NHPT

hey natalie! glad to hear you are feeling better. you get to find out the sex the day before us- not fair! hahaha- j/k! i am so excited but mostly excited just to get to see the baby again- i relaly think for the next baby i will wait to find out the sex

mmmmmmm! what are you trying to do to me? you know i crave EVERYTHING i see/hear or READ!!!

I wanted to give you guys a very honest, and well rounded review of the photographer Juan Carlos Tapia. I know many of you have seen his work but i wanted to post a thorough review of his work so you are all better informed when hiring vendors. Sorry its a little long but i wanted to include everything. Juan Carlos Tapia Review I want to break this up into two sections- photography talent & business style because they are both very different and earn very different ratings from me. Photography Talent: Bottom line is that Juan’s photography is breathtaking. The quality of his pictures is amazing and is very hard to outdo in my opinion. His photojournalistic quality was what drew me to his work and the fact that we didn’t take too many posed shots is what I preferred. We have so many great candid shots from our wedding day that we can’t decide which ones to frame! There are a few shots that I wish we had gotten- like a good one of just me and a full length shot of my dress, and a few more non-posed shots of me and my sisters and me and my mom- but that is as much my fault as Juan’s- I should have made sure that he was capturing more of those moments but to be honest I wasn’t really paying much attention to that before my wedding. Everyone was impressed with our pictures and I am very pleased with how they turned out. Overall I give Juan’s photography talent an (A) based upon his eye for pictures and the beauty of his photos. Business Style: This is where I had lots of problems with Juan and to be totally fair to him I think he completely overbooked himself during June-July 2007 and got much further behind in his work that I think surprised even him so some of these problems may never occur again because hopefully he learned how to control his caseload a little better after this summer because he most definately “bit off more than he could chew.” But here is a small list of my complaints: 1.Juan is notorious for telling brides “You will have your pictures in a month or a month and a half” and then the pictures almost always take 2-3 months, if not longer. This has been happening for a long time with Juan but seems to be getting worse in the past few months. In all honesty I do not mind waiting 3 months for pictures- but if you tell me its going to take a month and a half then that is what I am going to expect. My suggestion to Juan would be to tell brides it is going to take 3-4 months so that they are pleasantly surprised when they get the pictures earlier. 2.Also, prior to this summer (when Juan got really busy) he almost always sent girls a “teaser picture” to tide them over until their pictures arrived. I have been a moderator on the BDW forum for over a year and I have seen him do this to almost every bride he has worked with. When I emailed Juan to request my “teaser pic” about 1 ½ months after my wedding he told me NO he was unable to do that for me at this time. I was irate because I thought this was a standard practice for him and I thought it was unfair that every other bride gets a “teaser pic” but I did not. I know it seems like a silly thing to be upset about but it is a perfect example of how Juan has a history of treating his brides inconsistently (one bride gets leather CD case, another gets plastic, etc.). My suggestion to Juan would be to make sure you treat all brides equally because this really upset me when it happened to me. Although it’s a small complaint it still made me feel less important and like a less valued bride. And brides talk and we know when we are being mistreated and I don’t think you should ever have to feel that way around your wedding day. 3.This is also a small complaint but I just feel like its poor business practice but at my wedding and almost the entire day Juan did not know my name. He kept calling me Monique. I am soft spoken so I had a hard time correcting him but I was so embarrassed. I just think its important to make a bride feel special on her wedding day and I felt like I paid Juan enough money that he could have gone out of his way to remember my name. This could also go back to the fact that Juan was overly busy at this time but it still irritates me. 4.In Juan’s contract he sends you 200 or 400 pictures- depending on how much time you reserve with him. I want to warn you girls that Juan picks the pictures he send you which is a con for me. He sent us some pictures where my eyes are closed and a few pictures where I was like “why would he send this one” and then he also didn’t send a few of the pictures that I would have chosen to print if I could have chosen. So I don’t know if there is a way to possibly work this into your contract but I just wanted future clients to be aware of this situation. 5.There was a situation where Juan finished editing my pictures before another BDW bride who had gotten married 2 weeks before me. To be honest- I think his assistant edited our pictures and just finished faster. Well Juan posted our pictures on his website (which is viewable to the public) when he finished with them but he asked me not to tell the BDW members. This put me in a very odd position because I knew the BDW check Juan’s site often and would know the instant our pictures were ready. Once everyone had seen our pictures Juan sent me an email stating “the other bride found out about your pictures and she is very upset. Did you tell the BDW?” I felt like I was put in a very weird position and I was a little offended that Juan put me in the middle like that. I though he handled the entire situation incorrectly and he should ALWAYS go in order of wedding date. I felt like he acted in an unprofessional manner and created all these excuses (hurricane, bad computer, family obligations, etc.) and really he should have just said “I am sorry. I messed up. It will never happen again.” The whole situation got blown out of proportion but once again I would remind Juan to be CONSISTENT in how he does things. Overall I would give his business style a (D). Juan has a lot to learn about customer satisfaction. I realize he is still fairly new to the photography thing but if you aren’t making you clients completely happy then you are going to run into a problem. Juan is consistently making excuses for himself when I believe he just needs to slow down a little bit and take the time to make each and every bride feel like a valued customer. I also think Juan got a little “big-headed” from all the business he was receiving from the BDW forum and even stated to me that he doesn’t even have to advertise anymore because he gets so much business from us. I think he needs to realize that we expect the best from him and if we do not receive it then we are not afraid to speak up because we are paying for good service and beautiful pictures on our wedding day and I think that we deserve to have BOTH. Overall if I had it to again I would still hire Juan because his work it truly amazing and unbeatable. I would just have negotiated our contract differently. I would have arranged a set time frame when the pictures would be done- like 3 months for instance- and then I would entail specific repercussions if he went over the stated time frame- like money back, free prints, etc. Also I would have negotiated to be able to pick the 200 pictures he orders from pictage. Also I would have been more organized and ensured that I got all the shots that I wanted from our wedding day. Bottom Line: Juan is an amazing photographer and if you hire him you will be guaranteed to have amazing pictures from your wedding day and memories to last a lifetime BUT remember that vendors in Mexico work differently so prepare yourself and make sure to be VERY specific about your expectations. I just wanted future brides to be prepared with ALL the information when hiring this photographer. OVERALL RATNG (C+/B-) Good luck and happy planning and if you have any specific questions please feel free to ask or PM me.

ok thanks- i just wanted to make sure that there wasnt some easier way to do it that i wasnt aware of. thanks!

ladies- i just want to make sur ei am doing this right. i am uploading my pics to mpix from my picture DVD that Juan sent me and it is taking FOREVER. i mean it has taken like 3 hours to do about 50 pics. is that normal? any other tips i should know about ordering from them?

dear self- please eat a "normal" dinner- not just 3 tortillas and 5 oreos like last night- you are pregnant and your baby needs some nutrients! and for goodness sakes go outside and take a walk- it will make you feel much better and will make you feel like you have more energy- why do you keep putting it off and taking another nap?

thanks you all for the kind comments. we are happy with the way the pictures turned out.

well its sounds like you have got everything figured out and i am so glad that the forum was able to assist you. i also think its great that the forum has given you a head-up on some of the vendors and i think the way you are handeling your vendors is very smart and i think you will get a good result. i dont have many answers for you since our wedding was at Dreams but if i can help you in an y way let me know

he emailed me yesterday and said he was almost done with your pics and then will do both of our slideshows.......he also said i should have all of my stuff mailed to me in a week---i am not holding my breath because often times when he says "one week" it means a lot longer but i truly hope i get them soon so i can start doing stuff for x-mas gifts.

i am so sorry you are still waiting for your pictures natalie- it is really unfair and i feel awful that som many brides are getting finished before yours- its not right and you should email Juan and tell him that it is hurting his business

yea! we were hoping you git it on time and that is was the type of foods that you would enjoy- so relax!!! and enjoy your yummy food!

i agree with sarah- you should cal them and have them redo it. but it turned out great! love the idea!

ok so i will just wait..........thanks for the reply- yeah its VERY overpriced on pictage. so for your family- did you just have them wait until you got your prints and order from them oof mpix too?

tammy- how can i order prints off mpix- i mean i dont have the CD yet so i dont have the files on my computer so do i have to wait since all the onces from pictage have juans watermark on there. i am a computer moron...........

i ordered my bridesmaid dresses from them and i saved about $30/dress and they came in perfect condition. i highly recommend them. just be sure to know exactly what size you need because their return policy is not so great. good luck!

i got mine through a discount site that is linked to costco and the cost for 200 invites with insert for travel info and response card was under $300. the invites were beautiful and simple and looked just like the expensive ones that sell for way more in bridal stores.

ohmygosh- so beautiful! those shots are amazing and i love the one of you lauging and holding up your skirt- keep em coming!

i second what Ann said. leigh you have a great repuation on this board and we greatly respect your assistance and willingness to help those whos weddings may have been postponed. thanks again

matt did it through the conciere at Dream once we got there- it was pretty pricey- i will have to ask him for exact costs but i wanna say $200-$300/person- but that was because they had a 12 person boat and then some people cancelled and others have to cover their costs. my point is- i thought we HAD to schedule it all before hand and its really not terribly necessary- you can do it once you get there- they have a million fishing vendors who are most likely available

you know i just wasnt sure how to hook up our ipod dock and i didnt really want to mess with it- and since i knew for sure that their speakers worked perfect i just used them. that being said- i think it depends on the number of guests you have. ask your WC- they may not mind setting up your own speakers but also be ready because if it is something they are not familiar with they may mess it up- not to scare you- just think about it

either you have to rent 3 seperate sound systems- which means paying triple the price or they can move it from place to place- it takes about 15 min to move it and get it all set up. i was lucky that my wedding was at the gazebo and the cocktail hour was at el patio terace because these 2 places are really close together so we just turned the speakers and didnt have to set it up 3 times. we were supposed to have to to re-set it up at the recpetion space but they messed up and just used a whole other system- which i refused to pay for since it was not soemthing we had agreed upon. HTH

wait what- $400 for 4 people? really? that is crazy.......... we had 7 guests that stayed off site at a timshare- they thought they would save SO much money- well they didnt- they were at Dreams everyday because they wanted to be a part of the action- and they had no room so it was a pain in the a** for them to get ready, etc- seriously they said at the end" we shoud have just stayed here" i know you cant MAKE your guests stay but they will regret it if they stay elsewhere.

ohh- i am late but can i have that icing recipe too. also does anyone have a recipe for red velvet cupcakes that they know is good? i was watching that show tori& dean inn love (i know i am a nerd) and have been craving them ever since!

they sell lots of sizes of stickers at staples, office max etc- we used them to print our logos for our OOT bags- worked perfect for us- you should check it out

jonathon- thanks that does help a lot!