George Street Photography? Reviews please!

washingtond

I am looking into photographers and George Street Photography has caught my eye.  Does anyone have any reviews to share or recommendations for a specific photographer with the company?  

Thanks!

seventiespop

My only experience with George Street was as a guest at a wedding a month ago. The photographer was being really rude to the guests and the bridal party and rolling her eyes and sighing when people wouldn't pose for a picture right away. I'm pretty sure her name was Melissa.

Sparkette19

We booked GS for our wedding on June 25th. I will try to post the pics soon. I'm terribly behind.

We booked with the Schaumburg studio and chose Freddie as our photog. He was really great! We didn't have any problems with him at all. He was on time and very professional. We did end up getting a second photog for no cost. His name was Pat and he was shadowing Freddie, kind of like a training thing. Pat was great too, he seemed to really enjoy being there and snapping away.

It's a long day, so by the beginning of our reception I was so tired of having my picture taken! It was not the fault of the photogs though, I was just drained by the stress of the day. Despite the fact that I'm sure you could see my exhaustion the later pictures turned out fantastic.

Overall I'm very pleased with the pictures!

KATERS882

I booked with George Street for my wedding next May.  It seems like they offer a good package and we liked that they had a lot of back up photographers just encase something happens. 

lkeefner

One of my bridesmaids had GS for her wedding.  Her pics are awesome. When I looked at her photos online I was so suprised at how many there were because I didn't realize that the photog was even there most of the time.

Capital_T

We booked with them this past May for my December 2010 wedding. We went to their Lisle studio. They seem really nice, we got to pick our own photographer after seeing a couple portfolios-which I really liked. Included in our package is an engagement session at their studio in Chicago. Our "photog planner" is nice and gave us all this information right away but when i asked to have our session on friday in sept (during their normall business hours), he's like sorry, we won't have a photographer there that friday b/c since september is slower they only have photogs there every other friday....so i'm like, yeah, would have been good to know beforehand!
Other than that, I'm super excited I think our pictures will be wonderful.

platinumkate

We got harassed by GS after a bridal expo. Their customer service was okay but we didn't like the idea of committing to a photographer without even having them take the time to meet with us. They are a huge company so they probably have some really good photographers and not just rude ones.

law67

We used GSPV for our Sept 09 wedding and have nothing but great things to say about them. We booked out of the downtown location and used Luis as our photographer and we loved, loved, loved him!  I actually just got the final proof for our album (I was slow on the uptake, the lateness had nothing to do with them); here's the link and the password to our album:

http://www.georgestreetpv.weddingherald.com/ blocked::blocked::http://www.georgestreetpv.weddingherald.com/ blocked::http://www.georgestreetpv.weddingherald.com/">http://www.georgestreetpv.weddingherald.com
Album:   "Eichas_Beaver_12x12Contemporary "
Enter: e433106b as the password

SoulOverflowing

I have no personal experience with them, but a friend of mine used them, and was aggravated that the photographer forgot to take very important pictures, like her dancing with her dad, etc.

Philkloer

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_illinois-chicago_george-street-photography-reviews-please?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:72Discussion:e8fa77af-a598-4fc3-ad1d-4ab3a4f37076Post:8bdfc08e-3175-4780-9e31-a077d043575b">George Street Photography? Reviews please!</a>:
[QUOTE]I am looking into photographers and George Street Photography has caught my eye.  Does anyone have any reviews to share or recommendations for a specific photographer with the company?   Thanks!
Posted by washingtond[/QUOTE]

<div>RUN AWAY!!! I am the father of the bride. George Street shot her wedding June 16. It took us 10 weeks to get the photos. So many excuses, delays, promises that were not kept. The photos were good when we finally got them, but their custome service is an absolute nightmare!</div>

briitlucas

So we read the reviews onlline and thought this would be a great photographer to go with. The one thing we really wanted to spend our money on was photography because we both really love it. I am not going to lie that you do get a lot for your money in regards of photo books and other accessories but the quality of the pictures is absolutely horrible. We were told that we were getting a professional photographer and saw samples of his pictures. We fell in love with the idea and pictures. We decided to do an engagement session with the photographer to see his work. The ideas that he had for photos were just bland and really not special. I luckily had a list of the type of photos i wanted to have done so i posed my fiance and myself for most of the pictures due to the photographer not having and vision to the pictures. Later in our session we found out that he is a nurse and does not do photography for a living. That it is a side job of his. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and waited for the pictures to come back. Well needless to say they were horrible, bland and had been so saturated that the color looked washed out and horrible. Most of the pictures had people in the background, horrible skin tones that should have been wonderful with the perfect light he was given at Como Park.  We called and talked with the company and they said that it was probably the editing crew that did it and they would re-edit. Nothing was done correctly and ultimately the photos kept coming back horrible and just not professional looking. And for $3500 we expected good quality photos. If you decide to go with this vendor, I highly recommend that you ask for a photographer that does this full time for a living and is not doing this on his spare time. Also ask for his name so you can look at his photo website. Once we were able to find our photographers website, you can certainly tell that the photos they showed us at our consulatation were professionally edited to sell the company. The photographers photos on his website were no where near what we were shown. Keep your options open and take your time to research. We found a new photographer we love, but we lost our initial down payment of $1800 and they refused to give us our money back, even though they sold us product they obviously could not produce. Not to say they dont have great photographers but be aware of the really crappy ones.


In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_illinois-chicago_george-street-photography-reviews-please?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:72Discussion:e8fa77af-a598-4fc3-ad1d-4ab3a4f37076Post:8bdfc08e-3175-4780-9e31-a077d043575b">George Street Photography? Reviews please!</a>:
[QUOTE]I am looking into photographers and George Street Photography has caught my eye.  Does anyone have any reviews to share or recommendations for a specific photographer with the company?   Thanks!
Posted by washingtond[/QUOTE]

sunset25

my husband and Igot married May 18th and had George Street photographer kuba. He was absolutely amazing!!! If you are more into the candid shots he is your guy. Customer service was exceptional as well. Very quick to respond and help us any way they could. The only downside was that it took a while to see the pictures but wouldn't 1600+ pictures be worth the wait when they are absolutely stunning? Would recommend them again and again.

jsquared62009

We used Thomas K from George Street for our Dec. 29, 2012 wedding. He was amazing and I cannot say enough good things about the pictures he took. Great product for a great value!!

bethne3

We used David T. for our May 5, 2012 wedding and it was the best decision wedding-wise that we made.  Working with George Street was seamless and effortless.  Great communication, great price, great final product. They listened to our wants and needs to a tee.  I have nothing but wonderful things to say about the company and our photographer.  

yuriG

Totally hit or miss. I've know friends and acquaintances who've used George Street.  For every glowing review there are 3 horror stories. Important key moments completely missed, rude or just plain unresponsive photographers who were more interested in getting their hours over with and getting out of there. And customer service is unresponsive as well. 

I have no doubt they have a few competent photographers on staff, but it just seem like too much of a gamble to risk. The prices may be cheaper, but there are other photographers out there with same packaging with less of a gamble.

We're staying far away.

Sharon0803

I booked georgestreet for my wedding. Well long story short- the wedding was called off.  I called them 32 days before the wedding date to cancel.  They told me that in addition to the 50% down payment I had made, I also had to pay the rest! They told me I had to at least call a month in advance- I told them it was 32 days. They kept putting me on hold, we went back and forth for a while and then they told me I had to.  I asked if I could reschedule to get family portraits and not waste my money- they said sure no problem.  Well later that day I received a phone call that said I could still reschedule, but for a $500 fee! WHAT?!! In addition to $1500 i was having to pay?  Well I ended up keeping the day and just having my brother and his family take portraits.  Not impressed- there were maybe 8 good ones.  They were insensitive and unorganized.  I would never go through them again.

smgrundner

I have been trying to get the word out about the horrible experience we had.  My sister had a friend who got married a month after us, and she had the same result.  Here goes...

I could have hired my 12 year old nephew to take group photos and he probably could have done a lot better job while saving us thousands of dollars.  If you want to use a vendor that will treat your big day as just another part of the wedding mill that generates their profits then, by all means, go ahead.  I would suggest going with someone local who will care about the results of your wedding photos because their personal name and reputation are at stake.  

In the defense of George Street, I will say that we were told that traditional photos were not "her thing".  Fair enough.  I just figured that she was a professional and could at least MANAGE a group photo.  She didn't give anyone ANY direction on were to stand or how to pose.

When I complained about the results of our photos I was told that they "weren't that bad".  Really???  This is our WEDDING DAY!!!  I will agree, our photographer had a shot or two of my husband and I that turned out decent.  However, ALL the group shots are amateur, at best.  So the good people at George Street told me to send them details of what I thought was wrong with every shot.  Again, REALLY??  I work and go to school full-time.  Who has time to do all that?  I thought that is why I was paying George Street.  It's not my job to make the photos look good.

I don't feel like the quiz and photographer portfolios were an accurate representation of the photographer's work.   We were also told that we would be able to meet with our photographer before the wedding.  Not true!!  Our photographer called me less than a week before the day.  When she called it was early in the morning while I was getting ready for work.  When I answered she said, "I didn't expect you to answer."  Ummm.... o.k.  Then, as we were talking she cut our conversation short by saying she was brushing her teeth and had to go.  I should have took this as a warning, but what was I going to do???  It was less than a week to our big day.  I really wish I could have met her ahead of time, as promised, and gotten a sense of her personality.  She just seemed like this was something she did every weekend and could care less about our day.  She just wanted to collect her check and "suggested" tip.  I had siblings use Lifetouch photographers who were more enthusiastic.  

My end thoughts:  If you are on a tight budget and don't care about the quality, go the George Street route.  If you are on a tight budget and have some time, research a good local photographer and skip the big company.  If you have lots of money to spend, then you could do a lot better.

muenginerd

George Street is AWFUL.  We didn't book with them thankfully but we almost did.  I'm in the Milwaukee area but was going through their Chicago office.  We met with their rep and picked our photographer (hint: most photographers don't belong to George Street they are contracted out, I found the name of our photographer and if I thought about it sooner could have probably booked straight through her).  Right after our meeting I went on a buisness trip and my parents also went out on buisness (important since they were the ones paying).  The week I was traveling it was not stop harrasment from George Street about signing up right now.  I politely explained that we agreed to have an answer in two weeks and I would not sign anything right now without talking to FI. 

I came back to town and the harrassing calls continued, they started to say someone else is looking into our photographer and if we don't book in 48 hours we will loose her.  Again, I explained to our reps we had a signed guarantee from her that we would have until that Saturday to make a decision.  If this was such an issue we wouldn't have moved forward in the first place knowing travel schedules.  Well I get her to agree that we want the photographer and she will recieve the deposit Friday morning when my mother returned from her buisness trip.  We got all this in writing, specifying the name of the photographer and the delivery date of the deposit, signed by our rep.  My mom calls and places the deposit Friday morning as promised and the rep congratulates her and says she will forward on all the necessary contact info.  Well don't you know I get called 30 minutes later saying "what a bummer, your photographer was just booked yesterday, let's get together and book another photographer".  I was offered a different photographer, who the rep told us at our first meeting, was not as good as the first.  I refused to accept any other photographer and explained how disappointe I was that George Street did not stand up to their signed agreement.  We pushed and pushed to talk to her district rep but no one contacted us, my parents reached out to the Chicago office no one would talk to them about.  It was a horrible way to do buisness!  Thanksfully in the end we got our full deposit back and went with a local videographer and photographer.  It cost us alittle more, but the engagement pictures already have turned out far better than anything George Street ever showed us.

KayDeee

I have heard a few horror stories about George Street, similar to this. Especially the high pressure, used-car salesmen tactics.

There are so many other affordable photographers and photography companies out there, I don't know how George Street still gets bookings.