Sara Carlson Photography

Sara Carlson Zollinger Photography Review

TOTAL SCAM, believe the negative reviews. Before my lengthy review, I want to point out that Sara changed her website domain and social media all from “Sara Carlson Photography” to “Sara Zollinger Photography” because she has scammed enough people and decided to re-brand. I have a feeling she will continue to rebrand to avoid accountability. Her maiden name is Carlson and Zollinger is married name. If you search a combination of these names you’re likely to find her. Throughout my experience she blocked me and changed her website URL and email address so it’s worth noting if she ghosts you like she did to me.

Negative Google Reviews: just google “Sara Carlson Photography”
New website with zero reviews: https://thesarazollinger.com/
New instagram handle: sarazollinger_

I want to note upfront my story has a happy ending but ONLY because I pursued legal action. I hired Sara a year prior to my wedding (she had great reviews then) in Idaho, we signed a contract, I paid the 40% deposit and said we’d connect a couple months before my wedding. A month prior to my wedding I reach out to her to connect, get to know her, go over timeline, etc. and I couldn’t get ahold of her. I called, left voicemails, emailed and no response. I started to freak out and googled her website (saracarlsonphotography.com at the time) and that’s when I noticed all the terrible reviews of people saying they got scammed by her and she never showed up or never gave them footage. My wedding planner finally gets ahold of Sara after a week and Sara explains she’s been through a hard personal time recently but confirms and reassured me for the wedding. My friend used Sara for her wedding and completely vouched for her and recommended her. Since I’m only 3 weeks from my wedding I decided to stick with her and give her the benefit of the doubt. Important note- our contract says I was supposed to pay the full amount on wedding day but since so many reviews said they never got their footage after wedding day, I decided I’d pay the full amount when we received the footage. BUT, Sara never asked for the balance prior to or on wedding day.

Sara shows up on wedding day and truly was incredible! She was clearly a professional that had done this before, knew the awesome shots and was prepared. She went above and beyond shooting over the time that we had agreed upon. It was a great experience.

A week after the wedding I check in with her via text and she says that the video should be ready in 3 weeks, that’s perfect because that’s when we get back from our honeymoon. After the honeymoon, I text Sara and she says the wedding video (I only hired her for video) is almost complete and should be in my inbox in a couple days. She also says I have a balance due and requests that I send that over. I tell her I’m happy to send the final payment to her once I receive the footage since I hadn’t seen any footage at all (not even a preview). I tell her to let me know if this is an issue and we can talk through it. This is late October 2019 and that’s the last time I heard from her.

For the next 3 months, I reach out to Sara in EVERY channel. Literally. I text, call, leave voicemails, Facebook message, Instagram message, email, I even found that her day job is at High Valley Dermatology in Idaho Falls and I call there and leave voicemails. She doesn’t respond to ANYTHING. Completely ghosts me. My mind is obviously spinning, there’s no way I can re-do my wedding footage. In my messages I explain I’m worried about her and want to make sure she’s okay. If the video is too much work I’ll just take the raw footage I say, whatever is easiest for her. No response. I’m truly worried about her. But then I see her posting on Facebook about a romantic getaway with her boyfriend and selling puppies and now I’m pissed because I know she’s blatantly ignoring me. She lists her cell phone number to buy a puppy and I confirm it’s the same one I’ve been calling and texting. I realize she’s blocked my number and blocked me on social media. She took down her website (http://saracarlsonphotography.com/). I continued reaching out via email and text to say she’s breached our contract (content had to be delivered 8 weeks after wedding day) and she’s intentionally being negligent. At this point I’ve been consistently reaching out to Sara for three months straight.

I read every google review and one lady said they didn’t get their content for a year and then they sued Sara and got it all. I found this woman on Facebook and messaged her and she walked me through the legal action they had to take against Sara. She also told me to document every effort I made to reach out to Sara to provide to the court to show her negligence. I didn’t want to sue Sara but she wasn’t responding to any of my efforts. I was terrified my footage was lost or deleted or corrupted. She had done the hard part and taped everything, all she had to do was send it to me. It made absolutely not logical sense to me.

I had a lawyer write an official breach of contract letter to Sara and sent it certified mail to her office. I emailed her and told her if I didn’t get a response by January 15th 2020, then I’d be forced to pursue legal action. Just one response is all I wanted. Nothing. At this point myself and my family members had reached out to her over 40 times through various channels and never gotten a response. (I had other people call her since she blocked my number)

End of January 2020, my husband and I filed a Small claims civil lawsuit against Sara and had her served by a Sheriff. The day she got served she IMMEDIATELY emailed me from a completely different email address. ARE YOU KIDDING! She said she was waiting for final payment. Bullshit. I was always happy to pay I just wanted to see proof of footage. At this point I still have zero proof of any footage at all. Legally, she has 21 business days to respond to my claim and then we go to court. You think she’d be proactive and send me footage right away but she dragged her feet. She tried sending me all the raw footage digitally but couldn’t figure out how to send such large files. I had to remind her she had 5 days before the 21 days was up and she FINALLY mailed me my footage on USB drives.

Thankfully, all the footage was there and it was beautiful. I had to hire an editor to cut a wedding video but I dropped my claim against Sara. As soon as I dropped the claim, she unblocked me from all social media and I noticed she has a new website domain and company name https://thesarazollinger.com/
There’s not an option to leave the new website a review on google, but I want people to know she is a scammer and not to hire her! I went through so much stress, anxiety and true emotional trauma due to her. She shouldn’t be able to have a business and continue to scam people and ruin their special days or moments. Her business should be indefinitely blocked. She is clearly running from enforcements by changing her business names. If I can prevent others from having to endure the heartache and stress I went through than it was worth it. DO NOT HIRE HER. I’ve read so many reviews from people that never got their footage and I know the only reason I got mine was because I sued her. She needs to be held accountable. She doesn’t deserve to capture your moments on film or through photo.

I don’t think I can publicly share her email address and phone number but reach out to me if you have a hard time getting ahold of her. I have an entire document on her multiple email addresses and mail address for her home and office. More...

Check out their google reviews and ignore the ones suspiciously posted on the same day and from friends

While Sara was great to work with during our wedding our experience post-our big day has been frustrating and disappointing. She has been terrible at responding. Our wedding was in July 2017, it is now November 2018 and we’re still waiting for the rest of our wedding photos. She claims she hadn’t received our communication efforts but I have all our emails and Facebook messages saved so can prove I have indeed been attempting to contact her. More...

Sara is very talented. She was easy to work with and helped us out a bunch on poses. She made the experience very enjoyable. Very much looking forward to seeing all of the photos :) Totally would recommend her to anyone seeking a photographer for any life event! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Sara was seriously incredible!! She was so much fun and so friendly, she worked with us so well even after a situation came up and we were late for our session. I am so so happy We got to work with her and look forward to doing so in the future! More...

Reviewed on Facebook