Complaint Review: Elysium Images

 I hired this so-called professional photographer, Sara Thompson of Elysium Images, to photograph me, my husband, son, family, friends, and entire party for my wedding in fall of 2016. Sara showed up late, obviously incapable of arriving to our location on time, and we had to postpone our ceremony to be able to take photos. We were photographed before and after our ceremony, and I requested that Sara Photoshop our photos during her editing process. She agreed at that time. It took longer than we expected for us to receive our flash drive and CD of the photos of our event. When my husband and I, and also my family and his, viewed our photographs, we were utterly disappointed. Sara did not give me good enough direction during our shoots, so I was appalled by the final results. My mouth and smile looked bad in almost every photo I appeared in, and Sara did not tell me to adjust the bunched-up lace above the bustier of my gown. We noticed that she didn't airbrush or retouch any of our flaws-- especially mine-- out of our photos. I had bags under my eyes that could have been airbrushed out; she did not include the photos of myself and my husband in which he was holding me and supporting me. She only included the photos of me holding my husband. I do not appreciate how dominant I appeared, as that was not the approach I expected Sara to go for. My nose looked very broad, my eyes jut out in what should have been a lovely photo with my husband, and in the photos that we took with our son, he was looking up into the sky and not directly into the lens. She didn't take the time to try to get my son to look straight into it. In the photos that my father took with me, he looked sickly and awkward, as Sara did not give him proper direction. She did not airbrush the flaws in my mother-in-law's face in the photos that she posed for with my husband. All in all, they were mostly terrible and certainly not professional, as we expected they would be. I viewed some of the photos Sara was showcasing on her Facebook page of some of her most recent sessions with clients, and I was surprised to see how good all of their photos looked compared to ours. I could tell that Sara took the time to airbrush and retouch them very well, and some of them even had nice effects and coloring. I showed them to my husband, and he was just as disappointed with our own family's results after he saw how good Sara's other clients' photos looked. I am a model, and I sometimes take my own photographs of myself, and my photos turn out wonderfully. I never look tired, swollen, or older than I actually am, even in the photos I take using my personal cellular phone. My eyes do not jut out of my skull in real life, and my nose never looks broad and flat. All I've done is let Sara Thompson know that I would like a refund, and she will not return my family's money to us. Sara Thompson of Elysium Images does not deserve her clients' money. She obviously shows others favoritism, based on what exactly? I'm not sure I want to find out anymore. I will never hire Sara again. My special day becoming a bride to the most important man in my life was sabotaged. These were our important memories, and we have nothing nice to show for it.