We had such wonderful experiences with all of our other wedding vendors and we feel compelled to write this review to warn other couples about our experience with White Elm.
We had an intro call with Holly and Luke in August 2021 ahead of our ...October 2022 wedding. Based on that phone call and generally positive reviews on websites such as The Knot and Wedding Wire, we decided to book them. We did not know that our intro phone call would be the first and last time we would be allowed to speak verbally with anyone at While Elm.
After we booked and paid in full, we were discouraged from asking questions and we were never given the names or contact information for our videographers. We were permitted to contact Holly and Luke only through their dedicated web portal, often only by responding to cookie-cutter questionnaires.
In September 2022, we asked to have a quick check-in call two weeks before our wedding to make sure everything was good to go, as we had not spoken verbally to anyone at White Elm in more than a year at this point. I was told by Holly that a phone call would be excessive.
After my request for a phone call was rebuked, and still with no idea who our actual videographers were two weeks before the wedding, I asked Holly how we should communicate our getting ready hotel room numbers to the videographers on the morning of our wedding. In response, Holly took more time to send us a series of mean, condescending messages instead of taking the brief moment to be helpful, kind, or simply answer our questions. She directed us to White Elm’s FAQs (which did not answer our questions), and ended our correspondence by stating that our asking questions displayed a "unique unwillingness to follow simple instructions." This caused us a ton of stress during what should have been a really happy time as we approached our wedding day. Spoiler alert: White Elm has since edited their FAQs to answer our exact question.
After all of this, we just hoped and prayed that our videographers would show up. They did (though they were late because of parking issues, which is exactly what we would’ve addressed on the call we were prohibited from having). And they were very nice. However, I still don’t know their names – it was a very impersonal experience.
Our contract required delivery of our video in 16 weeks, but White Elm didn’t deliver. After 16 weeks came and went, we messaged Holly for the first time since being subjected to her aggressive messages. Only then did she tell us that the editing schedule was weeks behind.
Once we finally received our video 2.5 weeks late, we were seriously disappointed. The reception sound quality was misaligned with the video, and the ceremony audio quality is terrible for the singing, readings and vows. We asked for corrections, and in response, we were scolded for having comments and charged $250.
White Elm’s high volume, low cost model was not worth it for the poor customer service and delayed, low-quality video that we received. We felt that White Elm was happy to take our money, but then didn’t have time to answer our questions, meet our contractual deadline, or produce a professional product. If we could do it all over, we would have done more research on White Elm and the owners’ business interests/hobbies that seem to take up much of their time (we suggest a quick google search to find their social media presence), paid closer attention to the negative reviews, and booked someone local and direct.