We got married in Aug. 2021, after a cancelled wedding in 2020 due to Covid. We planned it in 3 months & used SFM for photo/video/live stream. I learned of them through an acquaintance that used them for their wedding & trusted the recommendati...on. I had 2 months left to my wedding as my previous photographer fell through.
I left a great review for them after our wedding, but now that I’ve gotten all of my photos & videos, I had to update.
Matthew is very slow at responding to calls/emails & he would not return calls/emails for days on end.
We live overseas & wanted to live stream our ceremony for our family abroad. Matthew says we ran behind schedule so he did not have time to properly set up the equipment. We had 2 photographers, so if he took the time to set up the live stream, we would have managed just fine with the other photographer. But Matthew did not test the sound or camera position so the first 2 minutes of our live stream has absolutely no sound, & he didn’t start recording until my bridesmaids walked down the aisle, completely missing my husband & no sound until I got to the chuppah.
The videographer also missed part of the aisle, not getting my husband, or him putting the vail on me, which is a Jewish custom & something we spoke about before.
We hired 1 photographer & 1 videographer, but the week before Matthew added another photographer at no cost. It was a wonderful addition that we did not ask for but a shame that important moments were still missed.
Matthew gave us a day of schedule & said he would amend it to include the 2nd photographer. I never received this new schedule. I emailed him 3 days before the wedding, but I never heard from him until he showed up at the venue on the day.
Another missed photo was our entry way (seating chart, photo booth, etc). I think those shots are pretty standard. For video, there was no footage of the ketubah signing but there were photos. Where was the videographer? We walked down the aisle right after this so the fact that he missed the signing & part of the aisle was concerning.
When I got my photos, there was 1 major shot of the whole bridal party in front of the venue but 2 of the people in the photo weren’t ready. He kept saying it was against policy & all to share all photos with me & stated that he gets the final say in which moments are shared of the big day. I expressed concern of 2 photos - family in front of the venue & another of my sister & niece as my niece’s eyes were closed. Matthew said he can’t share other shots with me regardless of my disappointment. I may have misunderstood the meaning of Raw Files, but all I asked about were 2 photos in particular, as they both were clearly not the best photos.
After much back & forth he finally gave in & sent me other shots of the group photo & these shots were better than the 1 shot he shared with me. The 1 of my niece he edited sloppily to open her eyes & the photo didn’t improve. I was upset that photos of key people in the wedding only had one shot.
For the few missed shots, he offered a $200 refund. We then spoke about this refund for over a month before he finally sent over the $200.
Overall, they were affordable & did take beautiful photos. But they missed some key moments that were previously discussed & important to us & we cannot get those back. He could also really improve with communication as you do have to follow up a lot.