We originally booked Tower Studios for our engagement photos and wedding, but canceled shortly after our engagement photos - and we are so glad we did.
From the start, we should h...ave seen the red flags - with a lack of communication being the biggest one. We were told we would hear from our photographer no later than 2 weeks before the shoot, but we had to ask multiple times to be connected with our photographer with only a week or so before our shoot. We recieved the excuse that it was their busiest time of year. Our wedding would also be at this time of year, which raised concerns about what kind of communication we could expect then.
When the forecast called for a lot of rain on our scheduled session date, we asked to move the session and were met with clear irritation. The photographer attempted to convince us to move forward with photos regardless of our wishes and concerns. Thankfully we held strong and moved the session, and it was a torrential downpour all day on the originally scheduled date.
When we did have our engagement session a week later, we received a text that our photographer was changing the morning of because our original photographer decided she was "too pregnant". Understandable, but also probably could have been decided much sooner than the morning of our session.
The session itself was awkward. Since it was our very first time meeting or even speaking with this photographer, we had no chemistry at all. He made some small attempts to ask us very basic questions and sort of get to know us during the shoot, but the session itself never felt relaxed or fun. In fact, it felt incredibly rushed. What was supposed to be a 2 hour engagement session only last 1 hour and 20 minutes before the photographer declared we were done.
We were not really given a clear turnaround time for our photos, so we waited patiently after the shoot, expecting that we would hear from Tower Studios when the photos were done. 2 weeks afters the shoot, I was scrolling through Facebook when I suddenly see a photo of myself and my fiancé posted by the Tower Studios Facebook page. We had not heard a word from them at this point, and to make matters worse, they bizarrely chose to post our photo with a quote from Monty Python - "Bring out your dead". Ah yes - clearly the romantic line that every bride would want posted with her engagement photos.
I then had to reach out to the photographer, who "thought we had received the photos". He did apologize and take the post down, but to be honest it was kind of too little too late at that point. To make matters even worse, when we finally saw the photos they were awful. Very unflattering for both of us, not the vibe we had requested at all, and we looked so awkward in each of them. A direct reflection of the fact that we didn't feel comfortable and weren't given much in the way of guidance even though we specifically called out that we needed guidance through this process. The photographer apparently couldn't even tell me to pull my shirt down in several photos, when I had no idea it was riding up. We honestly don't have a single photo out of the bunch that we are willing to use.
This was the final straw, and we requested a cancelation of our contract shortly after. On the form, we put "unhappy with services" as the reason for cancelation, and still not a single person reached out. It was very clear they didn't care about our experience or what they could have done better.
Overall, the extreme lack of communication, the unflattering photos, and the blatant disregard, unprofessional conduct, and disrespect we feel we experienced with Tower Studios cause me to highly recommend NOT booking this company.
As we have since discovered, there are plenty of much more kind, genuine, experienced, and professional photographers in the St. Louis area to settle for this quality and treatment.