how great the skill level is.

They are also very professional and patient. The wedding started late (as many do) and they never seemed hurried, rushed or frustrated. They were a pleasure to meet and to work with. I give them high marks all...

I worked with A Timeless Event on August 20th, 2011. I was both Minister and Coordinator. They were a joy to work with, easy, unobtrusive, and anything I needed from them, they did. I waited until I saw their work on this wedding (can be seen on their Blog at http://atimelessevent.net/blog/ - Leslie and John) to write this endorsement, so that I could see first hand what the finished product looks like, and I must say I am IMPRESSED. Their work is top notch, quality Video. I will recommend them in a heartbeat to the rest of my clients. :)