Oh Hell No!

A continuation of "A Bride Scorned" ....


The email I received last week from "Ricky":

"Erica,

We are sooo sorry for the delay. I originally said that it usually takes 8-10 weeks. There are still 2 other brides that were before you. "Lucy" said she will finish yours first by this weekend. I should be able to send them out next Monday.

This has devastated our lively hood. Unfortunately, the infection is something that reoccurs and hopefully surgery can solve. Your wedding is the only one she could not make it to. She cried the day before and day of the wedding that she couldn't be there. When it's infected she can not sit to edit either.

We thought we really connected with you guys at the engagement session and loved you both. I don't know why you would think that your pictures would be edited bad or deleted. We would never ever do anything like that to anybody.

We are more than happy to give you the engagement pictures also for the inconvenience. I'm so sorry you feel the way you do!

Ricky"

As of Tuesday afternoon, I have received my wedding photos. The bad news ... half of the engagement photos were missing and out of 1100 wedding pictures that I received, there was NOT ONE SINGLE PICTURE OF CHAD AND HIS GROOMSMEN! 1100 pictures! This is totally unacceptable so I texted Ricky on Tuesday night, you know, because the photographer I hired is too sick or busy to answer emails, texts or any other form of communication. He stated that:

"Those are shots that would be done by the second shooter when you were getting ready. By the time Chad got there, he had to get dressed and go right down for the first look. We have to stay on a time line from the planner."

We had two hours prior to the ceremony to take pictures and in those two hours, with two photographers, we took the prep pictures, pictures of my girls and I, the first look, and pictures of the entire bridal party. I still don't understand why there isn't one single picture of the groom and his guys because we had plenty of time to take all the other ones. There are other key pictures missing but I find that this one takes the cake. Ricky has yet to respond.

If you have seen some of the photos I've posted on Facebook or Shutterfly you might think they are good photos and I might be blowing this out of proportion. Here is why I don't think I am.

I spent $3,100 for a photography package to include coverage for 7 hours. I should mention she is a one man show with a second shooter. All of the work you see on her site and blog are her and/or her second shooter's photos edited by Lucy. I hired her based on the work I have seen on the website and blog. If you compare all the photos I received from her of my wedding to the other weddings she has shot you can see a considerable difference in the type of quality of the photo. If I wanted those replacement photographers I would of hired them directly. I paid for the best and I don't believe I received that.

I am happy that the photos aren't God awful but what upsets me more is the type of photos I got. I am totally dumbfounded at why I am missing key photos that any professional wedding photographer would know to shoot especially when you factor in the price that I paid for the photographer and photos.

I have done some research into Lucy and I'm finding out that I am not the only un-happy bride out there. Her and her husband's lack of professionalism seems to be a common thread among clients of theirs as early as of July 2009. I am shocked that I am the ONLY one who has spoken up about this and how NOT OKAY this behavior of a "professional" is. They obviously won't take responsibility for any of their actions, or lack thereof, and appear that they are not willing to do what it takes to satisfy a disgruntled client.

It's time to take them down a peg or four .... to be continued.

Would You Like Pickles In That?

I often make fun of others on my blog and it would only be fair of me to poke fun of myself as well. I've done some dumb stuff in my life but this takes the pie ... the key lime pie.


My mother is an amazing cook but I never took much of an interest in cooking while I was living at home. Needless to say when I moved away for college I was lucky that I knew how to boil water. I was notorious for burning everything or turning on the wrong burners and cooking nothing. Me and the stove were not friends. Overtime I learned how to cook, with much trial and error. I started with my Mom's Pisgetti Sauce and was eventually mastering my Grandma's handmade pierogies. It seemed that the more elaborate of a recipe, the easier I found it. The few things I haven't mastered are pancakes and desserts baked in the oven like pies.

Let me start off by saying, and in my defense, this recipe sucked and had horrible directions. I pull down my a cookbook my Mom gave me, and found a Key Lime Pie recipe on a fabric sheet stuffed in the book. I thought it was special and probably super yummy so I wrote down all the ingredients and off to the store I went. Graham cracker crust ... check, limes ... check, cream of tartar ... check?

My first mistake was getting key limes. The recipe called for lime juice. I thought to stay true to a key lime pie, you need key limes. I used the same amount of key lime juice the recipe called for as it did for lime juice so it was a little tart. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This was a recipe for Key Lime Pie with Meringue. So with the pie part out of the way I'm off start to work on the meringue.

Mix 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar with Egg Whites and beat until it peaks.

I had a difficult time finding this cream of tartar by the way. It wasn't with the milk, or cheese but I found something with tartar on it in the condiment section so at least I found it, right? Problem was is that everytime I tried to scoop a stinking quarter teaspoon I got pickles in it. I was pretty sure meringue didn't have pickles in in. I even asked Chad, "do they make a tartar sauce without pickles?" (Did you catch that?) He said no. I then asked what the crap was in tartar sauce and found out it was mayonnaise. Why the heck don't they just ask for mayonnaise then?

So I plopped a quarter teaspoon of my tartar in the egg whites, picked the pickles out and beat it with a fork until it was ... foamy. I knew that meringue was suppose to turn out poofy. The next step was to ...

Bake Until Brown

I wasn't sure exactly what was suppose to turn brown but my runny egg whites were bubbly so maybe it was suppose to poof up in the oven. On the pie it went and into the oven to bake until brown. I watched it through the oven window. The edges got toasty, and brown, then really brown, but my meringue did no poofing. I was dumbfounded.

After 15 minutes I pulled it out and let it cool in the freezer as directed for 30 minutes. The meringue was still runny and bubbly. Gag. I don't know what I did wrong. I scooped it off and my Husband, the boyfriend at the time, sampled my work. I don't think I've ever seen him so disgusted. Poor guy.

At first I didn't think too much of my attempt but my family, and most of my friends, find it to be the dumbest thing I've ever done and the funniest thing they have ever heard. I concur. I still find myself laughing at myself so hard I have tears streaming down my face. If you didn't catch my huge blunder, it was that I used Tartar Sauce instead of Cream of Tartar. My Dad especially loves the part about me "picking the pickles out." Also, if any of you reading this are unsure why my meringue didn't poof, you are suppose to beat it with a beater not a fork. Whoops.

A Bride Scorned

*The names have been changed until this issue has been resolved.

Our wedding photos were the most important thing to us so we splurged a little when hired "Lucy" for $3,100 to photograph our wedding. We had our engagement photos taken by her in March and were very pleased with the outcome and super excited to see what she could do for us on our big day. I was totally shocked when her husband, "Ricky", called at 4pm the day before the wedding to let me know she was very sick and would not be able to make it. They sent two other photographers in her place and Ricky was also there. There wasn't much I could do at the time being that it was 25 hours until I said "I Do." I couldn't pitch a fit or fire them because then I would have no one to document this very special day. Ricky assured me that Lucy's second shooter photographs like her and that Lucy would be editing all the photos so they will all look like Lucy's work. So with not many choices or options I said okay.

I anticipated some sort of communication from Lucy soon following the wedding such as an apology or a preview of some of my photos. A month went by and I had not even heard, or seen, anything from Lucy or Ricky. I was the one who had to chase them down. I sent numerous emails before she set up a gallery of her favorite pictures from our wedding for me to see. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. The photos were good, but we paid for great photos and they didn't look like Lucy's work. For example, if you are a Picasso aficionado you would be able to spot a forgery. I am a Lucy aficionado and these felt like a forgery. I told her how I felt and but she stood by the quality of photos. She did offer me a free session with digital negatives to make up for not being there though. I thanked her for the offer but told her I would rather have an album. As much as we are unhappy with the photos we have seen so far, we don't want to do a bridal session. Our wedding was something we wanted to experience once and I can't afford to have my hair and make-up re-done and rent a suit for Chad so we could get better pictures that should of been taken in the first place. Plus I would know that every time I looked at them that it wasn't our wedding day. Unfortunately Lucy said she would be not willing to provide me with an album because that would cost her money and in her offering a session, that would only cost her her time and talent. Apparently, she has no problem taking money out of my pocket though. I didn't respond to that portion of her email. I was, and still am, seething with anger about her unwillingness to do what it takes to make a client happy especially when she has royally screwed up and knows it.

At this point I just want my photos. I was told that I would have all edited photos on a disc between 6 and 8 weeks. At the 8 week mark I tried contacting them to inquire about the whereabouts of said pictures. Lucy responded after I sent her three emails saying that since she was sick (in May) she was still trying to catch up on editing and she would have them to me soon. It will be 12 weeks this Saturday and I still don't have any photos or any clue about when I will be getting them.

I feel like I am personally out of options. I have tried to be a nice as pie to them in fear that if I pushed to hard and upset them in any way our photos would be edited in a very poor manner, take many more weeks or months to get them or my biggest fear, to never receive them at all. It is apparent to me that they care little of making me happy and no matter how many messages I leave them will make them get off their high horse and do the right thing.

To be continued ...