Hey ladies! I am trying my best to stay positive about everything WR, but recently I got some "devastating" news. To begin, I interviewed several photographers, including my favorite out of Texas who was willing to come to KC and shoot my wedding w/o charging me travel fees instead of staying locally in Texas. I opted against her b/c she is a little over budget for us. Instead, I chose a photographer with a great personality, and I feel that FI and I had great chemistry with her from the get-go. I originally wanted someone that could provide 2 photogs, approx 8 hrs WD coverage and cd w/ printing rights, e-pics w/ cd & rights and an option for "affordable" bridal portraits. A lot of the photographers I met with did not have the engagement cd included with any of their packages, but offered it 'a la carte' from $500+ depending on the photographer.
I explained all this to everyone I "interviewed" and no one seemed to have a problem with negotiating their original package deal. I even expressed this importance to the photographer we finally picked after two months of searching. I got all the pricing information (or so I thought) including their hourly coverage, albums, prints and STD's. The only thing not included was the cd with engagement prints. We just had our e-session a week and a half ago and LOVED every hour of it. (Two and a half to be exact). FI and I both looked and felt great the whole time, and I feel the "bond" we created with our photographer got so much stronger. I became more and more exciting about her shooting our wedding. When we were done with our e-session, I pleeded with our photog to send me information about getting our images on cd so we can share them with our family. She said she'd send the information when she got home.
I was really excited to open the email, but was quickly disappointed when I saw the ridiculous figures they came up with for their "a la carte" cd's. For the maximum amount of pictures (60 images with only TEN in high resolution) they want $1,999!!!!! 40 images with only SIX in HR $1,499!! Holy crap! How the heck did they come up with these numbers???? We're already paying $350/hour and have invested about $1500 in them already. My first thought was, call the photog and beg her to give ME MY money back and lie and say the engagement was called off. I am so upset with myself for choosing who I thought was so awesome and was thrilled to work with. To even use 'vistaprint' or some other site for our STD's, we'd have to purchace the individual rights to each photo we choose. So, now we're kinda' stuck with using their STD's, which thankfully aren't tremendoulsy expensive. But still - I am really upset about how much it will cost us if we really want our e-pics. What are they going to do with them that they would cost that much?? They're pics of ME and FI - why can't I have them for a reasonable price?? UGH!!!!
This was the one vendor choice we were willing to splurge on since the photographs and video are the only tangible memories to pass on - but this is way outta' hand.
Thanks for reading - if you made it this far. What would you do????