Has anyone used Concept One Photography? Reviews?

bevnichole12

I received a promotional card from them with a decent price for package deal, and I was wondering if anyone had heard anything about them or had any reviews?

Thanks in advance.

tlandells

I was wondering the same thing. Does anyone have a review about Concept One?

HisBride2011

I would love to know the same thing.  Does anyone have any reviews about Concept One Photography?  I am very interested in them!

AdAMSgrls2447

It's so weird because this is the only thing I can find on the company other than their actual website. I saw them at a bridal expo and have a fantastic package deal going on. Seems legite. I talked to the owner, Sal on the phone last night and he sent me a contract if I'd like to book with them. I am just a bit nervous because like I said, I can't find any reviews or anything on them....

AdAMSgrls2447

Just as an update with me... I chose NOT to book with them. I am going with my gut on this one because as I stated in the last post, I can't find a single thing about them online. If you Google "Concept One Photography" their website isn't even the first one to come up. "Concept One Media" does, but that's not the photo company. Also, the guy I spoke with, Sal (the owner), said they've been in business for 18 years. I guess this all could be true, but you'd think there would be SOMETHING online about them, SOMEWHERE! It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to be able to find this company online. There are no reviews on insiderpages.com or anything else like that. I also even tried to Google the address of the company, and that returns nothing relating to "Concept One" either. Again, I'm just not comfortable and I don't want to lose out on money and a photographer on my wedding day!

tlandells

I asked Sal for references. He gave me three names and numbers to call. I have called all three of those ladies three times each and got no response from any of them. I left clear messages twice with each one. None of them answered, and none of them has called me back. I told Sal this, and he says he is going to give me more references this week. We'll see. I am not feeling good about them either, so I am starting to look into using another photographer. 

giathebride

   Mystery solved
   
       My sister used them two years ago  though they were called "not on a saturday"
back then, they have recently changed their name to concept one. They were fantastic. The pictures, the album and the price. Arnold and Sal photographed the wedding.  I have just booked with them to do my wedding and actually their prices are even lower now than two years ago. The flush mount album and the digital disk is included in one low price. hope this helps. .
       

giathebride

    We Used Them for our wedding last summer . Great pictures, flush album and disk
included for one amazing price .  the neares competition was twice as much.
They were fantastic my album looks great. renatta and Sal  photographed my wedding  They were Outstanding easily the best vendors we hired and the least  expensive.

rumbas2013

Hi,
Booked with Concept One for 2013- Sal and Steve are great. My good friend getting married this year booked them for her wedding in Aug . I will follow up with her feedback of her thoughts and how her experience was with them.

Here is there website:

http://conceptonephotography.com/

lisakowalski199

We hired Concept One to do the photo booth for our wedding and we couldn't be happier. The booth was a lot of fun, great prints and great guys. The price was the lowest we found and we got free save the date cards to go along with it. The Photo booth was easily the hit of our wedding. 

lmichal

I booked Concept One (formeraly called Not On a Saturday) for my wedding April 27, 2013 since my reception hall recommended them.  We just got our proofs from our engagement photos and LOVE THEM!  Arnold and his assistant were great!  The wedding package is an affordable price including the save the date, place cards, and photo booth.   

melissanjoe21

Thanks for this post. I just met sal at an bridal expo.

I have already placed a 100 dollar deposit with another photographer.  But with their amazing package price with the photobooth included amazing deal.   He even said he would knock off another 100 to cover my deposit with the other photographer.

There are many more reviews now and all are great.

JazzyRachel

Hi Guys!

Any new updates for Concept One? I am thinking about booking with them for my upcoming wedding June, 2014. Like everyone is saying their prices and what the package offer is a great price! Has anyone personally seen their work? are they professional and prompt the day of? 

MadHops21

I keep seeing them at bridal expos that I go to. I'm so tempted but it seems too good to be true...with booth and everything. I really want to see their reviews from people, but I cannot find any.

Pattyw2013

Hello,

I have used concept one I found them at a bridal expo in January. There package prices are great comes with a photo booth. Our wedding was this past Saturday the 28th. We had a woman named Renatta and Sal's son was handling the photo booth. They both did a superb job, highly recommend the whole company.  Our photographer was on top of everything taking tons of pictures. I highly recommend them. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

Patty and Jim.

KateJ16

@Kelcita21 @JazzyRachel - did you Google search?  I did a search and found a bunch of reviews on Wedding Wire - although none on Yelp.

MadHops21

@KateJ16 , I can't remember how I searched for them, but is WW a reliable site? I trust Yelp more than anything, but I'm afraid people from the company goes onto these sites and other wedding sites to write reviews for brides looking. Maybe I'm just paranoid or crazy lol

KateJ16

@Kelcita21 I totally get that!  I don't know about everyone else, I trust at least the WW reviews just because they definitely have negative reviews for various places in the mix (helped when searching my venue!).  Who knows though - maybe I'm just naive

MadHops21

@KateJ16 haha thank you!! I see reviews on here and it just sounds like ads-y to me. That's why I'm asking my friends and family for advice, and I'll definitely be attending other weddings before my own so I get to see vendors at work. I don't want to end up like that one commercial... "They can't post anything on the internet that isn't true."

KayDeee

I found Snapknot was a good resource for wedding photographers . You can adjust the scale according to your budget so you don't get a ton of information on photographers out of your price range. It was a good mix of independents and bigger companies as well. Just throwing it out there, I bumped into it online and it was really helpful.

mgerwin

@Kelcita21 I just got married three weeks ago and used Concept One for pictures, video and photobooth, Bryon was our photographer and he was AMAZING, captured pictures that I never even thought of before, he got to my house early and took many, many pictures while I was still getting ready, we then did pictures at home with my mom and my girls and of me alone, he showed me a few pictures of the dress, the rings, the shoes and they were all great... I love giraffes and I have them all over my house, I know he did a "especial" picture incorporating the giraffes, everyone saw the pic but me and they were all super happy with it, I can't wait to see the proofs!  At the party he took pictures of everything and everyone, they were all very happy with him.  The photobooth was the highlight of the night, we ended up paying for an extra hour, I believe it was only $50 more, I absolutely love the guest book that they put together for us... Steve (video) has also been great to work with since the very beginning, I highly recommend them.  Actually, my cousin is getting married next May and they already booked with them as well...

moonstruckstar

No no no no no!!!!!!!!! I just used them for my October 18th wedding and they were TERRIBLE!!!!

 Before I begin to blow off some steam…. Steve, with Chicago Videography, aka the videographer they partner with was WONDERFUL. This is in no way, shape, or form insulting him whatsoever. I would recommend him in an instant.

As for Concept One… where do I begin.

When we met with Sal before our wedding, he had originally told us that he was going to be our photographer. He showed us his work, sat down and talked for over an hour with him, everything seemed peachy… and after already meeting with several other vendors, he seemed to have the best package for the money. So we booked. We were able to put our deposit down via credit card, signed the contract, and even got 2 parent albums (just so happened to be BOGO). Seemed wonderful. We were even told we could design our albums, thank you cards, and place cards how we wanted. Sweet! As I left he said that we wouldn't be hearing from him until closer to the wedding (like a week or 2 before) unless we contacted him. Fair enough, right?

When we went to make another payment, we found out that he does not accept credit card/electronic payment. Was sort of upset about that, since let's be honest, cash and checks are almost a thing of the past. So, my husband (then fiancé), ordered checks and called it a day. No big deal.

As the time passed, we wanted to make our place cards. We were able to design them how we wanted them to look like. He sent us a draft of them, and they were nice. Fit our theme and EVERYTHING. When I went to pick them up, he hands me an envelope and tells me that only a fine point sharpie will keep writing on them. Turns out it was a 4x6 photo that I had to fold in half (so 2x6). Kind of tacky and incredibly too large if you ask me. I had asked him a question regarding the photography at the wedding, and he then mentioned that he is not our photographer and that he's only a back up just in case our photographer called out for whatever reason. That made me worried. Would I be able to our photographers work before the wedding? As I left his office, I was already getting really disappointed and worried. We've been putting all this money down towards our photography and I REALLY didn't want to be let down, especially seeing how this is our wedding day… probably the most important day of our lives.

We ended up pitching the place cards and making our own (which in my opinion turned out a million times better). 

I was talking to a coworker at work about our weddings, and turns out she booked Concept One as well. When I asked her how it went, all she could say was "ehhh". That made me worried. She told me to take a look at her pictures, which in my opinion were very nice, but she said the photographer, Bryon, didn't get all the shots she wanted. She also said that he yelled at her telling her not to be so nervous. Sorry, it's your wedding day. You're going to be filled with tons of emotions. I didn't really understand why she was saying that her pictures were just "ehhh", so I just shrugged it off.

The week of the wedding came by and I was starting to wonder when I was going to hear from him about our photographer and photo booth. Monday and Tuesday went by. I sent out a few emails asking him when we were going to hear from our photographer (we had a Friday wedding), and we were told that we'd be hearing from him soon. Wednesday afternoon comes by and STILL no word from our photographer. I finally email Sal again telling him that I was soon going to have a lot going on and wouldn't have time to talk. Within 2 hours, we heard from our photographer. We were on the phone for a good 45 minutes talking about what styles of photography we were looking at. As we were talking, I realized that he was the same photographer that shot my coworkers wedding. I got so excited about that, especially seeing how I saw her pictures and loved them. Towards the end of our conversation, he asked for a link to my Pinterest page so he can see what shots I really liked. So I did.

Friday came by and everything was going very smoothly. Of course, there's a TON of things going on, and I couldn't really think much. I just kept rolling with everything, since he's photographed weddings before, he'll know the shots that are most important.

We were supposed to have our photo booth set up and ready to go at 7:30pm. Bryon came up to us during the dinner portion of our wedding asking me what time that was supposed to be ready to go. I said 7:30, and then he says "Well, it's 7:35 and they're not even here yet- let me call them to find out what's going on". Slightly peeved about that. The photo booth guy came around 8:15 saying that he could stay an extra hour (until 12:30) for coming in late. Unfortunately for us, we only had the hall until 11:30 before we started to get charged by the hour, so I had to decline the offer (wasn't worth spending the extra $1,000/hr for the hall). 

At the end of the night, everything seemed to have gone PERFECTLY. Honestly, our wedding was my most perfect day EVER. Bryon was incredibly professional and fun (there were times towards the end of the night that we were taking tequila shots together). He said the pictures would be up on the website within 2-3 weeks.

I was anxious about the photos. I would check everyday to see if they were up. 2 weeks went by, then 3. Still no photo's. At the end of the 3rd week into the 4th, I emailed Sal asking when they were going to be up. He said that they wouldn't be up for at least another week or so. I was pretty bummed. 

When the photos were finally uploaded, I was super excited… it was like reliving our wedding day all over again. I kept looking at them over and over. Then I was getting pretty upset. There was only 1 photo taken of me, my husband and my immediate family (mom, dad and sister and brother in law). Zero of us with my in-laws. Zero of just me and my bridesmaids. Zero of him and his groomsmen. Zero os us with his son. Zero formals. There's more photos of my shoes than there are of my parents and I. More pictures of us with the photo booth attendant than him and his family. Aren't those supposed to be priority? Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about that now. The wedding was over 2 months ago. 

Tonight, we went to pick up our thank you cards. They're just a 4x6 picture collage. He didn't even provide envelopes for us to mail them out in (he was selling them extra…. 25 for $6.25). Shouldn't you at LEAST include envelopes?

We also got our CD of the pictures. There's several pictures that are not posted online… and the CD he provided has our last name and "1 of 2" and "2 of 2" written on it. In sharpie. Not even a CD label. 2 CD's. And he put them in a slim plastic CD case (2 CD's in 1 case), and it was sealed with scotch tape.

We have yet to do our albums. I'm afraid of what a train wreck they will be. 

My words of advice…. spend the extra money and get a better photographer.