Alaina Kozak

This woman is genuinely evil and has an insane (public) track record. She’s still scamming (clients & other photographers)
She still owes photographers money, will come up with crazy excuses to why she can’t make it to her own retreat or styled shoots just a day or two before the scheduled retreat. Alaina will stalk and harass people for speaking about her wrong doings. She has contracted photographers to associate shoot for her and will ghost after not paying them a dime. She has faked her own death with an obituary she sent out to people herself to get out of her issues

the entire experience was a 0/10.. I do not recommend anyone attend or purchase a ticket for Alaina’s retreats after what we all went through this last month in Utah. I was SO excited to attend my very first retreat, We all asked very specific questions about how many photographers would be at the retreat and she stated 7 every time and in every single post she made about the retreat. Turns out it ended up being a total of 12 photographers and that was only the first lie. Said she forgot how many attendees she previously agreed to.

We were told to sleep 3 to a bed. She had 2 extra people who she stated were the “ makeup artist “ and “ assistant “ but they were just two more extra photographers that didn’t pay like the rest of us did. Coincidentally they were also her best friends and the same people who controlled every single shoot, did not move out of the way for the people who actually paid for the retreat.. I’m talking FRONT and center everytime. She completely skipped over one of the styled shoots she promoted for ticket sales. Let's not even get started on the mood boards and the inspiration for each shoot and outfits were very much off and not similar to what was advertised. They couldn’t get the model zipped up in the jumpsuit and her entire back half was out and she looked so uncomfortable and crying they did not care that it didn’t fit whatsoever. The host was never around, they would leave us at the air bnb for 6+ hours at a time to do their own shoots without us. The group activities and outings that were promised as well never happened. Alaina had a 15 person van but we had to Uber & Lyft everywhere eventually to actually have some fun together.
After we all (finally) had a conversation together about the concerns we were having the entire time, she cried and blamed us. We thought it ended on good terms until she made a post being rude and petty after we all left today to go back home. From the very beginning he vibes were just completely off, Alaina didn’t speak to her attendees or greet us.

Therapy

This is a long one so bare with me. Starting off the experience I reached out to the host to get a schedule multiple times before one was finally sent over. The schedule that was provided did not included addresses, meeting times, or anything of value they simply just stated "Sunrise Windmills" etc. Since I was coming from all the way across the country I was hoping for at least times and addresses for locations so I could plan activities and sight seeing opportunities while I was there. We never received those set times. We were told the night before each shoot (usually around 10pm-12am) where we were going to be going, what time we had to wake up (usually around 3am-4am) and what time we had to leave. This was highly inconvenient but we made it work anyways. When I arrived to the airbnb I was greeted by someone sitting at the dining room table. I said hello not realizing who I was talking to. The woman that greeted me was the host (Alaina) I was shocked when she told me her names as I stalked her social media on the plan ride over making sure I knew who I needed to talk to when I arrived. All of the photos she posts of herself are outdated and look nothing like her (not the biggest deal, I know but still). Moving forward. We all decided we would skip a grocery run the night we arrived and would do it the next day after our first shoot since we all just wanted to relax. On to the next day we all did our shopping separately, none of us were told of any allergies in the house to we just shopped as we normally would. Come to find out one of the attendees is deathly allergic to peanut butter and I bought PB&J. As soon as the attendee told me of her allergies I tossed everything out and cleaned everything thoughouly but this could've been avoided as we were asked about allergies when filling out or questionnaires prior to attending but the host never shared this info with ANYONE. The same attendee was also allergic to dogs and the host brought her dog and had it in the Airbnb with us and at all of the shoots. The next incident was at one of our locations. The host and the owner of the property has some sort of miscommunication. This resulted in the owner of the property not knowing we were going to be there. Letting us know we were trespassing. He was nice enough to give us an hour with the location since we were all there getting set up. Finally were at the end of the tip. Its the last night we all go to bed. We wake up the next morning and the host, her assistants and one of the attendees were all gone. Stuff gone and things NOT CLEAND UP. After putting 2 and 2 together 3 of the girls and I realized we were left alone to complete the check out process. This included cleaning up after the host, picking up after other attendees and making sure the checkout protocol was followed. We were very close to just leaving it as is since it would've been the hosts problem but we are nice people and didn't want to leave a mess for the cleaners/Airbnb owners. Overall the shoots we as described but the experience itself was not and was not worth the money by any means. After attending I learned a lot of concerning things about the hosts past. This being said I DO NOT RECOMMEND attending any of this hosts events in the future.

A location we went to was not confirmed. The owner of the property contacted us through the security cameras asking us why we were there stating they had no bookings for us. They were nice enough to let us stay but this could have been much worse for everyone involved as it was private property.

The host should take the time to pln better and double/triple check with all locations prior to arriving to make sure we are okay to use the space. The host should use updated headshots of herself so people know who the host actually is. The host should make sure all attendees are aware of allergies in the group. The host should inform people if she will be bringing her dog(s) along on the shoots on in the lodging.

I had originally bought tickets to this retreat and was SO excited. Then, I went on Facebook one day after already having paid and saw horror posts about Alaina kozak being arrested, with her mugshot, for stalking. I was scared. I also saw brides from weddings she worked with horror stories. Past attendees too talking about how she scammed them, stalked them, made them uncomfortable. At that point, I was too scared to go to the retreat. I didn’t want my name associated with her. So I messaged her, explained why I felt uncomfortable, and asked if I could get my money back. She was extremely rude, kept my money, and then told me I’ll be hearing from her lawyers. I still haven’t. Later on, I found out she was hosting this retreat during probation after her arrest.