Michael & Carina Photography

ent coloring, and he didn’t check off my hit-list – only begins to cover it. I thought we signed up for Style Me Pretty quality photos and instead, I am saddened when I see beautiful wedding photos come across my feed knowing Michael has robbed me of that. When Carina left the business, I should have switched to another photographer but was ensured Michael was just as good solo as he was with Carina. And while yes, there are a handful of photos that are okay – there are more photos of my guests at cocktail hour than they are of me and my husband. Our portraits together and separate are not happy and appear forced. I have 2 smiling portraits of my husband and I… TWO both of the same pose. We are not models and part of your job as a wedding photographer is to showcase the love and life of the day when you are taking posed photos. Our videographer captured our beautiful day – it looks like two different weddings when compared. But that is not all, what finally brings me the courage to write this review is that all of his former couples cannot access the photos of their special day. Something that is stated in our contracts that our digital library will be available for 10 years, gone. Additionally, 1. We did not receive a single tease photo until October. Our wedding was in August 2. Upon delivering our digital album there were photos missing that we quickly realized. He then said he had trouble uploading…. I do not know to this day if the photos we received were all of them 3. There were only a handful of individual shots of my husband and I in our dress/suit. All but 1 pose of mine was take on raw film which shadowed my face making them not only unattractive but unusable. My husband has 3 photos total of him alone. 4. Our couple portraits are overly cropped, forced, blurry, some even sweaty, and he unfocused one of us in some that would’ve been considered good. He also took the portraits super low which as most women know, is not flattering. He also pushed for us to take the remaining couple photos by the water, which was windy and absolutely destroyed my hair before reception. In every one of those photos, I am messing with my hair and our expressions are as if he took the shot 2 seconds too late. 5. He is unreachable, as I have been emailing him since October 2022 to better edit our photos, the last he responded was February - never re-editing a single photo. 6. My album never came I understand he had a hard year, but that does not negate the fact you are a professional – A professional holding the power of being responsible for the only thing your couples take with them on their most special day. This power Michael did not respect, and I am saddened to be amongst other women who got this taken from them.

away!

ROMISE AFTER BROKEN PROMISE. HE IS A THIEF!!!!! CARINA IS JUST AS MUCH TO BLAME AS HER NAME IS ON THE CONTRACT. HE HAS STOLEN OUR MONEY AND EVEN AFTER FILING A LAW SUIT AGAINST HIM AND CARINA, HE IS UNRESPONSIVE. HE IS A THIEF AND THE MOST UNPROFESSIONAL PERSON I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED, HE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THE WAY HE TREATS PEOPLE. I FEEL TERRIBLE FOR THE BRIDES WHO HAVE HIRED HIM FOR HIS WEDDING WHO HAVE NOT EVEN RECEIVED THEIR PHOTOS OR FOR THE WEDDINGS HE NO-SHOWED. WE CAN NOT LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THIS. HE IS A THIEF AND A LIAR.

tographer. After the wedding, he refused to refund us the full amount we paid. We ultimately disputed the credit charge and got our money back. 2 months later (to this day), we have not heard from him. Save your time, money, and emotional energy and pick literally anyone else to photograph your wedding. ------ The longer backstory: Wedding horror stories happen but I never thought I would be writing one myself. We hired a magnificent and very reputable group of wedding vendors (Michael included, or so we thought). In the last few weeks leading up to the wedding, neither my wedding planner nor I were able to reach Michael through texts/calls/email. 2 days before the wedding, he finally picked up the phone after multiple attempts to reach him and nonchalantly said that he would “be there.” We were all feeling on edge, rightfully so. On the day of the wedding, Michael was supposed to arrive at 12:30 PM and begin shooting at 1:30 PM. By 2:30 PM, he still had not arrived, claiming he was “on the way” from Richmond, despite saying that he had left at 6 AM. He ultimately never showed up to the venue, telling our wedding planner that he was not fit to do so. He never even *offered* to find us a replacement, and did not offer us any apology after leaving us without a photographer several hours into the wedding day. 4 Days later, he left us a voicemail with a series of excuses that were verified as lies from our wedding planner, who was in direct contact with him on the wedding day. He refused to refund us the full amount of our wedding package (~$6k), a direct violation of our signed contract. We resorted to disputing the charges through our credit card company. To this day, almost 2 months later, we have not heard a single word from Michael. Luckily, our fantastic wedding planner reached out to her own professional network and was able to find us the most professional, kind, efficient, and talented replacement photographer who has already delivered on so many levels that Michael could not have. We still managed to have our perfect day in spite of the immense hurt, significantly delayed timeline, betrayal of trust, and emotional distress Michael’s absence left on our wedding day. We were patient and sympathetic to many things that happened in Michael’s life leading up to the wedding, but he should have told us that he was unable to deliver at our wedding before it actually occurred. We cannot in good faith recommend this vendor to anyone.