Sears

[brubeck]

I actually joined the Smilesavers plan last year when I wanted to get photos done for Christmas Cards. The sitting fee for the entire family was $15, so I figured that if we did it twice (once each year) we paid for the membership, and I have taken my daughter back a couple of times since (including one time where I didn't like any of the photos so I left without paying a cent and Sears didn't bat an eyelash).

The cards were nice and I was also able to use a coupon (available in Oct-Dec) for 10 free cards. They come with envelopes and everyone loved them.

[vsmommy123]

I remember when I first started getting portraits at Sears something of theirs said the size of a 5x7 was slightly different - which I thought was to accomodate that particular size to the sheet. Well this time I measured all of them and they are all 1/4" small in each direction. That is too much! If the backdrop on the photo is light it isn't so bad but if you chose a dark one it looks cheap. I think nobody says anything because a)they don't actually frame them or b)don't want to upset me when I give them the pictures.
I am thinking through my options for next time. I did see a Picture People store in the mall near here (Shops at Mission Viejo, CA) and there is NO CHANCE my dd would be able to do it - the "studio" is facing the glass walled front of the store. And there were lots of people waiting in the front waiting for their turn. No thanks!

[MinnieMouse]

If it's anything like our Picture People...that isn't the only studio there is at least one if not two more in the back in separate rooms. Just request to use one of the back ones, that's all.

Christine

[suzska]

I think part of it depends on which Sears location you go to. Although I believe the coupon for the package "special" clearly states that it is for the "first accepted pose." Which is why I go for the portrait sheets instead. We've never had our stroller along, but I don't think it would have been a problem to take it inside.

The girls we've had taking the pictures have always been very patient. For my son's 1st birthday pictures, the first girl had trouble getting a good pic, so she called in a second girl to take over, hoping she had better luck getting him to smile, etc. And she did. They even let us take a little bottle break when it was obvious my son was getting fussy and thirsty. They took 15 shots until we got 6 good ones--6 is pretty much the max, although at Christmas we had 7 shots, but could only pick six for the proof sheet (which was okay since one of them wasn't really that good).

We have always been able to pick out which ever background and props we wanted. We even used our own teddy bear in the Christmas pics because it was a gift from my MIL to my son. And they let us take as long as we needed to afterwards to pick out the sheets/poses we wanted.

--Sue B.
SAHM to Evan Jeffrey 03-11-01