Numerous couples across southern Ontario who hired the same company to photograph their weddings say they were scammed by the owner.
The victims claim they were manipulated and defrauded out of thousands of dollars by Jacqueline Poole-Montesano, a Barrie-based photographer who advertised her services on Instagram and Facebook under the company name Pink Champagne Photography.
Poole-Montesano is a well-established photographer, with over ten years experience, multiple brides who spoke to Now Toronto said.
Michelle Meades, a former client of Poole-Montesano, told Now that she booked the photographer after seeing her social media ads.
“I hired Jacqueline in July of 2022. She was giving out this great deal, $3,000 for 10 hours, 1,200 photos. You know, I was quite impressed by that,” Meades said.
But the first of many red flags popped up after Meades says Poole-Montesano cancelled her engagement photo session in June of 2023, citing health issues.
Later, at the rescheduled shoot, Meades says Poole-Montesano was “complaining about her health,” and was “very sluggish,” which she explained was consistent with the photographer’s Facebook posts at the time, “she was always sick [or posting about] some sort of problem,” Meades told Now.
About a month after the engagement shoot, Meades sent an email to Poole-Montesano inquiring about who the second shooter at her wedding would be, but Meades says Poole-Montesano responded saying she would not share any details until she had been paid in full.
Meades, a paralegal, who knew she would be breaching her contract if she did not pay, sent the remainder of the fee.
But, after the final payment was made, Meades says communication began to break down between her and the photographer.
According to the bride, Poole-Montesano was very slow to respond to emails and seemed to misunderstand Meades’s request for a wedding day shoot itinerary, so the bride had her coordinator step in.
Meades said her coordinator sent the photographer a template of an itinerary as an example.
After a week of silence, Meades says her coordinator followed up over the phone and across multiple platforms on numerous occasions, until they finally received a response around mid-August. But, instead of answering their request, Meades says Poole-Montesano responded with a three-paragraph statement refusing to work with her coordinator.
“She was saying I was ridiculous, and that she has a personal life… and this is ten days before my wedding,” Meades told Now.
This is when Meades and her now husband decided to formally part ways with Poole-Montesano, by this point they had already hired another photographer.
“I messaged her back with a legalese letter, just saying we don’t have faith that she’s going to fulfill her end of the contract…because of her non-communication, she was breaching her contract,” Meades explained.
“We offered, without prejudice, to settle and go our own ways if she gave us back $2,500 of the three grand,” she continued.
But Meades says Poole-Montesano refused to return the money and did not show up to photograph their wedding despite pocketing the cash.
“She emailed back very quickly after [the legalese letter] and said, basically, go f**k yourself,” Meades told Now.
MEADES DISCOVERS MORE VICTIMS
During the ordeal, Meades turned to a bride’s Facebook group to warn others about Poole-Montesano. At the same time, Meades’s coordinator reached out to professional contacts who had worked with the photographer in the past.
Meades says her coordinator was advised to “hire someone else immediately,” by a former colleague of Poole-Montesano, who also happened to be Meades’s videographer.
It was around this time when Meades met Chayla Sequeira on Facebook, another bride who had been swindled by the same photographer.
Sequeira recalled a similar story to Meades.
She told Now that Poole-Montesano was initially communicative, but became unresponsive after booking, which led to missed engagement photos.
Though Poole-Montesano did photograph Sequeira’s wedding, according to the bride, she failed to deliver on her terms of the contract.
After plenty of back and forth and despite paying $4,899 for 1,200 edited photos, Sequeira and her husband received thousands of unedited images seven months after their wedding.
According to Sequeira, while attempting to obtain her wedding gallery, the photographer employed manipulative tactics, claiming she had health issues, she even threatened suicide, Sequeira says.
“She was posting on social media, like, all these personal things. She’s not well, or she’s going through a divorce, or she had to sell her house…I was like, ‘OK, she’s got a lot going on,’” Sequeira explained, so she cut the photographer some slack.
“One month passes, two months pass, three months, four months. It’s past the deadline of our photos that we’re supposed to be getting at that point,” she continued. So, Sequeira reached out to Poole-Montesano but did not get a response.
Earlier that year, Sequeira said she received a text from the photographer asking her to leave a positive review on Google as there were multiple negative comments from previous clients.
“Aside from the engagement stuff, I didn’t really have a problem with her…she showed up to my wedding,” Sequeira said, adding that she agreed to leave a review.
At the time she and her husband booked Poole-Montesano, her Google review page was closed, so when Sequeira went to leave a comment, she says it was the first she heard of the photographer’s poor reputation, prompting her to dig into Poole-Montesano’s past.
“I found a wedding wire forum, and my face just went white. And I thought to myself, oh my God, I’m dealing with a crazy person.’ I’m like, there’s no way, people are going through the same things,” she said.
Cut to seven months later, having trodden carefully around Poole-Montesano, Sequeira says she received what resembled a wedding gallery.
However, instead of 1,200 edited photos, which is what the couple had paid for, they received over 3,000 unedited photos, many of them poor quality, and later noticed all the family pictures taken during cocktail hour were missing.
“She was making it seem like she gifted us all the pictures, [by sending more than they paid for],” Sequeira explained, so she proceeded to email the photographer outlining all the clauses Poole-Montesano had broken in her contract.
“I laid out everything she breached. Our entire contract. We were supposed to receive a USB stick. We never received a USB stick in our package. We were supposed to receive two highlight reels, a three-minute and a 10-minute video from her,” she said, none of which were delivered.
When she questioned what the photographer had provided, Poole-Montesano pulled their entire gallery, Sequeira says.
Later, she gave back 1,200 photos to the couple but “cherry picked” which ones Sequeira and her husband would receive, according to the bride.
The couple ultimately turned to their second shooter who kindly provided them with pictures they had taken.
Sequeira said the second photographer was their “silver lining.”
Upon discussing their shared experiences, Sequeira and Meades discovered countless couples who had allegedly been duped, scammed and led astray by Poole-Montesano.
Another bride, who chose to remain anonymous, told Now she was promised professional wedding and engagement photos by Poole-Montesano, but never received her engagement photos or trial photos despite paying a deposit.
She also says Poole-Montesano’s social media presence totally disappeared in August of this year and that after multiple follow-ups, communication went radio silent.
Nonetheless, she and her husband took out wedding insurance, which covered their losses.
A videographer, who also chose to remain anonymous, and worked with Poole-Montesano on numerous occasions, told Now that Poole-Montesano made a habit of double and triple booking wedding weekends and of not paying her staff. The videographer also described her as “very vindictive,” and “very last minute.”
As of today, she owes him money for three weddings that he worked, he said.
Last week, another alleged victim of Poole-Montesano, Gisella Sarmiento, who has also been in contact with Meades about the scam and claims her wedding album is being withheld by the photographer, told Now Toronto that she had been in touch with her bank “to report the e-transfers of payment to Jacqueline,” in an attempt to get her money back.
Sarmiento says she was informed by CIBC that the funds she sent to Poole-Montesano were “intercepted,” and sent to an unassociated email consisting of numbers and letters.
Sarmiento said a fraud representative told her that an interception means someone could have hacked the recipient’s account. However, Sarmiento says Poole-Montesano sent her a screenshot as proof of receipt after sending the payment.
The bride said she has called Halton police every week for the last month for updates on her case.
“They tell me they’re back up and someone will reach out to me soon,” she told Now Toronto in an email on Tuesday.
This past Thursday, Sarmiento also received an email from Poole-Montesano saying Pink Champagne Photography had filed for bankruptcy.
“With heavy hearts, we must share that the weight of circumstances has forced us into bankruptcy. Jacqueline, in the quiet of her home, is navigating the storm of personal trials,” the email states.
It concludes by saying that Poole-Montesano plans to return to photography in 2025.
Now Toronto reached out to Poole-Montesano for comment more than once, but did not receive a response.
MULTIPLE POLICE REGIONS INVESTIGATING
Several victims say they have informed police about Poole-Montesano’s alleged fraudulent actions, while Meades says she was initially told by authorities her case was a “civil issue.”
Now Toronto reached out to Durham, York, Barrie, Halton and Waterloo police forces, where multiple brides say they reported Poole-Montesano.
“A number of complaints have been received by our service, however I understand that efforts are underway to resolve the matter,” Barrie police told Now.
Meanwhile, York police say they are also investigating.
“I can confirm that there is an investigation involving the person in question, however, as it is still an ongoing investigation, we cannot provide any further comment regarding the matter until it is completed,” a York Regional Police spokesperson told Now.
Halton police said it has received multiple reports regarding the alleged scam.
“A number of complaints have been received by our Service, however I understand that efforts are underway to resolve the matter.”
On the Contrary, Waterloo police said they had no record of Poole-Montesano’s case.
