Description
Modern Romance Documented Exceptionally
Named after my mother Ana Rosa, De La Rosa strives to help you slow down, be present and be yourselves on your wedding day. We believe being present on your wedding day will bring out the best in you and your partner. Giving an authentic and fun experience while having a timeless and editorial look.
Ashley Chorath
Reviewed: De La Rosa Wedding Photography August 5, 2023 at 7:37 amWe are repeat customers of Sebastian Cuevas of De La Rosa Photography and I would give him 0 stars if I could due to a complete lack of professionalism and communication from him. Initially, we had a good experience with two shoots where my husband and I were happy with the service/product. Then the following series of last-minute cancellations and unprofessional behavior happened (via text/Whatsapp, so I have screenshots of all of this):
Jan 2023 family session: he said his car broke down and he was 2 hours late to the session. This was a problem because our 4-month-old baby missed his naps and became very tired and didn’t smile at all in the photos. Despite waiting 2 hours for him with a tired baby and my parents, I still tipped him $30 on top of what he charged us.
March 12, 2023 family session: he canceled our family session 2 weeks before because he got booked for a wedding. My husband, baby, and I were flying into FL from out of state and this was the only day our whole extended family was in town for it. I thought the date was reserved for us but he bumped us for a wedding. He said he would make it up to us by doing a Cherry Blossoms session by flying to us in DC (his idea).
April 10, 2023 Cherry Blossoms Session: We went back and forth about what date would work for him (I was very flexible) until we decided on April 10 (date decided on March 28) because he wanted to do it around the time of another engagement shoot in DC. I didn’t hear any details about this until April 8 when I followed up on the details. He canceled this literally *the day before*, on April 9 (Easter), because that engagement shoot didn’t end up happening, so it wasn’t worth him flying up for us I guess. I had already taken the day off of work and rearranged childcare, outfits, and our plans for this.
May 18, 2023 family session: I followed up with him about when we could do this makeup session and we agreed on this date. He was flying here on standby with his work perk, but I didn’t know he was going to fly ON THE AFTERNOON OF, to arrive at 4:15 pm to DCA airport when our session was at 6 pm at the other end of the city, in rush hour traffic!! I felt like he clearly did not intend to make this session with such a close flight. I had to send numerous follow-ups before I found out at 1:45 pm the day of the session (!!!) that he didn’t make it on the flight, of course. He never even did as much as apologize for this! Again, I took the day off of work, rearranged our day, planned our outfits for the session, adjusted our baby’s nap schedule, washed my hair, did my eyebrows/nails etc for the session.
On March 11, 2023 I had signed a contract with him and paid him the full $450 for our baby’s baptism for August 26 in DC. At this point I had no faith that he would even show up. I felt he clearly did not value our time or business with him.
June 20, 2023: I emailed and messaged asking to cancel the baptism photography so I could get someone local. He initially messaged that he would refund the deposit, then wrote that he misspoke and he would only give half back, $225 because of the contract (which I never got a copy of). He could not guarantee that he would be there for the event. So I questioned what was the purpose of hiring a photographer that may not even show up? He said in that case there were options, such as him giving a refund or me suing him. I wrote “I don’t want to sue you etc. I just want my child’s baptism to be photographed and I don’t want to be stressed on the day of you won’t be there”. Then he started accusing ME of wanting to sue him (after he suggested it, when I was saying it was never an option that crossed my mind) in an illogical and bizarre series of messages.
I felt the conversation was clearly going downhill and I wanted to end it, so I asked to use the $225 deposit for him to edit some other photos, which he agreed to. I provided the files per his instructions, which took several hours of my time to upload, and he confirmed he received them.
July 21, 2023: One month later after he agreed to re-edit the photos, I asked for a status update on the photos, to which I got no response to date despite his Whatsapp status saying that he was online daily. This is also the date the photo files were set to expire.
Aug 4, 2023: Exactly 2 weeks after my first follow-up, I sent another second and final follow-up, to which he did not reply.
At this point, I don’t want to waste a second more of my life with such an unprofessional person who does not value his return clients’ time or energy. So 0/5, would never recommend De La Rosa Photography/Sebastian Cuevas to anyone.