Vanilla Brides

Vanilla Brides is a scam business. If you care about ethics you should look elsewhere. As a professional photographer I depend on freelance work to make a living. A few months ago Alice reached out to to me to photograph a wedding for Vanilla Brides. We had a contract which we signed and I complied with everything that was agreed on. It's been 5 months since that wedding and I still haven't been paid. I've been attempting to contact Alice and her team of con artists this whole time and they do not respond. I wouldn't be surprised if you pay them for to film or photograph your wedding and you never receive anything. If you care about fair business practice avoid Vanilla Brides at all costs.

I would give Vanilla Brides zero stars to match the level of service they provided. I had to take them to court to get my money refunded. I won the case and was awarded a judgement but 9 months later, Vanilla Brides refuses to pay the court ordered amount.

Im a filmmaker. They hired me for $400 with no contract 1 day before the wedding. They told me nothing about how they wanted it filmed except on a tripod at the back of the wedding on a wide angle lens. They told me to use my h1n1s for audio but there was no sound system so I used great lav mics which compensated perfectly. The Vanilla Brides company refused to pay me and now switched everything they wanted in how they wanted it filmed. The couple's names were Cammi & Curtis. Vanilla Brides didn't know until halfway through the ceremony and texted me late. Very unprofessional.

My wedding was on 3/19/23. I hired Vanilla Brides (VB) 11/2022. They were responsible by providing their licensing to my venue to be approved. Before I hired VB, I asked if they were able to provide that to my venue and they said of course and to be worry-free. 1 week b4 my wedding, my venue told me that they are waiting for VB to provide them with their licensing or I would have to find someone else. I contacted VB and they said they provided everything required except they did not. They are not licensed in the State of Florida. They obtained/provided their license to my venue the day of the deadline. I am leaving out multiple back and forth despicable communication with the owner and assistants. I was very stressed and crying thinking that I would have to find another photographer last minute. I'm on a budget. Photos are the one thing that I treasure the most and VB could not deliver. -They showed up almost an hour late (I paid $199 extra for - & no refund) -Alex was the main photographer. He showed up in a black T-shirt with a ghetto graphic design on the back. This was a semi-formal wedding. Alice was his asst. photographer. -Both photographers kept disappearing. We had to continuously track them down to get them to take pictures. Found them outside smoking or relaxing doing nothing. -Did not help with poses for photos. -I didn't receive my photos until 11 weeks later. Recieved my photos that were dark, blurry and cut-off. Angles were not great. Grainy quality. They only had one camera/lens each. Photographers hired for a wedding bring at least 3. Some of my edited photos also have red dots. -I requested to speak with the owner about my photos and she refused to speak with me. -They would not refund me any money. -I instantly cry when I try to comb thru my wedding photos because of how awful they are and that I cannot go back and redo them. -They don't care about their customers, they care about money. The way VB treats its customers is grotesque.

I don't even know where to begin. As far as their work, I have no comment, I have yet to see a print. It's only been 10 days since the wedding so I was not expecting the prints this quickly. I can't imagine there will be much effort put into my pictures after this review and email chains we have going back and forth with Alice the C.E.O of the company. The one star gets placed purely on the customer service and just plain thievery that is committed by Alice. We paid the price quoted to us for our special day full 6 months in advance of the wedding. We then a month later paid an additional fee of $700 dollars for an "additional photographer" for 4 hours. When the big day came we met the photographer and another person who we just assumed was the 2nd photographer. During the whole event it was quite noticeable this was not an additional photographer. He never left the main photographers side and just filmed her and took background shots. Our wedding was on a 5 deck yacht and we paid for an extra person to have someone roam around other decks and capture different angles. When the event finished , we questioned Alice the next day about it and we were responded with utter confusion on Alice's part. She told us she had no records of us paying for an additional photographer and the person with her was an "assistant taking background shots" Her text is quoted below "I’m not sure what do you mean by 2nd shooter. Your booked package had 1 photographer for 4 hours of coverage. I’m Attaching a screen shot below. My assistant was only taking some backstage video shots." We then send her all the corresponding emails showing proof of request of a 2nd photographer, approval on her part and confirmation of additional payment. Once the error was realized on her part we received an immediate apology an offer for a $800 album and 100 extra free prints. Her email was as below "For some reason we had no updates in our system that 2nd shooter was added, I do apologies for miscommunication and a mistake on our side. We would love to offer complimentary set of albums worth $799 and will also add extra 100 pictures to your edited gallery totaling 200 instead of original 100. " We kindly rejected her offer and asked for a refund for the premium paid for the 2nd photographer instead since services were never provided. She then had the audacity to tell us in a email and I quote "I’m afraid we are not able to provide a refund, 2nd shooter was in fact on your wedding day he was just filming video." This is where the thievery comes into play. We never asked for a videographer, nor were we contracted for one. We wanted a 2nd photographer which she admitted in a prior email that she forgot to include and now is trying to pass on an "assistant" as a 2nd photographer. It has been 4 or 5 days now this issue has been going on. You would think any respectable business owner would see the error they committed and resolve it, however it seems that Alice and Vanilla brides is determined to go down a more irritating route. On top of that, the photographer was rude during the whole wedding. I am in the process of submitting suit against her in small claims court as she is not even replying to my emails. I will be happy to edit this review if things get resolved however all I can say as of right now is to stay away from this place if this is how they handle their mistakes.