Just wanted to give some info i wish i had before booking my photographer. My husband and i used Patken photographers. Our actual photog was great. He helped so much the day of. He did miss a crucial family pic that i hadn't even realized till i got my proofs. (but like i said, i didn't catch it either till it was way too late.) That wasn't the problem. Our problem came when dealing with the actual pictures. prints, album and digitals.
Thank yous came pretty quick and did come out great. Our loose prints tho, problems. They didn't print the pics the way we wanted. (ex: if the proof was black and white and we wanted color, they didn't print it correctly.) When we wanted a particular pic in size 8x8, they printed it 8x10 and didn't call me to tell me they were making the change. When i told the girl it was the wrong size, she told me "well it's probably because it didn't work in that size" and i said shouldn't you have called me to tell me that before printing the picture. And she said "no". Really? cuz thats what i paid for. They also printed one of our pics for the parents in the wrong size. I had to wait 3 weeks for a replacement.
After placing our order for our album, we were told it takes 16-20 weeks to actually get the album. Meanwhile, when you go in to meet them and talk about pricing, they give you this whole song and dance about how they do their own printing and it's fast. Well that's all a lie. They are horrible about calling you back to answer questions. And when they tell you they will call when the prints are ready, it's also a lie.
The digital pics, don't expect those for a year after your wedding. My wedding was July 2010, i'm not getting mine till August this year. Would much rather have paid only for digitials and no prints or albums from them and printed them out myself on snapfish or shutterfly. would have saved hundreds.
We're still waiting for our album. going on week 17 of waiting.
Our friends who got married 3 weeks after us used them too and are now having the same problems we are.
Use caution if you intend on using them for your photograpers. We chose not to do video.