Weintraub Photography

I went on here to check out reviews of this company because we got married 16 years ago and there was no Unilocal then. Was semi-​hilarious to see another reviewer from years ago who was also very disappointed in their experience. Today is my 16 year wedding anniversary. Sixteen years ago, we got married in Anaheim and had our reception at the Cheesecake Factory in Playa Del Rey. Our photographer was Laura. I remember because she said it was her birthday and I wanted to make sure she was ok doing a wedding on her birthday and she said she worked all the time on her birthday. Prior to our wedding, I had sent a list of all the different family members we wanted pictures with so we could plan to do this ahead of the ceremony so we could go to the beach between our ceremony and reception (it cost $ 150 for the third location). Laura said she was a make up artist so she would check my make up and do it for me before the ceremony which was great. Well, she and her assistant arrived an hour late. So I had already done my makeup because she was late and I asked her and she said, «It looks fine.» (I did it so my bad, but I had a white line in all the pictures from the foundation, so no it wasn’t fine). She yelled at all my sisters and told them to be quiet while she was taking pictures of me and their kids. She made all of us horribly nervous. To this day we still say «JUST MY VOICE» as a joke, not a joke, because she was so mean. During the ceremony I had to prompt her to take pictures of the kids handing out roses for Mother’s Day even though we told her about this beforehand. Because she arrived late, we did not get to do our family pictures before the ceremony. So the bubbles and stuff I bought for the going away, we couldn’t use it because we had to send our guests to the reception ahead of us. Then when she finished with our family photos, it was too late to go to the beach for our own photos. She said that was my own choice and I still had to pay for the $ 150 (or was it $ 300?) third location fee. After dinner, I asked if she could take pictures of us on the roof at least since we didnt’ get to go to the beach. When we got up there, my new husband had stopped to talk to his dad and so she turned to me and yelled, «WHERE IS HE???» Then we were supposed to take romantic looking pictures of us gazing at each other but what we were doing was discussing how scary she was. During the 20
minute toast she took pictures for 20 minutes of the solo groomsman giving the toast and really none of anyone else, so I got 20 picture of him. Because we didn’t get the pictures at the ceremony of my family members as asked we had to pay her $ 325 to stay for an extra hour to do that as well. After she left the wedding, I went around with MY OWN camera and took pictures. What bride has to do this? We have kidded around for years about getting our wedding pictures redone because it was such an awful experience. I am not actually smiling in them, I am grimacing because she was so mean. No bride should have to deal with that on her wedding day. I would also not pick someone who was unkind to children if you are having any in your wedding. Now that I have my own I can’t imagine a photographer yelling at me or them. I know this was 16 years ago, but it goes to say that if you pick a bad photographer, it will stay with you for a long time. Our pictures were okay but nothing special, and many were missing because she came late and ran out of time. Between the third location fee, the extra hour we had to pay, and the wedding album we had to pay about $ 3500 – 4000 and this was 16 years ago.

Awesome! Thank you Laura and James for making our wedding so fun and memorable! They were very professional and helpful from the first meeting to makeup to the pictures they sent. I rarely leave reviews but Weintraub Photography deserves 5 Stars.

I said I would never get married again but when I met the man of dreams, how could I say no and why would I? ! I was also fortunate that day in having Weintraub Photography capture every wonderful joyous moment of the party (we kept the ceremony private). Both Jim and Laura were there to snap candid as well as posed shots with all the special people in our lives. Each photo is a treasure! Can’t tell you how much I enjoy each and everyone — hugs, first time handshakes, smiles, tears of joy and wonderful laughter all captured for us to have forever (just as we have each other). Thank you Jim and Laura Weintraub! I highly recommend Weintraub Photography!

A Destination Wedding made of Dreams. My husband and I want to thank Laura and Jim for the most extraordinary wedding experience. Laura traveled to Playa Del Carmen one year prior to our wedding to help me plan and organize a magical affair. We met with the wedding planner at Alux, took photos and she had everything strategically planned. Laura made my bouquet of flowers. In April 2014, Jim and Laura came to Playa to coordinate and shoot our wedding along with our family and friends. Everyone loved the super duo team. My 89 year old mom traveled and she adopted them. Jim took gorgeous photos and made everyone feel cared for as did Laura. We had not a care in the world and Jim and Laura made sure of that. The photo album they made is unbelievable and so is the video of all the family activities and wedding events. We are forever grateful and we love you. Elisa & Gregg

We were married on 7.7.14 at the Wayfarer’s Chapel. With Weintraub being on the chapel’s preferred vendor list and a pleasant initial meeting, my husband and I decided to book them. James asked me to email him with shots that I wanted for the wedding as well as the list of entourage, and I did. But he never responded.
He showed up to my hotel room and didn’t really initiate taking shots of me getting ready. Thanks to my videographers who filmed the stuff we were going to use for the wedding. If not for them, I doubt that James and his assistant would be taking photos. Also, the reason why we paid for an additional photographer was for someone to take photos of the groom. But no official photographer took his photos until we were at the chapel.
Our experience with them was a NIGHTMARE! James was very rude to guests who were in the background while he was taking pictures as well as to the other vendors. I can clearly recall him almost starting a fight with one of the videographers. He came with a lame and lazy assistant who I caught was having coffee in the bridal room at the chapel while James was taking photos outside. When I stepped in, he was surprised to see me and took less than 5 pictures (upon my request) before stepping out of my room. He was there by himself when he was supposed to be working.
When pictures were being taken, there were no artistic poses that were asked. It was just, «look at each other». or «give each other a kiss».
We received our photos through email and they were really bad for wedding photos. The pictures were not edited. The exposure was not adjusted that the pictures at the reception with the guests came out dark. There were a lot of moments that were not captured.
I had to deal with them back and forth so they would hopefully fix the photos. But all they did was to turn photos to black and white or sepia or something! They are so bad that I still get sad when I look at them. We are still trying to find other professional photographers who can edit and fix Weintraub’s job!
PLEASE DO NOT HIRE THIS TEAM ON THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT OF YOUR LIVES!
James, I’ve read your responses to people who have given you bad reviews. You tell them to identify themselves. You know who we are and you know how you ruined our day as well!
Good luck to you and your business!

20 years later and I’m still upset about my wedding photos. Weintraub attempted to appease us, but I can NEVER get those missed memories back. Everything that S.E. From Texas said 4 months ago was the same issue I had 20 years ago. Photos of me getting ready, moments with the bridesmaids before the ceremony, etc. Random photos at the reception rather than meaningful photos. To this day I STILL tell people how awful my wedding photos turned out. There were shadows in all of the photos taken inside the church before the wedding, and then the veil covering the table on the stage in the background was on the floor in all the photos after the ceremony. Unilocal didn’t exist back then, but I decided after looking at a friends wedding photos and how beautiful there were, I thought I should share my experience with Weintraub. Bottom line is make sure that you get what you want. Don’t be like me and still be upset 20 years later!

I have removed the part about profiting on the photos because James is correct, we did get the digital prints. That was my bad. I also want to say that the prices we were charged were very reasonable in the wedding photography business. However, I remain unsatisfied with the other aspects of the photos. The purpose of this website is to be able to anonymously caution others. I am not trying to slander or extort anyone; I just want potential clients to be aware of the things I wished I was aware of. Also, Unilocal has a messaging system and James is free to message me that way to ask any further questions so that I do not have to expose my private information.

My husband and I are very pleased we went with Weintraub Photography. Laura and Jim have near 30 years of experience and know what they are doing. The best part about this husband-​and-​wife team is the fact that they are a photographer and hair/​make-​up artist pairing. Since we opted for both photography and hair/​make-​up services from them, Laura was able to do touch-​ups all throughout the day. Generally, your hair/​make-​up person leaves after prepping you, unless you pay them for the whole day, but since Laura is also Jim’s right-​hand woman, she’s there to provide touch-​up services as well. Talk about a bonus!
In our package, we got hair/​make-​up preview, engagement photo session, Henna night photo session (which we had the day before), my hair/​make-​up on the day of and 9 hours of photography. We found this to be a great value! Jim is definitely a character that keeps things lighthearted and fun. Laura is the business-​savvy counterpart that keeps things on schedule, while also playing your «fairy godmother» to make sure things go smoothly.
We are so excited to see our photos… can’t wait to see what magic they created :)

Wow! Jim’s passion for wedding photography really came through for us on our wedding day. We received our wedding day photos a few weeks ago and they are spectacular. If you are getting married in the South Bay I would highly recommend Jim as your professional photographer. Jim has years of experience and had shot wedding photos at our church several times. He knew just where to find the special places for romantic background scenery. My wife and I were totally at ease on wedding day knowing that Jim was systematically capturing every moment with his own artistic style. My wife and I were able to place our trust in him because of our pre-​wedding «engagement» photo session near the Manhattan Beach pier. This pre-​wedding session gave us a chance to see his work in person and become comfortable with his style. I give 5 stars for Jim’s photography, but 4 stars overall because of two annoyances: 1) we did not appreciate the hard sell we received for spray-​on make-​up that my wife did not end up using, and 2) the web-​based photo hosting site was hard to use.

Everything went picture perfect. The photographs were amazing and captured all the love and emotions of the best day of our lives. Thanks for capturing all the aspects f our day.

Stunning work was done by Jim Weintraub at our December wedding. He and his assistants were polite, non-​intrusive and were on-​site and snapping photos even before we (the wedding couple) arrived. Don’t hesitate to book your event with Jim and his team!

James Weintraub… you are truly amazing! Last weekend we had the time of our lives seeing our daughter getting married and you were so professional and exceptionally organized! Your lovely wife Laura, did my daughters makeup and the rest of the bridal party and including the mother in laws and I felt 10 years younger!!! I really loved how you interacted with us before our daughters wedding as well! We are so happy and thrilled that you have captured timeless moments. When I flew back to New York, my husband and I bragged about you our family and friends and you will for sure get more referrals. We have destination weddings coming up in the spring!
I highly recommend the Weintraub photography team! Fun Love Laughter all the way to midnight!!!
Sincerely

My Husband and I just got married in October this year, we received all 1,100 pictures last week they were Stellar! My Husband and I were so stunned! Our Wedding was so Beautiful & Romantic we couldn’t of asked for a better photographer, Jim captured all the Romantic memories of our day, he took Beautiful pictures of our Wedding party & guests & amazing Shots at the Wayfarers Chapel to the wedding reception, Jim & Laura’s Photography is so Talently creative, he didn’t miss a shot! I give him a perfect 10! Not only is he the Best photographer, this man is dedicated to your wedding day like it was the 1^st one he shot, and he makes you feel special like it’s just you and your hubby in the world for the moment. Jim & Laura are the cutest couple they work together so well, with the Glam Package we chose, Laura and Jim came out to our venue where the girls & I were getting ready, Laura & her partner airbrushed the girls faces, all the girls were so impressed by her work. Laura did some amazing pre-​bridal shots, that my New Husband was so happy to see, (for his eyes only shots) Laura makes you feel so comfortable as if you known her forever, she is so sweet, she helped me tremendously get ready for my BIG Day! If I know of anyone in the future that is getting married or just wants to have family pictures, I highly recommend Weintraub Photography, & Classy Chic Boutique by Laura. You defiantly want your Big Day to be captured in the moment, what Better Photographer to do it!
The Memories are so beautiful & will always remain!
Thank you Jim & Laura…

Last week, our nephew came to visit from out-​of-​state and we showed him our 21-​year-​old wedding album, which is a work of art and a family heirloom. Weddings by Weintraub did our wedding long before Unilocal existed. Jim Weintraub is an extremely talented photographer and a master at putting his subjects at ease. Laura Weintraub used her artistic eye to help us build a beautiful album which tells the story of our wedding day. We were on a tight budget but photography was a high priority. The results were worth every penny, and their artistry has stood the test of time.

What a blast!!! Our family recently had photographs shot here at the Weintraub Studio. James and Laura are very cool people to hang with. We were expertly guided in our session. The creativity was definitely happening and the resulting photos are to-​die-​for!
Visit the studio. You will feel instantly at ease. Every portrait displayed will have you thinking, Wow, these are amazing, they are really good, I want to do something like this one, or maybe this one over here… Any description in mere words would not do the photos justice. They’re Stylish. They’re Hot! I definitely recommend paying a visit.
I am so impressed with these very talented people!!!