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Bella Pictures
Rating Details »
Category: Photographers [Edit]
Neighborhood: Financial District114 Sansome Street
Suite 300
(between Bush St & Pine St)
San Francisco, CA 94104
(888) 556-7590
21 reviews for Bella Pictures
This business is a Yelp Sponsor
9/15/2009
2 photos
10/24/2009
6/9/2009
11/20/2009
11/10/2009
5/13/2009
1/28/2009
Updated - 7/28/2009
6/25/2009
9/16/2008
11/2/2008
Updated - 11/17/2008
5/20/2009
8/15/2008
1/11/2009
4/20/2008
12/18/2007
1/6/2008
10/29/2008
11/30/2008
9/11/2007
One of the Business' Favorite Reviews What's This?
I used Bella for my wedding on August 29th and LOVE LOVE LOVE my wedding pictures! I went with Bella because of their packages, pricing, and their beautiful albums. I liked that I could go online and rate pictures to determine the style I prefer, and I didn't have a problem with not meeting our photographer in person, as corresponding by email and phone is more convenient for me.
Once we were assigned our photographer (Paul Perez), I was able to go to the Bella site to view his bio, some of his work, and even an interview of him. I felt completely confident in his ability. To help me prepare for our phone meeting, Paul sent me an email with a list of questions to think about. It helped me to plan out which photographs were most important for him to capture. Then we had a two-hour phone meeting where he asked more detailed questions, took diligent notes, and helped me envision how the day would go and when we would be able to take certain shots. Paul has a great eye and took stunning photographs. He was very easy to work with, was never obtrusive, paid attention to what was important to us, and was open to our ideas. He even stayed past his contracted time because we were behind schedule.
We received notice that our pictures were online just two weeks after the wedding and are thrilled with them! My husband told me that looking at our wedding pictures was "like falling in love with me all over again." I too felt like I was re-living the day's events. It was a painstaking process to sort out our favorites because there were so many fantastic shots. Our family and friends are equally impressed with our wedding pictures, telling us that they're amazing! We're so glad we chose Bella Pictures and can't wait to start creating the album!
We got lucky to have come across Bella -- and that we chose this company as our wedding photographer. Everything went so perfect!! All the hard work paid off.. so thank you with helping, it all turn out so great! From start to finish, the service was superb!! Everything Bella Pictures said they could do and would do was exactly what we received, plus more! If you're looking for stress free photography service.. you will get stress-free :)
Ron Griggs, you were and are an awesome photographer!! Very nice and just so easy to work with and talk to. We were very pleased to have been matched up with you.
We appreciated how Ron was flexible and willing to go with the flow. He listened to our wants and need but also had really helpful suggestions making everything fit together even better than we could have wanted. Ron never seemed to take a break making make sure he captured every little and big moment throughout the night. It was crazy how most of the time we didn't even realize he was taking pictures, but he gave us a sneak peak of a few shots - really cool! Even though we only had one photographer, the photos taken by Ron seem as though we had more than one. We are very pleased with the end result.
All the Bella staff members we 'met' along the way are definitely professional and responsive. I would absolutely recommend this company to anyone looking for a photographer.
Thanks a million to help make our special night even more special.
Take care,
Danielle and Casey
(Traveled from MI to Walnut Creek, CA for our 9/26/09 wedding)
my wedding was in april and i'm still working with them on the album, however, i will review the experience thus far.
the photography is where most couples put a good chunk of their budget towards...which we did, about 10%. we found that bella was pretty affordable. i did read previous reviews and was afraid of what the experience was going to be like, but I would have to say that ours was okay.
sales staff/coordinator: we wanted to go with the pricier package, but would only be able to do so if we could make 4 payments instead of 2. they were able to be accommodating on this. they have great samples of what their albums looks like which helped us see the styles of the photographer, as well as the finished product. i got a little bit confused about their promo, assuming we got 10% our package deal, plus an additional premier add-on, plus extra photo credit. she numbered them, so i thought we got all three, but in fact only got one. i felt like i got bamboozled.
once all the financial things were settled, we were passed off to our coordinator who we would be in contact with if we had questions. well, when I realized our day was 3 months away, i asked about the engagement photo session i thought we added as our additional add-on, but was disappointed when we "chose" to take the 10% off the package instead...it was a little confusing. so, i recommend being absolutely clear with the sales consultants.
i also felt like i had to initiate emails to find out who the photographer truly was going to be 30 days before the wedding (as promised) and when we would be doing the video montage, which was explained to us as going into a studio and reflecting on our day which a collection of our photos would be put together. apparently, all it is is background music and a montage of your photos...okay? once again, not very clear.
process: the wedding photo website was ready a lot quicker than i expected, which was definitely a plus. i've heard of other couples having to wait 2 months for their first peak. the website is pretty great and photos were pretty good.
photographer: the photographer we got matched up was good at his trade, however, with the timing of the day we weren't able to do things as planned. but, when is the timing ever perfect when it comes to weddings? i sort of wished he adjusted my veil or did a few things like that, but it may not be part of his job description.
bella did do the job, but i really wish i would have done as much research as i had with my flowers. i will update this review once i receive my album and dvd montage.
If I can save a couple from not going with Bella, I'll have completed my mission. Please, pre-wedding couples out there, save yourself the hassle of having to chase down one staff member to the next, to the next, to the next. Save yourself from dealing with incomplete promises and having the company blame you for poor communication on their end. Your planning days should not be filled with bombarding YOU OWE US $$$ emails without having any connection to them as they had guaranteed. And on the actual day, your photographer should be taking more pictures than that one friend that so kindly offered to spend his time doing it for free.
And couples, SAVE SOME MONEY - don't go with them! You're better off spending your thousands of dollars on photographers that will at least give you ONE printed photo! God Bless you and Happy Marriage!
I had a great experience with Bella. I was living in San Francisco while planning my New York wedding. They really made everything so simple and stress free for me. I was matched with a great photographer, got an awesome package, and my photos came out great. I got exactly what I asked for, really quickly, and they were beautiful. I got so many compliments on the online viewing system and on my actual album. People could not believe how quickly the photos were available to view and how quickly I received my album. I have friend who waited 6+months for their albums from other companies.
It's a month before my wedding and they still haven't contacted me with a photographer!
The coordinator emailed me two months ago informing me that they are "ready" to match me with a photographer but we just need to answer a few questions and grade a bunch of pictures to see what we like. What was the point of our consultation? Was our conversation just through out of the window? We've told them in the beginning what we like and don't like in our photos.
When we finally did answer those questions, we never got a response back. Was it our job to follow up with them to inform them we're done grading the pictures?
When I had an inquiry regarding the engagement session, i was told the earliest time they can book us is a week, yes a week before the wedding! And the prints won't be ready then and even though we book an earlier session, they still woudn't be ready for the reception. What the heck is the point of the engagement photos?
So we've decided to cancel our photography contract with Bella. And spoke to the consultant we first dealt with. The only thing I liked is that she does response very fast but she made it hard for us to cancel all this gibberish talk about not being able to find a photographer at this time, well you know what? We did and we're talking to the photographer himself! And she had the nerve to say that they have tried to contact me about the matched photographer. BS! Who tried to contact me? I neither received that email or phone call. You think something important as that will be ignored? Ugh. The only other good thing is that we'll get the whole refund in 21 days except for the $50 for booking them in the beginning.
Well my advise to all brides. DO NOT BOOK WITH BELLA!!!! As what another photographer said, they are just a walmart photography. No offense to walmart, in fact I like walmart! But if you want really good quality products, would you go to walmart?
We just received our pictures (on-line) after our wedding and are so happy! They turned out great!
So far Bella has done a great job. Our consultant is Heather Flores. She was awesome at our first consultation. She knew her stuff, and spent a long time getting to know what we liked. She showed us samples of the album we would have and we were IMPRESSED! Absolutely beautiful, and definitely unique.
We then had "homework" to do, which basically consisted of rating pictures on-line and filling out some questionnaires. During the 6 months between booking and our wedding, Heather was in contact with us via phone and email making sure everything was going OK, and asking if we need any assistance with our wedding planning.
We were assigned Heidi Huber early in December, which we were thrilled about! Unfortunately we did not get to meet her in person. My husband and I swear they promised we would meet our photographer in person, but Heather said that was incorrect. So far that's the only thing preventing them from getting all 4 stars. We were really nervous about not meeting Heidi prior to the wedding, but looking at her personal portfolio and having a few phone meetings helped.
The homework Bella had us do really helped pick out a perfect photographer for us. Heidi was a perfect match! The price of Bella is incredible for what you get. Having the digital Negatives included are a huge plus!
We received the pictures on-line 3 weeks after the wedding, and are now awaiting our digital negatives and to begin designing our album. Will update after it's complete.
Bella shot my wedding a few weeks ago. The photographers were extremely professional and were loved by all. They had two very different styles--one was more traditional and the other more eclectic and modern...this was perfect for our venue, which was elegant but had a great modern art sculpture garden. I saw some test shots on their cameras, and they were stunning. Magazine quality. Can't WAIT to see the photos (and video). I 100% recommend the Bella Pictures photographers. Even though it was the first time we met, it was a terrific match.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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3/11/2009
Bella shot my future brother in law's wedding last summer, and the pictures were beautiful...really… Read more »
I don't review too often, but I felt that I need to voice my disappointment in Bella Pictures. I met with Danielle for the consultation and was very impressed, but once I requested to meet the photographer earlier in the process (after I put my deposit down), Bella quickly sent my money back.
My question is, why can't I meet the photographer? Is it so bad for the wedding couple to meet the photographer 3 months before the big day? The second point was Bella's inflexibility to meet my request as I was actually leaning more towards investing in their services.
If you are ok with not meeting the photographer until later on, then Bella pictures is the place for you. If not, then don't come here.
I hope when I'm investing thousands of dollars into wedding photography, that I can meet the main person who will be taking the shots.
Based on the professionalism and photography (on the website, and seen in person with our consultant), Bella seems to offer a great price (starting at $2050). We did have some qualms about the whole not knowing our photographer until 90 days before, but it seemed like there were options if we didn't end up liking him or her. All that said, we are getting married on a budget, and we ended up finding another photographer we really like at a lower price point.
But definitely, if we had more $ to spend, we probably would've gone with Bella. Some of the pictures were amazing.
11/3 Update: The district manager, Natalee, called me to apologize for their consultant's tardiness and her way of handling our first meeting. After all is said and done, I am thorougly impressed by their customer service. Apparently, the consultant we met with was a newer employee, which makes it perfectly understandable as to what actually happened. In the end, I will probably get a friend to shoot the wedding, but I am pleasantly surprised by my ending.
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11/2 Post This is only a review of the meet and greet process ONLY. I think the photos look beautiful. They do offer a very basic 8 hour - $2050 photo shoot. Bella schedules a meeting with a customer service consultant first and then links you with a photographer based on your style - this is kinda of a contracting photographer business.
Our consultant meeting was with Dana in Sunnyvale, over email, we first scheduled a 12:30 meeting and then she wanted to reschedule an 11:30, I confirmed with her at least 2-3 times that we were meeting at the Starbucks at Wolfe and El camino.
We're waiting at the Starbucks for 20 minutes with no show, get a call at 12:10 - 40 minutes afterwards from Dana telling us that she just got done with a meeting and that she was actually at the Starbucks at Mathilda and El Camino.
The best thing - NO APOLOGY. NO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF HER MISTAKE. "I think I may have given you the wrong starbucks' THIS IS YOUR FREAKING JOB - shouldn't you do a better job of arranging meetings.
I would not recommend this company based on how they are organized. Find a real photographer who will hopefully have more professionalism than this company.
OK. The Albums clinched it. WOW! I mean WOW. Really, really well done Album (leather cover, big thick pages - velevet pouche and a box.)
Plus we got 2 parent clones which are huge themselves.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/31/2008
We booked Bella Pictures to shoot our 06/07/08 wedding in Pennsylvania. The thing I do nto like is… Read more »
I live in Belmont, but got married in Pittsburgh, PA. Bella was great because they had coordinators that could meet with me in CA (one of them came out to Berkeley to meet with me so I didn't have to drive to SF) for the pre-planning stuff.
My photographer was incredible. His pictures were so beautiful and I couldn't have been happier with them.
Also, you get all the digital negatives as part of the package, so you can upload the actual photo files online.
Just got my album this week, and it's amazing. I love it so much. And the album people were easy to work with during the process of making it.
Couldn't be happier! I highly recommend Bella, especially if you're getting married somewhere different than where you live.
My wife and I just got married a week ago and we went with Bella Pictures for our photography. They were awesome!
We decided to go with Bella because we really aren't experts in photography and didn't want to leave our decision up to just someones personality or their portfolio online. We wanted to go with an established company that guarantees their work 100% and would have a back-up plan in case anything went wrong...which is not necessarily something an individual photographer can offer.
Bella actually matches you up with their photographers based on what style you are looking for. Sure we didn't get to meet our photographers face to face until the day of the wedding but we spoke on the phone a few weeks before the wedding. Honestly just speaking to our main photographer reassured us that we had nothing to worry about. We got to see his work and learn about him so when we did meet we already felt like old friends.
We would recommend Bella to anyone that is looking for a great deal for the price especially compared to what other photographers are offering. You won't be disappointed!
A mixed bag. Pretty pricey, and you aren't guaranteed to get the most individualized customer service due to it being a larger company instead of a specific photographer. Don't get me wrong -- we have a lot of beautiful pictures to choose from, but this is the one area of our wedding that I keep wondering if we made the right choice for US.
One of my personal issues was probably with the role of the photography consultant. (Alas, I did not realize this until too late.) I hope I'm not being unfair to her, but there is a very corporate feel to not having your actual photographer be the one that you communicate with for most of the process. Ours was also in the process of getting married herself, so I sometimes wondered how personal our interaction really was. A follow-up significantly after the fact indicated that she must pay individual attention, but a number of rote phrases in our pre-event correspondences made it difficult to tell at the time. And then there was the photographer matching incident...
We were paired with 2 photographers, one of whom we loved (Ron Griggs) and one of whom seemed to be pretty wrong for us (Laena Brandenburg). Luckily, Ron was our lead photographer, so we got to interact with him more. Unfortunately, Laena was used to being the lead photographer on most of her jobs, so there seemed to be a bit of a clash of artistic vision at times. Also unfortunately, we didn't really realize that Laena was not a super match for us until we finally met her on the day of the wedding. The end result was a very large batch of photos (between 3 and 4 thousand), some of which were beautifully composed, catching funny and tender moments that really mattered to us, and others that were artsy, over-posed (in my opinion) shots in the same style of shots that we had seen and expressed dislike for in our matching interviews. Laena is a lovely person, and a talented photographer -- she just shot a lot of photos that weren't our style, and we didn't have time to follow her around at our wedding saying "you may recall that isn't one of the styles of composition we like..."
If you get a photographer that is compatible with your desired photography style, you are golden. If your match is mediocre (or if one of your photographers doesn't pay attention to your style preferences), then you will end up with a lot of very mixed pictures to sift through. (They aren't BAD - these are pros, after all. But you know what styles you like, and you know which ones you don't.) The plus is that you do get to keep all of your digital negatives -- and I do mean ALL of them. I will have to comment upon the finished wedding album at a later date, because that is certainly a different part of the operation.
Assess what type of photography you want to deal with for your wedding, what is important to you, and how soon you want to meet your actual photographer. If you are ok going through a couple of layers of communication before you hit the people with the cameras, then Bella will suit you just fine -- and yes, the photographers are definitely good. You can look on their website to see that much.
I met with Danielle and she was a spectacularly enthusiastic coordinator, but because (1) I didn't get the opportunity to meet with the photographer on the first visit, (2) my fiance had already found the studio he had preferred, and (3) I couldn't justify the uncertainty of not knowing our photographer(s), we didn't book with Bella.
Bella's style is to have a coordinator meet with you, learn everything there is to know about you and the wedding, then match you up with the photographer(s). They provide very clear time lines and price quotes. You just have to trust that you'll be paired up with the right photographer(s).
Our experience with Bella Pictures was excellent. Ben Davidson shot our wedding in August 2007 and did a fantastic job. Our photographers were professional, talented, and easy going throughout the day. The photos are absolutely gorgeous and continue to impress our friends and family. Ben perfectly captured all of the precious moments from our big day.
The Bella staff has been attentive throughout - Nicole, our photography planner, was always there to answer questions and steer us in the right direction when we needed help. We even received special attention from the sales office when we were selecting our album design. The start to finish process with Bella has been absolutely stress-free.
I would recommend Bella Pictures to anyone.
So far, so good. We've consulted and booked and I have to say that I am impressed. They have useful tools, knowledgable consultants, quality products, nice portfolios, and a decent price range. Bella is also bi-coastal, which was a must for us. We got a nice deal on our package since they run monthly promotions, and a very cool wedding website. It's way better than any of the crappy free ones on theknot or http://weddingchannel.com. I can't wait to send out my Save the Dates so people can get the site address and see it. It isn't without bugs, but it's a great added service.
More to come on Bella later; I am confident in them, but cautious in general. After all, if you wrap a garbage can in organza, you could probably sell it to any idiot as art.
:^)
My husband & I used Bella Pictures when we got married over Labor Day a couple of months ago in Petaluma, Calif. As we planned the wedding from Chicago, we were able to meet with a Bella sales rep in our neighborhood. That was really helpful. We also got set up with an AMAZING photographer who took AMAZING photos (Heidi Huber). We were very pleased and have recommended them to our engaged friends. Bella is very organized and thorough and reasonably priced.
IF I could I'd say I actually think I would give Bella 3 1/2 stars. Reason being, we met with Danielle, the consultant as well at a local Starbucks. She was awesome, seriously, to the point where I actually have called her a couple times because I knew she was getting married and she was so helpful that I even extended myself to help her or give her some wedding pointers. The Bella experience would definitely have been lacking without her being in our picture!
You know, getting married is so stressful at times, that sometimes I think people get into their Type-A clones to deal with it all. The truth of the matter is so much is out of everyone's control, even on a wedding day, that I think even if people did meet their photographers, doesn't guarantee they will still get whatever it is that they want. In fact, I think because I didn't meet our photographer until the wedding day, that I felt free-er to be directive about what types pictures I wanted! The prices were awesome and within our budget. And I especially liked how they did a lot of education for what makes a good wedding album, which I think not every photographer does. The language they used in being able to describe our actual photography preference was super helpful. Plus we liked that we had the option of having a second photographer and were even able to stagger them. The photographers who came were super professional and able to ask us a minimal amount of questions to avoid intruding in on our special day. Nothing's worse than having an emotional moment and having a photographer ask, "Look here please!"
And in the end we got exactly what we wanted: all of our photos on a CD as well as a beautiful Italian Leather Photo-album with, silver foil edges, our photo on top and our name written on the outside. It was beautiful and everything we ever wanted.
I had booked with Bella based solely on their price. It seemed like a great deal and this was the first vendor I booked (at the beginning of our 2 1/4 year engagement). I got a free engagement session for meeting with the consultant. They wouldn't tell us when the date for the session would be, I confirmed it would not be a particular weekend less than a month away and they assured me it would not. I made travel plans for that weekend and then they booked it for that weekend (this was to be a large group shoot with lots of couples and photographers so we could sort of shop our photographer). We were told we'd be booked on the next large session and then several months later they decided they wouldn't do other large sessions. We were given a free 1-on-1 (great for us since it was free) They booked us with a photographer who was new to the area and only knew the east bay. Looking at her portfolio you could see her first weddings were crap but that she was improving. We spoke with her and asked her for recommendations about where to go for the e-pics. We told her we were thinking Stanford since 1) we live close 2) DH's an alum. She told us Stanford wouldn't be good since the architecture wouldn't show up...total BS. She recommended Tilden park in Berkeley and we drove the hour to get there. The session was fine but she'd booked another couple after us not remembering there was a time change. We got good light but the next couple would have been ending in near dark. When I got the e-pics, there were a few that were ok, but not much that really popped. We selected one. I did some photoshop and we used it for our STD and people liked it...but I was disappointed by the number that weren't good. There were no close-ups of our faces, there were a number where she'd positioned me on higher ground than him or where we were akward or that were too far away to tell who we were. We also had hair in our faces that had to be photoshopped out...I would have expected her to tell us to fix our hair. The pics were OK, but not great.
I asked our consultant at Bella how to assure we didn't have similar problems on the wedding day and he said to have a family member watch out for all those problems because it was too much to ask the photographer to do. Um, too much to ask the photographer to make sure we didn't have hair in our faces or that we looked odd? Isn't that why we're hiring PROFESSIONAL photographers? My cousin Lisa can take normal snapshots, I'm PAYING for something extra!
As finances fell into place, I realized we could afford a little more and came to the Knot looking for recommendations. We hired Meg and Michael about 2 months before our wedding and after our wedding I'm so glad we did! Their care for the day was exceptional and they'll touch up and color correct the photos so I don't have to! They got there as I was getting ready and stayed all the way until the end of the reception (an 11 hour day) In the end since I was thinking of an extra photographer and extra time through Bella anyway, it wasn't that big of a price difference and I knew I was getting seasoned professionals. I didn't have to come up with a long list of must take photos because they knew. I didn't have to tell them what to do because they could see what needed to be done. It was such a relief to not have to direct the photographer. They were great
