Some Staten Island brides are among nearly two dozen people who say they've been scammed by the same wedding photographer. They sat down with our Lisa Voyticki for a story you’ll see only on NY1.
After paying thousands of dollars, Bulls Head resident Lisa Quinto has no photo album and no video to remember her wedding day.
"He stole the little girl inside of me's dreams," Quinto said.
All she says she has are thumbnails of shots taken at Fort Wadsworth and the Excelsior Grand last November.
"People are having fun. I told people to keep their cameras down and enjoy the moment, you know," Quinto recalled. "Have fun because the photographer was supposed to be doing the pictures."
The photographer, Jorge Valdivia of Mirage Artistic Photography, had rave reviews online for the first half of 2016.
But after her wedding, Quinto had trouble reaching him, and so did at least 20 other couples.
"He just ended up blocking me and I could never get in touch with him again," said one husband from Grymes Hill.
Valdivia ran his business out of a building in Bellville, New Jersey.
When brides couldn't get a hold of him, they flooded the DJ who operates in the space with frantic calls.
"His numbers were disconnected, his emails were bouncing back," said Jack Bermeo, the owner of LJDJS.
The brides connected on Facebook after reading each other's complaints online.
They estimate Valdivia collected close to $100,000 for projects he never completed.
After several attempts to reach Valdivia, NY1 eventually found a working email address, so we sent him a message.
And much to our surprise, he responded and admitted he was wrong.
"I have not reached out to any of them because of the embarrassment I feel about their stuff," wrote Valdivia. "I have started to work a full time job and money's I am getting from there will be going into providing them with their albums and finished videos...in the next few weeks."
The state's Division of Consumer Affairs said five complaints are under review.
Michael Schulman and his wife are coming up on their one-year wedding anniversary.
Their parents keep asking for their photo album.
Voyticki: What have you told your family?
Schulman: Nothing. They don't know about this. So, Mom and Dad, this is what happened.
NY1 will continue to follow this story.