Cocoyrnuts
New Member
Sharing my personal experience with Z Wedding by Chris Ling Photography, because while preparing for my wedding banquet recently, I became annoyed all over again.
We signed our pre-wedding shoot package with them at a wedding fair in Jan 2025.
One of the MAIN reasons we chose Z Wedding?
During the sales presentation, we were shown many beautiful portfolio photos taken inside this large house setting, with supposedly different rooms, backgrounds and themes available for indoor photography.
We loved that concept.
It was genuinely one of the main reasons we decided to sign with them.
Fast forward one year to Jan 2026, a few weeks before our actual shoot.
We went down for our pre-shoot discussion and I realised that the indoor shooting area was basically on the second floor of their shophouse.
Small. Attic-like.
Very different from the large house setting we remembered being shown when we signed.
So naturally, I asked:
“Where's the big house?”
Photographer: Don't have already.
Me: Why?
Photographer: Some clients complained the location was too far.
Me: Where was it?
Photographer:
Orchard.
...
ORCHARD.
Apparently Orchard is now an ulu overseas destination requiring hiking equipment and immigration clearance.
Okay.
But even if I generously accept that explanation...
You removed one of the major shooting locations that was used to sell us the package, and nobody thought to tell us?
No email.
No WhatsApp.
No call.
No “Hey, just FYI, that beautiful big-house setting you liked when you signed your package is no longer available.”
Nothing.
We found out only weeks before our shoot, after we had already fully paid.
So till today, I genuinely wonder:
Was this house actually available to us when we signed in Jan 2025?
Was it genuinely part of the PWS options being sold?
Or were those beautiful portfolio photos from another setting shown because, well, they looked good and helped sell packages?
I cannot prove what happened behind the scenes.
But did I personally feel misled?
Absolutely.
At that point, our shoot was happening within weeks and everything had already been paid for, so instead of starting World War III before the wedding, we sucked it up and proceeded.
Not “delete everything immediately”.
Just very...
Is this really the same company whose portfolio convinced us to sign?
The shoot felt rather rigid and template-driven.
Pose here.
Stand there.
Look here.
Okay next.
The photographer did make jokes to loosen us up. Some were quite lame LOL, but honestly that's not my complaint. We understood he was trying to make us more comfortable and we played along.
My issue was the actual photography.
The portfolio we saw before signing had beautiful angles, compositions, mood, framing and overall vibe.
Our final photos?
Let's just say the portfolio appeared to contain considerably more
magic than what we received.
A few friends and family members who later saw our photos also independently commented that certain photos were not taken from particularly flattering angles or composed very nicely.
And unfortunately...
I agree.
But apparently Past Me still had faith because we proceeded to top up approximately another $2,000 for additional photos.
Excellent financial decision.
10/10.
Would recommend to my bank account.
For what I consider a fairly expensive PWS package:
One gown.
At the time I didn't think much about it because this was my first time getting married and, shockingly, I did not come equipped with a PhD in Bridal Package Benchmarking.
Then I started talking to friends and colleagues afterwards.
Them:
“Only ONE gown?”
Me:
“...yes?”
Them:
“Mine had two.”
Of course, different bridal studios structure their packages differently. I'm not claiming that two gowns are some legally mandated bridal entitlement.
But after paying this kind of price, only to later realise that many other bridal PWS packages offer two gowns, it certainly did not improve my opinion of the value we received.
But it's okay.
I got one gown AND exclusive access to the second floor of a shophouse.
Who needs the big house?
My hotel and decoration vendors needed our PWS photos for reception displays, screens, slideshow, decorations etc.
Preferably in landscape orientation.
No problem, right?
Surely a company that has been photographing weddings for years would deliberately shoot a reasonable mixture of portrait AND landscape photos.
Hahahahaha.
No.
I went through our photos.
I have barely 10 decent landscape shots.
The overwhelming majority are portrait.
So now I am trying to magically transform portrait photos into landscape without:
And this genuinely puzzles me.
Z Wedding / Chris Ling Photography specialises in weddings.
Surely they know PWS photographs don't just live inside a photo album?
Couples use them for:
Apparently this knowledge is top secret.
Perfect, I thought.
We can print both photos and display them side-by-side at our banquet reception.
Except...
His photograph was framed one way.
Mine was framed another way.
Different positioning.
Different distance.
Different composition.
Same background, but when placed beside each other, they don't actually look like a matching pair.
So now my decoration vendor has to perform editing gymnastics to make them look cohesive.
And this applies to quite a number of our photos.
Maybe I should have been standing beside the photographer with a clipboard:
“Excuse me, can you please make sure Shot 127 matches Shot 128 because eight months later my banquet decorator might need these two photographs?”
But silly me.
I thought that's part of what you're paying professional wedding photographers to think about.
We were offered incentives/freebies for reviews.
We ourselves also did a video testimonial for them.
Why?
Because doing the video review gave us additional complimentary hard-copy photographs.
So yes.
I am literally someone who has participated in the type of positive testimonial that another prospective couple may watch when deciding whether to sign.
Which is slightly hilarious to me now.
I'm NOT saying every positive review of Z Wedding or Chris Ling Photography is fake.
I'm saying that prospective customers should simply be aware that at least in our experience, incentives were offered in connection with reviews/testimonials.
That context may be useful when you're scrolling through overwhelmingly positive testimonials.
Take from that whatever you want.
No.
Did we receive our photos?
Yes.
Are some photos nice?
Yes.
But for close to $5,000 in total, I expected considerably more.
And what continues to bother me most is still the mysterious disappearing big house.
Beautiful big-house portfolio shown during sales presentation
Told about different rooms/backgrounds/themes
Major reason we chose Z Wedding
Big house suddenly unavailable by our shoot
Nobody informed us beforehand
Explanation given to me: clients complained that ORCHARD was too far
Okay can.
Maybe there is a completely reasonable explanation for everything.
But based on what was presented to us when we signed versus what was actually available when our shoot came around, I personally felt very misled.
And after:
What exactly did I pay almost $5,000 for?
My advice if you're considering signing with Z Wedding by Chris Ling Photography—or honestly, any bridal studio at a wedding fair:
GET EVERYTHING IMPORTANT IN WRITING.
Exact studio/location.
Indoor shooting venue.
Number of gowns.
Number of photos.
Any particular shooting location shown to you during the sales pitch.
Package inclusions.
And if certain types of shots are important to you, discuss that too.
If the salesperson tells you there's a magical mansion with 16 rooms, seven themes and a resident unicorn...
Put the unicorn in the contract.
Because apparently things can disappear.
Even in Orchard.
We signed our pre-wedding shoot package with them at a wedding fair in Jan 2025.
One of the MAIN reasons we chose Z Wedding?
During the sales presentation, we were shown many beautiful portfolio photos taken inside this large house setting, with supposedly different rooms, backgrounds and themes available for indoor photography.
We loved that concept.
It was genuinely one of the main reasons we decided to sign with them.
Fast forward one year to Jan 2026, a few weeks before our actual shoot.
We went down for our pre-shoot discussion and I realised that the indoor shooting area was basically on the second floor of their shophouse.
Small. Attic-like.
Very different from the large house setting we remembered being shown when we signed.
So naturally, I asked:
“Where's the big house?”
Photographer: Don't have already.
Me: Why?
Photographer: Some clients complained the location was too far.
Me: Where was it?
Photographer:
Orchard.
...
ORCHARD.
Apparently Orchard is now an ulu overseas destination requiring hiking equipment and immigration clearance.
Okay.
But even if I generously accept that explanation...
You removed one of the major shooting locations that was used to sell us the package, and nobody thought to tell us?
No email.
No WhatsApp.
No call.
No “Hey, just FYI, that beautiful big-house setting you liked when you signed your package is no longer available.”
Nothing.
We found out only weeks before our shoot, after we had already fully paid.
So till today, I genuinely wonder:
Was this house actually available to us when we signed in Jan 2025?
Was it genuinely part of the PWS options being sold?
Or were those beautiful portfolio photos from another setting shown because, well, they looked good and helped sell packages?
I cannot prove what happened behind the scenes.
But did I personally feel misled?
Absolutely.
At that point, our shoot was happening within weeks and everything had already been paid for, so instead of starting World War III before the wedding, we sucked it up and proceeded.
The actual photos were... fine.
Not catastrophic.Not “delete everything immediately”.
Just very...
Is this really the same company whose portfolio convinced us to sign?
The shoot felt rather rigid and template-driven.
Pose here.
Stand there.
Look here.
Okay next.
The photographer did make jokes to loosen us up. Some were quite lame LOL, but honestly that's not my complaint. We understood he was trying to make us more comfortable and we played along.
My issue was the actual photography.
The portfolio we saw before signing had beautiful angles, compositions, mood, framing and overall vibe.
Our final photos?
Let's just say the portfolio appeared to contain considerably more
magic than what we received.A few friends and family members who later saw our photos also independently commented that certain photos were not taken from particularly flattering angles or composed very nicely.
And unfortunately...
I agree.
But apparently Past Me still had faith because we proceeded to top up approximately another $2,000 for additional photos.
Excellent financial decision.
10/10.
Would recommend to my bank account.
Oh, and did I mention the package came with ONE gown?
Yes.For what I consider a fairly expensive PWS package:
One gown.
At the time I didn't think much about it because this was my first time getting married and, shockingly, I did not come equipped with a PhD in Bridal Package Benchmarking.
Then I started talking to friends and colleagues afterwards.
Them:
“Only ONE gown?”
Me:
“...yes?”
Them:
“Mine had two.”
Of course, different bridal studios structure their packages differently. I'm not claiming that two gowns are some legally mandated bridal entitlement.
But after paying this kind of price, only to later realise that many other bridal PWS packages offer two gowns, it certainly did not improve my opinion of the value we received.
But it's okay.
I got one gown AND exclusive access to the second floor of a shophouse.
Who needs the big house?
Then my banquet vendors asked me for landscape photos.
And THIS is what triggered me to finally write this post.My hotel and decoration vendors needed our PWS photos for reception displays, screens, slideshow, decorations etc.
Preferably in landscape orientation.
No problem, right?
Surely a company that has been photographing weddings for years would deliberately shoot a reasonable mixture of portrait AND landscape photos.
Hahahahaha.
No.
I went through our photos.
I have barely 10 decent landscape shots.
The overwhelming majority are portrait.
So now I am trying to magically transform portrait photos into landscape without:
- chopping off half our bodies,
- destroying the composition, or
- creating massive awkward empty spaces around us.
And this genuinely puzzles me.
Z Wedding / Chris Ling Photography specialises in weddings.
Surely they know PWS photographs don't just live inside a photo album?
Couples use them for:
- hotel screens
- slideshows
- reception displays
- photo tables
- signages
- decorations
- printed displays
Apparently this knowledge is top secret.
My favourite example
We have individual shots of my husband and me taken at the same outdoor location/background.Perfect, I thought.
We can print both photos and display them side-by-side at our banquet reception.
Except...
His photograph was framed one way.
Mine was framed another way.
Different positioning.
Different distance.
Different composition.
Same background, but when placed beside each other, they don't actually look like a matching pair.
So now my decoration vendor has to perform editing gymnastics to make them look cohesive.
And this applies to quite a number of our photos.
Maybe I should have been standing beside the photographer with a clipboard:
“Excuse me, can you please make sure Shot 127 matches Shot 128 because eight months later my banquet decorator might need these two photographs?”
But silly me.
I thought that's part of what you're paying professional wedding photographers to think about.
And let's talk about the glowing reviews
Another thing prospective customers should know.We were offered incentives/freebies for reviews.
We ourselves also did a video testimonial for them.
Why?
Because doing the video review gave us additional complimentary hard-copy photographs.
So yes.
I am literally someone who has participated in the type of positive testimonial that another prospective couple may watch when deciding whether to sign.
Which is slightly hilarious to me now.
I'm NOT saying every positive review of Z Wedding or Chris Ling Photography is fake.
I'm saying that prospective customers should simply be aware that at least in our experience, incentives were offered in connection with reviews/testimonials.
That context may be useful when you're scrolling through overwhelmingly positive testimonials.
Take from that whatever you want.
Overall...
Was everything terrible?No.
Did we receive our photos?
Yes.
Are some photos nice?
Yes.
But for close to $5,000 in total, I expected considerably more.
And what continues to bother me most is still the mysterious disappearing big house.
Beautiful big-house portfolio shown during sales presentation
Told about different rooms/backgrounds/themes
Major reason we chose Z Wedding
Big house suddenly unavailable by our shoot
Nobody informed us beforehand
Explanation given to me: clients complained that ORCHARD was too far
Okay can.
Maybe there is a completely reasonable explanation for everything.
But based on what was presented to us when we signed versus what was actually available when our shoot came around, I personally felt very misled.
And after:
- the disappearing “big house”
- only one gown
- photos that IMO don't reflect the standard of the portfolio we were shown
- questionable angles/compositions
- barely any usable landscape photos
- topping up another ~$2k for more photos
- and now struggling to properly use those photos for our banquet...
What exactly did I pay almost $5,000 for?
My advice if you're considering signing with Z Wedding by Chris Ling Photography—or honestly, any bridal studio at a wedding fair:
GET EVERYTHING IMPORTANT IN WRITING.
Exact studio/location.
Indoor shooting venue.
Number of gowns.
Number of photos.
Any particular shooting location shown to you during the sales pitch.
Package inclusions.
And if certain types of shots are important to you, discuss that too.
If the salesperson tells you there's a magical mansion with 16 rooms, seven themes and a resident unicorn...
Put the unicorn in the contract.
Because apparently things can disappear.
Even in Orchard.
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