Testimonials
THANK YOU!!!!! You and your team were amazing. Everyone at the wedding couldn't
stop talking about how great you were. Thank you so much for working so hard and
capturing everything.
We just got back from the honeymoon (which was really awesome) and I just wanted to pass
on to you that everyone in Prague was so impressed with the photos. They're all very
artistic types and they couldn't stop praising your talents as a photographer.
So I thought you would like to know.
— Chelsea and Matej Novak
I finally finished sorting through the 2600 professional photos I got from our
photographer, Varia Lebiadzenka, who travelled with us to the Mayan Riviera to shoot
our wedding on Jan 26, 2007. Varia did such an amazing job that I really struggled
to cut it down to a reasonable number of photos to show.
— Amanda and Nick Rae
Many thanks for the professionalism you showed during the ceremony.
Your dedication and love of your work were evident to everyone present.
— Debbie Powell
Hello Varia, wanted to thank you again for Sunday! You are so much fun to work with!
I absolutely can't wait to see the pictures!!!!!!! I am sure they are beautiful!
You have such a great talent! It has been a pleasure getting to know you a little and
having you do our photography! Take care and so looking forward to the results!
— Sharlene Daniel
Hi Varia,
I know Sylvia sent you a message already, but I wanted to tell you myself what a great job
you did with the photos. I never doubted the pictures would be worth it in the end
though, and they're terrific.
— Claude Flint
Questions: Joyce
Answers: Chelsea
C: Hi Joyce,
Thanks for your message. I really can't say enough good things about Varia, but I will
answer your questions one by one.
J: Did you find her prompt in her responses to your inquires?
C: Varia has always been very prompt and professional. She's excellent about writing
back to e-mails and returning phone messages.
J: Did she provide your photos in a timely manner (within 30days) after the wedding was done?
C: She was really great about this. We needed our photos very quickly as we were going to
my husband's home country six weeks after the wedding. She had proofs for us in good
time (I think three weeks) and got our photos printed in time for us to bring our
photos with us. She also gave me a sneak preview of some of the photos just a week
after the wedding. I found her to be fantastically accommodating to our time constraints.
J: Did you find she was scrambling/ looking for places to take photos during the time
photos were suppose to be taken?
C: Not at all. We did our engagement shoot in the same location as our wedding, we also
scouted the location with her to talk about locations. She was able to see backgrounds
and locations that I wouldn't have imagined would work, but they were fantastic.
She was also very good about taking our suggestions for backgrounds.
J: Did you find that your timetable or schedule was behind due to the photos being taken?
C: Varia did a good job of keeping to the schedule. When I showed her the shot list that
I wanted, she told me how long that would take. That way I knew how much time it would
take to get all the shots that I wanted. She's been a part of more weddings than I
have been, so I relied on her expertise in terms of how much time I should allot.
We also talked about when some shots would be best to do. Once we had that determined
it was easy to put that time into the schedule and we totally kept to it.
J: Was she able to take formal/ tradition family portraits without problems while other
guests were also trying to take photos?
C: We did all the posed photos and the formal family photos before the ceremony,
so there wasn't an issue of other people being in the way. I would imagine she
would work very well with it though.
J: Did she or the second photographer interactive with the guests, or were they unobtrusive?
C: Both Varia and her assistant were completely unobtrusive. They only interacted when they
needed to (like during the formal photos) but otherwise, they were largely invisible.
Most of our guests commented on how they didn't notice the photographers either.
J: During the wedding did you notice either photographer?
C: I didn't notice anything but my husband during the ceremony. She got some amazing shots.
I don't know how she did it. Every time I look back at the photos I remember exactly how
I felt at that moment in time and that is more than I could have hoped for in terms
of photos. They really told the story of the day.
J: Did you like the type of pictures taken of your wedding?
C: I love them. And my family loves them too. When we visited my husbands family and showed
them the photos, they loved them (and they're very picky artistic types). They were exactly
what we were hoping for. We opted largely for documentary style photography, so that we
could get shots of people being natural, being themselves. The results were awesome.
J: Did you like the quality of pictures taken of your wedding?
C: Absolutely. They were the right style and selection, very well composed and focused.
J: Did you think the amount of photos taken were sufficient?
C: Amazingly so. We had so much to choose from.
J: Was she on time in arriving for any meetings and or for the ceremony/ wedding?
C: She was. If she was ever delayed for a meeting, she always got in touch in advance to
let me know, but she's very punctual.
J: Did you like the way she conducted the direction of the picture taking?
C: I was very happy with it. She kept everyone comfortable. She got amazing photos of
people who don't enjoy having their photos taken and didn't waste time.
J: Did you get any prints made from her and did you like it, and if any, did the touch
ups looked natural?
C: She has done all of our prints for us. She was very timely about it and it was really
important to her that they look great. And they did. I didn't see the raw files of the
shoot, so I'm not sure how much, if any, touch up work was done. Everything looks great
and everyone looks natural, so if she did touch ups, then she did them really, really well.
J: Were there any unexpected expenses that was incurred?
C: None. Everything was exactly as we laid out in the contract and anything we did on top
of it (the engagement shoot or prints) was exactly as Varia and I discussed.
J: Did you find that she listened to your ideas? That those were incorporated or was it
mostly her ideas or recommendations that were applied?
C: She was very open to our ideas and did a fantastic job of making them work. It was really
important to her that we have the shots that were important to us. I was also really
pleased when we tried some of her ideas. They worked out really well. I think we had a
good balance of the two.
J: Would there be anything that you would change or recommend for her to do next time?
C: There was one shot that I didn't think that I wanted and she asked me a couple of times
if I wanted to do it, but I said no (it was a shot of me with my train fully unfurled),
not thinking it was important, and she was totally right. I should have gotten that shot
and I was silly for not listening to her. But that wasn't because of anything that was h
er fault, it was me. She was perfect.
J: Would you recommend her to other people?
C: Absolutely. And I do as much as I can. She's got a fantastic eye, she's so easy and pleasant
to work with and she works so hard to make sure that you're getting what you want.
She gets how important a wedding is.
Questions: Joyce
Answers: Chelsea
