SusanMike2013

Update... I got all my pictures and very sad to say there is not one of my daughter dancing.... I am heartbroken. I stressed to Phil that pictures of my twin daughters were a must.. he couldn't of been bothered to be taking pictures during the dinner. (I made use of the 3 hour reception to have dinner/dancing combined) At this point there is no use to complain anymore... I will cash my refund chq he also included .. but no amount of money will replace what those pictures would of meant to me.

It's sad to hear there are others like me .... But hopefully this can help him in his line of work. NO ONE needs the extra stress. My WC even made the comment how Phil is more dramatic than most brides. This was when I was ensuring he had a dinner .. Her reply is ohh we all know Phil, yes he will have a dinner. Honestly that should not be what a bride is concerned about .. I guess he is late to every wedding.... I still don't get why he was so set on my husband being there at a certain time if he is normally late! I am still waiting on the email to say my second set of pictures are on their way..... So much for having the photo books done for my guests before my trip to my parents next month for a family reception :-(

I had my first bridezilla moment .. almost two months after my wedding. I got a reply after posting here and sending another email I got a reply to which was filled excuses in red pasted directly from the email I got: -Our day was shortened by one hour on the beach because of dinner -You party was over at 9:00 instead of 11:00 which most wedding go to 11 -Also your dancing time was very short where most have 2 1/2 hours of that -All of those things will make for a lot less photos because of that. -You got married rushed for photos then rushed for dinner. Then a short 15 minute party. -. The kids were hard to get, that can happen. I will check to see what there were for photos of the kids dancing. . But was that during the party??? Also when we take the photos you usually get about 50-60% of what is taken -A typical wedding day and evening party the couple would receive 900 1100 photos. But a lot are from the party and extra beach photos. I read the above excuses and thought i may lose my mind: My day was not shorten... the times did not change. I just did not move my dinner like he asked and HE SHOWED UP LATE! I told him in the beginning my wedding was over at 9pm.. I had dancing throughout my wedding.. there was no formal dance time. He also knew this and made the note it was not normal to have the first (and only foraml) dance before we ate. We got introduced and did our dance then..... I guess he has never watched Four Weddings! Party was from 6pm to 9pm 3 hours for dinner dancing "party". So I have no idea where he got 15 minutes After me telling him a number of times I want pictures of my children he is confused to when my daughter was dancing on the dance floor? I was told the day of my wedding I would have all pictures! Not a percentage ( all my bridal party was told the same) So I lost it upon recieving a email to place all blame on myself. I called him... and when I expressed my disappointment he chuckled... Bring on Bridezilla..I yelled for about 30 minutes straight .. and told him just how I felt before my wedding.. during and now. I told him I wanted all my pictures as I was told and I did not want excuses... After a long conversation (me yelling and almost crying) he agreed to send me every picture he took. In the middle of our covnersation I expressed that I should of put my foot down before my wedding to go by MY schedule and not his and that by rights I could ask for a partial refund due to him being late and not providing the service and products we agreed to. His reply "how much do you want".. I told him the pictures I got were amazing and that I would NOT ask for a refund UNLESS there was no pictures of my daughter dancing. Fine enough.. after the call I check my email and see I got a second email from him just before I called him. Ready for more excuses: just saw some B+W of the families we normally don't do that . One of my editors which is very good at what she does did that. I will talk to her on that???? You walked down the aisle at 5:13 after the ceremony we did friends and family photos until 5:50 we took only 10 minutes for our beach photos. I shot quick and we stopped exactly at 6:00 sharp/ That was the time of my last photo. A typical wedding even with photos before the ceremony we would take at least another 90 minutes or so of photos after the ceremony. We only took about 28 minutes. Sorry I'm not trying to pass the problem fully back on you by any means. I just know from over 1500 weddings if we run short of time I get worried. I shared that with you before coming to the Dominican. Again please call me Note he did not "share" that with me... nor give me the heads up when I didn't change my reception time Again it was my fault for not changing my reception time ( to which again was requested a WEEK before the wedding)... and then his editors fault to giving me incorrect pictures? To which leads me to another questions... did his editor even know what pictures I wanted? I was never told he had someone editing. From the get go I told him it was not a traditional wedding.. what wedding is down south? But he kept trying to tell me on the call my wedding was not tradional. My reply was if you can not shot NON traditional weddings you may want to start advertising that! That email also talked about a interview he did to talk about his great he was..... During our call I flat out told him in the first 5 minutes I would not be listenign to anything about him or how great he is.... Believe me I was bridezilla on crack! He was going on about how he does the most weddings in the DR and he is the best and blah blah I was done with it! I left that email as it was not important after the call and did not warrent a reply Sooooo then at midnight i get another email from him: -the evening was very quiet, knowing what i know now I would of suggested on not hiring me. Reason there isn't the crazy party and activities that some weddings have -Most wedding are 7 to 11 so more time as well -I did get a small party going for looks like 18 minutes -Sorry for the confusion on how many photos you would receive -You will recieve everythign I took except the ones liek the flash didnt fire and something that had no use at all. We will work on then ASAP I will contact you before shipping. I'll enclose a $ cheque with it as well. I feel bad we didn't please you. I would like to point out I did tell him my schedule so I am not sure what he is referring to knowing what he knows now. There was no surprises.... and any resort I contacted when picking the resort told me that the reception time frame is 3 hours.. anything over that is extra. I am hoping the refund he is giving is not due to him not having any pictures of my daughter dancing :-( All I can do at this point is wait to see what I actually get. And realize that if there are no pictures of my daughter dancing with her big smile and holding her blanket ... well no amount of a refund will fix that. I will be crushed. I could not of stressed enough to him that my children were his main focus. I also spoke to other brides who indeed did get approx. 1500 pictures..... I did have a bride tell me to be sure to let him know I was in charge, and I am kicking myself for not opening my mouth before hand (the call the week before my wedding) to tell him who the boss was and how the day would go. We have some beautifull pictures of my wedding.... but my heart breaks when I have family asks for the pictures of my children. I reply with "I dont have them" and I am hoping they are coming. ... I would still reommend Phil to any Bride as we got some very nice shots.... But I will also say to ensure you know what you are getting beforehand, make sure he knows what you want (get it in writing) and to make sure you are not told what you have to do on your wedding day.

I had my first bridezilla moment .. almost two months after my wedding. I got a reply after posting here and sending another email I got a reply to which was filled excuses in red pasted directly from the email I got: -Our day was shortened by one hour on the beach because of dinner -You party was over at 9:00 instead of 11:00 which most wedding go to 11 -Also your dancing time was very short where most have 2 1/2 hours of that -All of those things will make for a lot less photos because of that. -You got married rushed for photos then rushed for dinner. Then a short 15 minute party. -. The kids were hard to get, that can happen. I will check to see what there were for photos of the kids dancing. . But was that during the party??? Also when we take the photos you usually get about 50-60% of what is taken -A typical wedding day and evening party the couple would receive 900 1100 photos. But a lot are from the party and extra beach photos. I read the above excuses and thought i may lose my mind: My day was not shorten... the times did not change. I just did not move my dinner like he asked and HE SHOWED UP LATE! I told him in the beginning my wedding was over at 9pm.. I had dancing throughout my wedding.. there was no formal dance time. He also knew this and made the note it was not normal to have the first (and only foraml) dance before we ate. We got introduced and did our dance then..... I guess he has never watched Four Weddings! Party was from 6pm to 9pm 3 hours for dinner dancing "party". So I have no idea where he got 15 minutes After me telling him a number of times I want pictures of my children he is confused to when my daughter was dancing on the dance floor? I was told the day of my wedding I would have all pictures! Not a percentage ( all my bridal party was told the same) So I lost it upon recieving a email to place all blame on myself. I called him... and when I expressed my disappointment he chuckled... Bring on Bridezilla..I yelled for about 30 minutes straight .. and told him just how I felt before my wedding.. during and now. I told him I wanted all my pictures as I was told and I did not want excuses... After a long conversation (me yelling and almost crying) he agreed to send me every picture he took. In the middle of our covnersation I expressed that I should of put my foot down before my wedding to go by MY schedule and not his and that by rights I could ask for a partial refund due to him being late and not providing the service and products we agreed to. His reply "how much do you want".. I told him the pictures I got were amazing and that I would NOT ask for a refund UNLESS there was no pictures of my daughter dancing. Fine enough.. after the call I check my email and see I got a second email from him just before I called him. Ready for more excuses: just saw some B+W of the families we normally don't do that . One of my editors which is very good at what she does did that. I will talk to her on that???? You walked down the aisle at 5:13 after the ceremony we did friends and family photos until 5:50 we took only 10 minutes for our beach photos. I shot quick and we stopped exactly at 6:00 sharp/ That was the time of my last photo. A typical wedding even with photos before the ceremony we would take at least another 90 minutes or so of photos after the ceremony. We only took about 28 minutes. Sorry I'm not trying to pass the problem fully back on you by any means. I just know from over 1500 weddings if we run short of time I get worried. I shared that with you before coming to the Dominican. Again please call me Note he did not "share" that with me... nor give me the heads up when I didn't change my reception time Again it was my fault for not changing my reception time ( to which again was requested a WEEK before the wedding)... and then his editors fault to giving me incorrect pictures? To which leads me to another questions... did his editor even know what pictures I wanted? I was never told he had someone editing. From the get go I told him it was not a traditional wedding.. what wedding is down south? But he kept trying to tell me on the call my wedding was not tradional. My reply was if you can not shot NON traditional weddings you may want to start advertising that! That email also talked about a interview he did to talk about his great he was..... During our call I flat out told him in the first 5 minutes I would not be listenign to anything about him or how great he is.... Believe me I was bridezilla on crack! He was going on about how he does the most weddings in the DR and he is the best and blah blah I was done with it! I left that email as it was not important after the call and did not warrent a reply Sooooo then at midnight i get another email from him: -the evening was very quiet, knowing what i know now I would of suggested on not hiring me. Reason there isn't the crazy party and activities that some weddings have -Most wedding are 7 to 11 so more time as well -I did get a small party going for looks like 18 minutes -Sorry for the confusion on how many photos you would receive -You will recieve everythign I took except the ones liek the flash didnt fire and something that had no use at all. We will work on then ASAP I will contact you before shipping. I'll enclose a $ cheque with it as well. I feel bad we didn't please you. I would like to point out I did tell him my schedule so I am not sure what he is referring to knowing what he knows now. There was no surprises.... and any resort I contacted when picking the resort told me that the reception time frame is 3 hours.. anything over that is extra. I am hoping the refund he is giving is not due to him not having any pictures of my daughter dancing :-( All I can do at this point is wait to see what I actually get. And realize that if there are no pictures of my daughter dancing with her big smile and holding her blanket ... well no amount of a refund will fix that. I will be crushed. I could not of stressed enough to him that my children were his main focus. I also spoke to other brides who indeed did get approx. 1500 pictures..... I did have a bride tell me to be sure to let him know I was in charge, and I am kicking myself for not opening my mouth before hand (the call the week before my wedding) to tell him who the boss was and how the day would go. We have some beautifull pictures of my wedding.... but my heart breaks when I have family asks for the pictures of my children. I reply with "I dont have them" and I am hoping they are coming. ... I would still reommend Phil to any Bride as we got some very nice shots.... But I will also say to ensure you know what you are getting beforehand, make sure he knows what you want (get it in writing) and to make sure you are not told what you have to do on your wedding day.

Hello past brides.... I am wondering if anyone else had some trouble with using Phil Steingard NOTE: I have beautiful pictures.. but I am slightly disapointed for the below reasons and I have yet to get a reply from him -- some are very minor but they are adding up!! 1. Minor: I booked a year in advance, he suggested I change my wedding time from 6pm to 5pm - done even after my invites were printed Phil told me how he was part wedding planning and knew all the resorts and how they all loved him .. I thought SUPER I hit the jackpot! Told me I would get approx 1500 pictures of the wedding 500 for TTD - i declined this as his only day available did not work for us 2.Minor: I sent the deposit, and then two post dated chqs for the difference. I received a email stating they only recieved one chq. After a few emails to be sure before I contacted the bank... I finally got a reply "oh it fell on the floor"! You would think they would email as soon as they found it! 3. I was told I would be contacted a month before my wedding. Two weeks before I left I emailed Phil to find out what was to be done. I got no reply but a email at 12am a week later to say to contact him the next night was his only time to speak with me as he was leaving the day after.... 4.During this phone call that was literally a week before my wedding date: -he asks me to change the time of my reception. A week before !!! I already had my menu cards and wedding packages printed with times but I siad I would check with the resort. -tells me the schdule for the day ( even when I told him it would not work for me as I have toddler twins .. his reply was I would have to have someone watch them for the day) - I asked for changes to do the girls pictures first ( so my husband could stay with our children) his reply was he shoots the guys first - he was very strict to ensure my husband was at the lobby by 10 15am to meet him ( wedding was at 5pm) - a main concern for him was to ensure he had a spot at the reception to eat ( thats due to a mix up with another bride.. to which he made a fuss at her wedding over it) - I requested MANYcandid shots and as many pictures of my children as possible. This was made very clear on the call - i told him we were not doing formal dances and that our first dance was before the meal.. he was not open to that but I stuck to it and won. All in all the whole call i got to hear how he was the best in the DR and he shoots the most wedding yak yak I hung up the phone and called my sister crying as it was the most stressfully part of planning this wedding and i felt I had no control and he would not listen to me. 5. I reach the resort and email him to give him our room number and to let him know i could not change my reception time. He replies to tell me "thats too bad and I will be late for the reception" To which i replied no I won't !! Again was given the heads up by a bride that missed her whole cocktail hour due to pictures He also states to ensure there is food in the bridal suite for him .. another bride also gave me this heads up that he would expect food throughout the day. I replied to tell him to stop by the buffet as we already had plans to eat before he was showing up at 1 in the bridal suite... 6. Day of the wedding..... I get a call in the bridal suite at 11 from my husband .. he had not yet shown up!! I was in fits.... I had my BB with me and got no email to state he would be late. As I am going though emails to find his phone number he showed up stating he had cab trouble. Funny he mentioned a TTD session he did that morning though while we were getting pictures done! He did the guys pictures.. got way too many of a certain groomsman in my opinion .... Came to the bridal suite and did the girls then we meet at 2:30 in the lobby to do first look pictures ... he then dragged my bridal party through the reosrt for two hours for unknown reasons as 99% of the pictures were of me (to which I expressed I was not that type of bride). My bridal party were good sports but joked they were only there to carry his stuff around. We did the beach wedding... I asked for pictures of each couple as I would be making a photo book for each couple... he took took them of them sitting down ( so not what I wanted but my own fault for not saying standing I guess). took group shots / family pictures ..etc Got to the reception.. asked if he would rather sit at the end to get pictures to which he replied ohh I got them. Umm ok we just got here... MY FAVORITE part of the reception was my 20 month old daughters... one loved the dance floor and was ther dancing alone. I couldn;t wait to see the pictures of it.... 9pm everything shut down and he left A month later my cd's arrived.... NO pictures of my daughter dancing... 781 pictures.. not 1500 to which he even told my husband and a friend the day of the wedding he took a lot of duplicates in different formats but thats good! There are a lot of pictures not in color that I would like... there is no picture in color of My Mom/Step Dad/ Me :-( There is one but I have my eyes closed So I email Phil with my concerns and questions and got no reply... I am very disappointed and wondeirng if any other brides had the same experience and what they did... Again the pictures I got were AMAZING but I feel so cheated I didn't get what I thought I would....

*Beach Ceremony: Did they block off a section for your ceremony? - no not really.... we did get married on the preferred side of the beach so there were less peope. I honestly didn't notice anyone :-) *Poolside Reception: Did they allow dancing? Yes, I didn't have my reception there but saw others. The set up is beautiful. Were other hotel guests able to swim in the pool during your reception or did they block it off? It is not blocked off but it is semi private. The pool usually clears out by 6ish anyhow *Does the cocktail hour and reception include open bar (or alcoholic beverages)? Or is it additional? Included, you can upgrade it for a cost *Does the entertainment "B package" include mic and speaker system? I had the basic package and it included both. *Is the house photographer any good? Did you do trash the dress photos? I used Phil Steingard, not the resort photographer. I opted out of TTD... having a AHR and didn't want to risk it. Also Phil's TTD takes place at another resort and the times didn't work well for us. *Did you stay at Now Larimar for your honeymoon too? Were there too many kids there? We took our children :-) If you book preferred you have full access to Secrets which is adult only. My family that arrvied on a different day got upgraded to secrets.. its building two. We didn't see alot of children but we spent all of our time in the preferred area by building one. Besides our twins there were two other children in that area during the week. *Welcome bags: Did you ship everything ahead of time or bring it in with your luggage? Passed them out the day we left to the people opn our flight and brought a suitcase full for guests arriving on a different flight. Depending on your airline it can get costly! Our TA got us double the weight for free and we still had some issues.... *Welcome BBQ: Does Now Larimar offer this? If so, how much? We didn't bother with a welcome event....

trying to upload some pictures .... it seems most are too large

My professional pictures are on their way!!! I got the call last week to let me know... I am going to camp outside my mailbox!

I just got married there..on the beach April 24th. The fountain is an amazing set up. 2 of the wedding packages do include a private reception. I opted for the free wedding and paid for the private reception dinner. If you have no children in your group and want to do a Restaurant rather than pay for a private dinner.. go for the French. Very nice and the night we ate there we saw a wedding group there. It was a nice set up. Also the food is amazing!! Feel free to PM any questions

It was a long day but seriously the best day ever and it didn't seem long at all. It was very relaxed We had the bridal room from 9 to 2.. and there was 5 of us who were getting hair done so we started early. Other guests decied to get their hair done there as well.. We all loved our hair. Our photographer was schedule to come at 10:30 but showed at 11. 11 - 12:30 Guys Pictures 12:30 - 2 Girl's pictures.. the bridal suite has a very nice open area with couches for pictures 2 - 4:30ish we did all the wedding party ( it ended up being mostly me pictures) Beach for 5pm Group pictures Reception at 6 So glad we did it that way as we have approx 1500 professional pictures coming.... and it was spread out. The morning at the SPA was great and it was the best day of my life. I never felt rushed and I got to enjoy it :-) I have uploaded some of the wedding video my cousin took for us to you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIw47RSfA54&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWadOp09g9Y&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLLNLhuPF8&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stf-RJ4fTo0&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNOI0E2Uc94&feature=youtu.be Once I get my professional pictures I will post :-)

Thank you !! Actually that was just on our way to the reception... we stopped by the fountain set up for a few pictures. We got married on the beach. I believe that was the set up the whole week we were there though :-)