Jeff Allen Studios

At first, Jeff seemed nice and worked with us well although communication was a little spotty. Unfortunately, my wedding was impacted by COVID and we ended up needing to move from October 2020 to February 2021. Again, Jeff seemed willing to work with us and provided flexibility in moving our date but was still spotty in the communication (did not respond to several emails). Everything was fine until 2 nights before the wedding when Jeff called me to confirm some details. Nothing seemed out of the blue until we were about to hang up and Jeff mentions on the side that he did not have a second photographer. It seemed like he was trying to mention this quietly and not place any importance on it even though our contract clearly stated that he was to provide us 12 hours of photography with 2 photographers. After a ton of back-and-forth communication involving my coordinator, Jeff was able to get a second photographer but they were only there for the ceremony (i.e. maybe a total of 1 - 1.5 hours). We did not know until the morning of the wedding that there would be a second photographer at all. Jeff's reasoning for this was that the second photographer was scared of COVID and did not feel safe being at the wedding. I can understand this but in all of my conversations with Jeff in the months leading up to the wedding, he never brought up any concerns or ask about our COVID protocols. While I am thankful that there was a second photographer at the ceremony, I feel like we still missed out on so many pictures due to Jeff's breach of contract. I hardly have any pictures with my husband (literally 3 poses outside of the church pictures) and no pictures with each bridesmaid, my family, or my friends. I don’t even have a single picture with just my mom. These are all memories I can never recapture. After the wedding, I consulted with my lawyer on this troubling situation and she confirmed that it was a breach of contract. My husband and I approached Jeff about this and asked for a partial refund. After a delayed response, he flat out refused and said it was not a breach of contract because the second photographer was there for an hour. He even blamed the entire situation on us and tried to make my husband and I feel bad for having a wedding at all during the pandemic. I cannot express how much this situation has hurt my us. Not only did we miss out on capturing so many memories but now when I think about my wedding day, I now have anxiety and sadness for this entire situation. My intention of this post is to share my experiences with other brides and grooms looking to hire Jeff in the hopes that they can avoid the same heartache my husband and I are experiencing.