To summarise, our photographer is a flake and hasn't been overly professional. Part of me was wary in the beginning, but she was nice and got me to relax in front of the camera, which isn't easy, so we went with her.
Her work is very good. However, she has been a PITA to deal with for the past few months -- from just before the wedding, continuing through the 6 - 8 weeks since.
Examples include us having to purchase a guestbook the week before the wedding because the photo guestbook included in our contract with her wasn't ordered in time and didn't ship in time... simply because she forgot about it. On the day of the wedding, she spent half the time flirting with one of our guests, and other guests complained about having to see her underwear hang out of her pants every time she wasn't fully upright. We also have a LOT of videography footage showing her just standing around, eating our hors d'oeuvres and chatting away, rather than taking photos (she was tasked with taking candid shots during the remainder of cocktail hour, after we finished our posed shots on-site).
A month or so after the wedding, she told me she'd be leaving to go on vacation for a few weeks, and that would delay the editing of our photos. I asked how long a few weeks was so that I could adjust my expectations and let family members know who intended to purchase photos, and she replied with, "a few weeks." When I asked when she would be leaving, she told me she was leaving the next morning. Apparently, the trip had been booked for months, but she didn't feel the need to tell her clients until the day before, and wasn't telling anyone when she would be returning.
A couple of weeks ago, she returned and told me the edited photos were ready on a USB, and we could pick them up and give her final payment. I've spent the last 2 weeks trying to coordinate a date with her, and it's been a headache and a half. Hubs and I have been totally free every evening this week, save for one, and are more than willing to come to her. Our only stipulation has been that we need 24 - 48 hours advance notice because we need to withdraw money from a bank account that requires us to go to an actual teller on a weekday, during regular business hours, and we need to make time in our workday to do that because we can't do it after work or on a weekend. This has proven to be an impossible task because the photographer has been flaking on replying to my e-mails for days on end, despite going out with mutual friends, updating her FB page with other people's wedding and engagement photos (indicating that she's clearly working currently), and having previously indicated that she's awaiting my response on which days work best for us. If you don't know what works for you, that's fine -- just send me an e-mail back saying, "My schedule is really up in the air right now, so can I get back to you on [this day] when things calm down?"
When she does finally respond, it's clear that she hasn't read a word I've typed because she always agrees to the opposite of what I've said, or doesn't understand why we need so much advance notice. Today, she actually told me, "You should be able to just walk into the bank and get money on the spot." Um, I'm fairly certain that you shouldn't be speaking to a client in that manner. I shouldn't have to justify where we're getting the money from, or how we're getting it; the fact is that we have it, we need to get it, and we need to give it to you and get our photos in return. Just answer my e-mails (or pick up your phone when I call you!!!) and pick a freaking day!
Ugh. End rant.
Edited because spelling is hard when you're angry.