Sarah Merians Photography & Video Company

We had a truly disturbing interaction with Sarah Merians. We hired her for our wedding nearly a year in advance, settled on a price and chose a photographer. Then, when it came time to meet with the photographer, we arrived at the studio only to be told that he was not coming, and furthermore that the price quote we had agreed upon was being increased by over $ 2000 because our wedding day was their «busiest day of the year.» This was after our email confirming the appointment the day before went unanswered. When we asked to speak with Sarah Merians herself (who we could see sitting in her office 15 feet away) we were rebuffed multiple times until we finally demanded to see her. Needless to say when we finally did meet with her face to face, she even more rude than her staff and all we had to say to her was that she was fired. There are innumerable talented photographers in New York with more ethical business practices, and we will be choosing one of them for our wedding.

Like the other reviews on this site, we had a terrible experience with the entire team. From the photographer, to the other people, no one took responsibility for doing a good job. And the final product was bad. The aggravation was overwhelming. The extra money constantly being asked for was embarrassing.
My wife is ready to pull her hair out she is so frustrated by the lack of concern and service offered by this company, I have never heard her stomp around the apartment so loud in my life! The downstairs neighborhood is probably worried about us.

Had a great experience with Sarah Merians and her team before and during our wedding. They have a fantastic studio and a wide range of photographers. Ours contact sales associate Jill was very personable and helpful, she guided me through our entire experience. When she left on maternity leave Sarah Merians herself handled my planning and she was awesome too. They have a wide range of photographers from traditional to photo journalistic and everything in between, they do fantastic special effects as well and take care of everything inside their beautiful 5^th ave studio. We used videography from them as well but got an un dedited version because it was less expensive, I think it is fantastic and better than an edited version because you get to see everything. Our proofs and video came back to us so quick that we were still on our honeymoon when they were finished! Though they are a little on the expensive side. I recently designed my album and was disappointed in the fact that is cost me so much extra just to have 20 extra images than they include in the album they say is included in the package you buy before the wedding. 50 images is impossible to capture even the bare minimum of what happened at our medium sized wedding. There prices are astronomical and I am disappointed that I can not receive a copy of my photos on a disc until a year after I receive my album. Though I do have physical printed proofs of every picture taken and they came very quickly. The prints are also very pricey I wish some were included considering how much money we already paid them. But I don’t want to make this negative, their work is excellent and I am more than pleased with the quality of our photographs and our FABULOUS photographer Tina.

Out photographer was great… The low raiting is due to the amount of time it took them to get the photos to us afterward. I think 3 – 4 months is TOO LONG! Their communication is also very poor (email, phone, etc)…

My wife and I used Sarah Merians for our wedding photography, back in January 2008. We were happy with out photographer and we have great pictures of just about every important moment from that night. The wedding album they put together was also nicely done. And the videographer also did a decent job. All this I’d expect from a pricey Manhattan photography studio.
The problem, and what warrants the one-​star review, is their customer service in the months, and now years, following the event. There was a bit of a delay in processing and shipping the wedding album last year, which is fine. But my wife and I have gone through a ridiculous, two-​month process to obtain digital copies of all our photos (which Sarah Merians only makes available on DVD one year after you order your album). The process involved a string of unreturned voice mails (we had to keep calling as we’d never hear back otherwise), unfulfilled promises about the date that the disc would be ready, and finally a ridiculous kabuki show in their office today. I was told when I called on Monday that the disc had been ready since last Friday (so why not call and tell us?) and that I could pick it up at the reception desk. When I arrived, I was told that when they double-​checked the disc they found a corrupt file, so they were burning me a new copy. After waiting for 15 minutes, I received the DVD of our photos, and I insisted that they give me the original «corrupt» disc as well. Unsurprisingly, the disc that they claimed was corrupted was actually a blank, unformatted DVD that they stuck a label on to appease me.
It’s one thing to be short staffed and fall behind on work (especially for customers who paid in full almost two years ago). But breaking promises and outright lying to customers is not acceptable for any business. My recent experience has completely soured me on Sarah Merians, regardless of the quality of the photography.