I will never be able to look back at my wedding through photos the way most girls can. Tess Johnson was a complete nightmare to work with. We were contracted for 6 hours for the cost of 1,800 for one photographer. Once the contract was sighed and the first 900 dollars deposit was made she slowly became less and less available. It was not uncommon to wait weeks to hear back from her in answer to basic questions. The real trouble started the week of my wedding once she had her final deposit. She was scheduled to work from 2 to 8. She decided that because her husband had a prior comment (he had to be somewhere at 8) and apparently could not get a babysitter that she would change the agreed upon time, to 130 to 730. At just after 7 when she left she went up to my uncle who knows nothing about my wedding and told him she was leaving. I would later find out, according to her that she apparently texted messaged me theses contract changes. The only problem is I never gave her my cell number, and even if I did I don't look to my text messages to receive important business information.
During the wedding I was embarrassed to have her there. She was dressed like she had just rolled out of bed and she was consistently being rude to my guest. She spent time complaining of a migraine. She made comments about hating theses traditional photos, and the best of all, she claims to be a "good Catholic women" but we got her on tape asking "who the hell does that priest think he is telling me I can't go up on the alter."
She was also hoping to get pity by us by telling us that she was having seizures throughout the wedding. While I know this is a serious thing. If I had known that this women had seizures I would have never went with her. She clearly had no back up plan and it effected the work that she did negatively.
When going through my photos. There was not one of me and my husband. There is not one photo of just me at the alter. There is not one photo of any of the guest that were invited to our wedding. There are however several pictures of the dinner rolls. We called Tess to discuss this with her. She did not answer the phone. The following day I got a paranoid, anger filled, accusation hurling letter blaming us for her unprofessional behavior and lack of quality photos. I responded back to her. She then told me that she will never talk to us over the phone or in person. She will only communicate via email. The funny thing is I know she wants email so everything is written down however she cannot keep her lies straight in all her emails.
My advice to all women looking for a photographer is to stay clear of this women! She is unprofessional, lies, manipulates, and has no clue how to communicate. She lacks organization and people skills. Your entire day will not be captured by Tess Johnson.
