Nalu Photos

This photographer is a scammer. We had a terrible experience with Tonya Ellis of Nalu Photos. We were planning a destination wedding in Maui last May and had hired Tonya as our photographer. She seemed great at first through email and on the phone before the wedding as we worked out the photography details.
Then out of nowhere, she stopped responding to me and answering my emails and calls. This went on for over a month with no response. Finally she responded and made up some story about why she hadn’t responded. We gave her another chance then the same thing happened… over 7 weeks no calls or emails back.
Then I began researching on the internet and actually found other people that had the same experience. She scams people. Her previous name is Tonya Fiala and originally did photography in San DIego, CA, where there are numerous civil lawsuits against her from unhappy clients she scammed. Most people had the experience of her showing up to the wedding to receive the rest of the money, taking pictures, and then never receiving their pictures. Some people received these pictures once they threatened her with legal action, then she gave them «some» of their pictures and they were not good pictures even.
When we found this information, we wrote her a letter demanding our deposit back due to her unprofessionalism. She ignored us until we threatened legal action. Then she lied… again…saying that she was closing her business, etc… again more lies (after all she is still operating). Eventually she promised to pay us back our full deposit but only offered a payment plan as she had already spent our deposit. Once again… a lie. She completely stopped responding and never ever paid us back after months and months of us trying to get our money back from her.
Luckily we had an amazing photographer at our Maui wedding, but we still were out our money we gave Tonya. DO NOT go with this photographer if you want good photos and to get your photos after your wedding.

This photographer is really strange! She is a decent photographer. She showed up to my wedding on time and does her job at the wedding but after the wedding she disappears! It’s really strange! I thought perhaps she had a full time job doing something else and this was a side business? I didn’t get my wedding photos for 7 – 8 months after the wedding and this is after multiple, multiple attempts to contact her. She teases you along the way saying she will get them to me. No word for months then she emails me saying that she moved to a new place. She then mails me everything after 7 – 8 months? Some of the photos were really good, some mediocre, and a couple not as sharp as i’d like them to be. Really wierd. I’m just glad I got my wedding photos!