Carly Feltz Media

We hired Carly because of the sample of her photos. She has such a great eye and talent. When we first met her, she was personable and knowledgeable. We signed the contract and paid close to 4k for her service. We paid her in full before our wedding day based on her contract. A few months before the wedding, Carly started to be unresponsive but when she did respond, she had a great excuse. She showed up with another photographer at our wedding, which was on November 18 2023 and did a great job. At the end of the reception, she said that she would reach out in 45 days to give us a glimpse of our wedding photos. It's now been 3 months and we have not heard from Carly. We have emailed and texted but no response. On February 6, she posted on Instagram "sometimes all you need is a break from people needing you. cause you need you" My heart broke and is still breaking because these are our wedding photos, the most important day of our life. I have no idea if I will hear from Carly or if we will ever get our photos but I am hoping we do. All I really want is a response from her with a timeline. Unfortunately at this point, I can't recommend her due to lack of response and insights to the distress she is causing people.

Carly seemed great when we first met her, and we were excited to hire her for our engagement and wedding. We met for engagement photos and were looking forward to getting our photos back, which she said would be the next day. It was like pulling teeth to get the photos back. Every time we contacted her about it, she would either not reply or promise she was working on them right now but we would not get them. Weeks later we did finally get the photos. The photos were good but the process to get them killed the magic. We scheduled a call with her to ask for better communication going forward. On the call she apologized, we were understanding, and she promised to send a timeline of what to expect for the wedding photography. Since then no reply to our texts, calls, or emails for a month. We have had to hire another wedding photographer and are out a significant amount of money, and she will not even show us enough respect to talk to us.

I will start this review with an apology that it is very lengthy and that my wedding was 10/29/2022. When I met Carly it was through a wedding fair in Walnut Creek and was excited to work with her. Loved her photos and everything she had to offer plus my wedding weekend was still available! I scheduled a phone meeting with her and discussed everything that I envisioned for my big day and the phone call went well she even worked with us and was able to add a video package since we didn’t have a big budget to hire a videographer, so my husband and I hired Carly. She was very kind. The package we booked with her included an engagement session and that went wonderfully. Received our photos in a timely manner and they were beautiful. Carly was very on top of everything with follow up phone calls and asking all the questions she needed to confirm everything prior to the Big Day! It put my mind at ease for our big day as I’ve heard horror stories from other brides about other photographers, boy was I wrong. The wedding day went wonderfully and we received our sneak peak the following week. When following up with Carly at first was great communication. I know wedding photos and videos take awhile to edit so a month after my wedding I wanted to just get an idea of how long it was going to take as it was not stated in our contract, Carly stated that the video will take a little longer then photos but about a month and half we should have our photos. So come middle of January I follow up as I have not heard anything from Carly and she stated that she has a few weddings ahead of me to finish but I should have it by February and that she would update me. Great I think, it’s middle of February with no update yet so I reach out again with her response of “Hi Nadine! How was your first Valentine’s Day as a married couple?? As for the photos and video, I am half way through the photos and the video is being outsourced so as soon as everything is finished up, I’ll send it over! Shouldn’t be too long!” So I wait until beginning of March and again I ask her if my photos are complete, her response was “Hey girl! The photos are almost done and I’m still waiting for the video from my editor, but as soon as they’re done I will send them to you!!” So I wait another month to reach out as I haven’t heard anything from Carly again, I reached out at the beginning of April and she states the photos are done and she will upload them asap. So I finally received my wedding photos April 2023. As for the video when asked she stated “I sent my editor an email so I’ll let you know what they say/send it as soon as I receive it”. So I wait and wait with no update from Carly about my video. I reached out on May 30th 2023 with no response, I reach out again on June 5th 2023 no response, I reach out again on July 6th, 13th, 17th, and 31st with no response till July 31st with a response of “Hi nadine, I don’t even know where to begin to apologize for my going MIA. I really haven’t been doing well, although that is no excuse, it is the reason. I see you scheduled a call tomorrow morning so I’ll talk to you more then and we can work everything else out. Also I am so sorry to hear about your dad. I feel honored to have been a part of such a special day for you two. I’ll talk to you soon!” We talk on the phone the next day and try to get everything situated. She becomes very responsive after the phone call with my questions as we still haven’t received the video, our physical wedding album, and our memory box with USB drive. This is now August 2023. She finally sent me my wedding video on August 30th 2023. Now we are in October 2023 and are still missing our physical wedding album and our memory box with USB drive. She has not been responding to my texts and calls again, since August 30, 2023. All together I have been very patient and understanding and not once disrespectful to Carly. I would just like the items I paid for before my one year anniversary this year at the end of October 2023, but doesn’t look likely for my husband and I.

We contracted with Carly Feltz Media (Carly) to photograph our wedding. We had a complex wedding, so we contracted her for 4-hours rather than a full-day. We agreed upon and amount and provided prompt payment. As the date approached, we provided a shot list as well as the other information she asked of us. It has been over 90-days since our wedding and we have yet to see a single image: no previews, no final products, no images. We have made repeated attempts to resolve this issue with Carly but have not been able to do so. Carly answered one, maybe two, emails but has failed to live up to the promises made within her responses. We have provided a Google Drive, with nearly a terabyte of available space, for her to upload the images but she has not uploaded any. Part of what we paid for is post-production services: editing photos to improve them. We have offered to do the post-production ourselves but have not had a response to that offer. As an avid, though not professional, photographer myself I have the necessary software to perform the post-production work (despite having paid her to do so). While I do not want to perform work I have already paid someone else to do, I would do so to get our images. We custom designed “Thank You” cards to include photos of us with the wedding guest: we have been unable to send those cards as we do not have the photos. We had planned to give our mothers framed photos for their birthdays (both this month): we have already missed those dates. We understand that it is a busy time of year for wedding photographers, but she agreed to do the work and she accepted payment for that work. It is time for her to deliver. We were required to pay for her work in advance so our only financial leverage would be litigation. We do not want to remember our wedding with that giant asterisk (*). We cannot advise you on whether to hire Carly. We can only provide you with the information needed to make an informed decision. All we can say is had we read her reviews we may have gone a different direction. Good luck with your big day!