film conversion Chaos to Memories - what to expect when working with chaos to memories

What to Expect When Working with Chaos to Memories

Working with a professional photo organizer is a first-time experience for most people. Here’s a quick preview of what to expect when you’re ready to bring your project to Chaos to Memories.

Trusted Experts

Our founder Adam Pratt has been scanning photos for 30+ years, worked at Adobe for 22+ years, and wrote the book (literally) on organizing photos. Adam has developed industry best practices that our expert staff use every day to preserve and organize client memories. In addition to our technical excellence, we also treat our clients and their memories with the privacy and confidentiality they deserve.

film reels digital conversion

Free Assessments

If your project is large, complex, or unusual, please bring or ship (FedEx or UPS) your memories to our studio for a free assessment. Our knowledgable staff can identify formats, estimate quantities, suggest priorities, and answer your questions. There’s no pressure and no strings attached.

Getting Started

When you’re ready to move forward with your project, we need three things from you: your photos or movies, a signed contract, and a 50% deposit. It takes less than five minutes to complete a new project form and our team will be ready to take in your project.

Dropping Off or Shipping

If you’re visiting our studio in person you can drop off your project at 122 N. Hale Street, Wheaton, IL, 60187. We’re open weekdays from 10am-5pm and we look forward to helping you get started.

If you’re too far or too busy to visit us in person, then follow our tips to ship your memories to our studio. When your shipment arrives safely, you’ll receive a personal email from us confirming that your memories are in our care.

Progress Reports

Most projects are completed in 1-2 weeks and we’ll notify you by email and text message when we’re done. If your project is large or complicated and it takes longer than 1-2 weeks, then we’ll communicate with you by email along the way about our progress.

Security and Safety

Family photos are priceless and irreplaceable, so our clients want to know we’re taking care of their precious memories. Our studio is secured with individual access codes for every staff member, multiple realtime video cameras, and 24-7 remote security monitoring. We care for your memories like they were our own.

Review Sessions

Sometimes a project requires a review session for things like photo organizing details or album design approvals. If needed, we’ll schedule your review session and are happy to meet with you in-person in our studio or remotely via web conferencing. We will work with your schedule, location, and preferences.

Project Completion

When we’re done your project we’ll notify you via email and text message it’s ready for pickup. The email you receive will include your invoice with the balance due which you can pay online ahead of time or when you pickup your project.

Project Pickup

You can pickup your completed project from our studio weekdays from 10am-5pm. If those times don’t work for you, just let us know and we can schedule an evening or Saturday pickup appointment. When you pickup your project you’ll pay any balance due and receive your completed project. If you need somebody else to pickup your project, please notify us ahead of time so we know we can release your project to another person.

how to ship photos safely - chaos to memories
shipping boxes in front of the memories sign at Chaos to Memories

Project Shipping

If you’re not local, we can ship your project back to you via FedEx. We pack your memories safely in a plastic bag which protects against moisture, and place everything in a sturdy cardboard box. We include extra insurance on your shipment and we keep backups of your digital files just in case something happens in transit.

Follow Up

When your project is complete we hope you’ll enjoy, share, and backup your memories. Photo Backup Best Practices

If you have questions or feedback please contact us. If you love what we did for you, please add to our growing list of 5-star reviews. Your feedback helps other people find Chaos to Memories and it’s encouraging to our staff. 


Interested in working with Chaos to Memories?

If you’re near Chicago and ready to get started, come visit our Wheaton Studio Monday – Friday, 10-5. Please bring your memories with you.

Contact us for more information, shipping instructions, and to get started on your project.

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