Lifetime Images FAQ

How long has the company been around?

Lifetime Images was established in 1997 by Steve Schlesinger. Steve photographed his first wedding in 1986 as a freshman in college. In total it’s estimated that Lifetime Images has done more than 700 weddings, with exceptional track record of quality, innovation, and customer service.

What locations do you cover?

We cover most of metropolitan Southern California. Our primary focus is on Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Inland Empire regions.

Do you travel?

We’ve been to Maui, Mexico, and Las Vegas to cover weddings. We have passports and our bags are packed!

How many images do you take?

It varies from wedding to wedding, the range is between 1000 to 3000 images.

What is your style of photography?

We call it the perfect blend of elegant portraiture and photojournalism. We know how to take charge in order to get those important family portraits done quickly, yet we are very fun, and laid back when it comes to the rest of the day. We don’t stress you out with too many requests or too much time away from guests. We have enough experience to know how to be in the right place at the right time. We are very against corny, overdone cliché images, and we discovered a long time ago the best way to make sure you look like you’re having a good time at your wedding is to make sure we do everything possible to make sure you have a good time at your wedding.

How do your packages work?

We believe that if we are going to take on your wedding day, we want to do the job right. We build our packages around ample hours of coverage.

We try to keep the packages lean and mean so that you can get the very most for the lowest price we can offer. Do you really need 400 4x6 pictures from your wedding? No? Then why pay for them?

We offer a wide variety of packages. Currently we offer the lines of five different book and album manufactures. What’s great about this is that you can see a lot of different options with one visit to our studio. When you see us, you will have a good understanding of what is available in the market right now. And when you are ready to place your album order, you are free to move around from one package to another if it fits your needs better (for an equal or greater value).

We have evolved from only offering a couple albums choices. Before your wedding, wedding photography is an expense just like anything else on your wedding day. We found that people are mostly concerned about getting the right kind of coverage for their day, and a package that they can afford. After your wedding, the images take on a new meaning. You can see exactly what you have to work with, and it’s at this point that all the album and book packages make more sense. With the day behind you and the images in front of you , you will want to more carefully explore your options.

You get help- We’ve been doing mainly wedding photography, fulltime, for many years. You get the benefit of selecting the images for your album or books. Yet, at the same time we have worked on so many projects that we can really help you make your wedding book or album look stunning. We can help you with selecting images and offering ideas about things that you may have not thought about. It’s having the years of experience that can really take your book or album layout to the next level.

What are your prices?

Our lowest priced package is $1500. We currently have seven packages that range in price from two to three thousand dollars. When you take into account style, experience, and what you get for each package, our packages are an outstanding value!

Do we get high resolution images with the packages?

The majority of the packages we offer include the high resolution images in the package.

Do we get two photographers?

Two photographers is an option for any package we offer. But, let's make some clarifications. What does two photographers mean to us and what does it mean to a lot of our competitors? To us, two photographers mean two skilled, trained photographers who have experience in wedding photography. To a lot of our competitors, the primary photographer is usually a bit green themselves, under equipped, and inexperienced. The second photographer is a safety blanket. They are usually completely inexperienced, have no clue what they are doing, and ultimately aren't worth the cost to feed an extra vendor. Our belief is that we don't have warm bodies come to your wedding to pretend to be photographers, hit on your bridesmaids, and eat your food. This isn't in your best interest.

When we meet with you, we'll work with you to make a gamelan that makes sense for you. If your wedding will be better served with two photographers, we'll make it happen! The second photographer from us will be a fully trained, experienced photographer, not a warm body. People who get to this level of photography usually beyond needing to go to weddings to gain experience. They need to be fairly compensated for their time and effort. Thus they aren't a free addition. However, if you really need a second photographer, and don't want to pay extra for one, we have people contacting us all the time who need experience. We cannot promise what they will do, or how good they are. But, it's free so what they hey?

Where are you located?

Twenty miles east of Fantasy Land! We are right outside of Yorba Linda in a south western corner of Chino Hills.

How do your payments work?

We take Visa, MasterCard, cash, check, money orders, PayPal and Monopoly money. When you sign up with us there is a $500 non-refundable retainer that is applied to the balance on your package. There is another $500 payment due two weeks before your wedding. There is a $1000 payment due two weeks after your wedding(for all packages $2000 or more). The balance of your package is due when you place your final order. If your package includes the high resolution files, you get them when your package is paid in full. You have 60 days to turn in your order. We charge sales tax.

What is required to reserve our date?

We require a $500 retainer and a signed contract. We provide you the terms and conditions at any point so you can review the thrust of the contract. We do not hold dates for anybody for any reason without a signed contract.

How do we start the process?

We advise coming in to meet with us as soon as possible. If you live out of town/state and you aren’t going to be in town for a while we do have some other options available to you, please call to discuss them. Now, when you meet with us, we won’t breath down your neck to sign you up. Sometimes you need a few days. As a courtesy, we can block your date for a few days. Unfortunately, we’ve had more than a few situations where people met with us, and wanted to sign up, but got busy, and by the time they got around to it, their date was gone. We hate when this happens, so we advise you to please not delay.

When you decide to sign up, all you will need is a signed contract, and the a $500 retainer. One month before your wedding your package needs to be half paid off.