Photographer Rant - When am I getting my pictures!?!

nskaplan

I got married on September 18th and we had a destination wedding in Punta Cana. My MOH’s sister is a photographer and we had asked her if she can be our photographer for our beach wedding and willing to pay for her full trip down for the whole week – 7 nights. She happily agreed to it. A few months later getting close to the due date of final payment for the trip, she told us that she couldn’t do the whole week because of her other job and she would need to talk to us about “prices”. I was a little upset by this because we were paying for her whole trip; airfare, stay, transportation, food and beverages including alcohol (except souvenir expenses) which was about $1700. When I asked her how much she usually charges for weddings, she said a thousand dollars which was totally over our budget for a photographer. To make this story short, we ended up paying $1200 for her to stay for 3 nights and she ended up charging us an additional $800 – All together 2K. Today, I have only received 3 teaser pictures (which she posted on Facebook about 2 weeks after our wedding) and that’s it. The last time that I had physically seen her was at my MOH’s house at the end of October and she said that she was half way done with them. I just messaged her this past Saturday asking her how the pictures are coming along and I can’t wait to see them and her reply was “I’m almost done with them but I’m a bit behind which is a good and bad thing. I know everyone is been waiting to see them”… I didn’t reply back. In the meantime, she’s been posting all kind of other wedding, engagement, baby, senior pics – you name it. I know she’s been busy but I just get more frustrated when I see her posting new pictures and it’s going on two and half months and we paid all this money for her. Plus, I’m practically family according to my MOH and I would really hate if I mention something to her to tell her sister to get a move on things – I don’t want to cause drama. My husband is now getting pissed and I’m becoming more impatient because we wanted to give photo albums to our parents as Christmas gifts. What do I do? Do I ask her again this weekend how the pictures are coming along? Should I say something to my MOH? Can I ask her if we can get them by a certain date – or even the ones that are done. I’m just super worried that we don’t get them in time for Christmas.

kaitlynmichelle

Did you sign a contract with her? I really hope you did. They are supposed to protect you and the vendor for problems like this. Did she ever in writing indicate when she would give you the photos?

sarawifenow

Did you sign a contract with her? If so, I would start there. Is there a turn around time in there?

 

I wouldn't mention anything to your MOH about this. Think of the sister as a vendor. You wouldn't have a vendor's sibling talk to them for you.

 

I would definitly mention that you are wanting the pictures for Christmas presents. I would say something like, "Hi photog, I know you said you were working on the pics and they are almost done. It has been 2 1/2 months and we are really wanting to get the pics back in time for Christmas. Is it safe to assume they will be available by x date?"

nskaplan

@ sara - We did sign a contract with her. I forget where I put though but I'll search for it tonight. I'm still at work, blah. I'm just curious, if it says 6-8 weeks till we get our pictures - can we do anything or get any money back? I'll leave my MOH out of it then. I'll send the photog another message in a few days if I don't hear anything from her and say what you recommended. Thanks Sara!

novella1186

sarawifenow said:

Did you sign a contract with her? If so, I would start there. Is there a turn around time in there?

 

I wouldn't mention anything to your MOH about this. Think of the sister as a vendor. You wouldn't have a vendor's sibling talk to them for you.

 

I would definitly mention that you are wanting the pictures for Christmas presents. I would say something like, "Hi photog, I know you said you were working on the pics and they are almost done. It has been 2 1/2 months and we are really wanting to get the pics back in time for Christmas. Is it safe to assume they will be available by x date?"

This. I actually had to fire my photographer cuz she was my sister's best friend and there were some red flags popping up. I decided to hire a photographer that I wasn't linked to in any way because if shit went wrong, then it wouldn't also make things awkward. 

Don't get your MOH stuck in the middle of this. Just be honest with the photog, and save all the e-mails between the two of you in case you need to use them as proof of things that have been said/promised. 

dcbride86

nskaplan said:

@ sara - We did sign a contract with her. I forget where I put though but I'll search for it tonight. I'm still at work, blah. I'm just curious, if it says 6-8 weeks till we get our pictures - can we do anything or get any money back? I'll leave my MOH out of it then. I'll send the photog another message in a few days if I don't hear anything from her and say what you recommended. Thanks Sara!

If you get the pictures eventually you won't be able to get all your money back, but you likely would be able to sue her in small claims court and get some of it back.  If you never get the pictures, you should be able to get your money back.  But I hope you get the pictures!!!

LadyMillil

dcbride86 said:

nskaplan said:

@ sara - We did sign a contract with her. I forget where I put though but I'll search for it tonight. I'm still at work, blah. I'm just curious, if it says 6-8 weeks till we get our pictures - can we do anything or get any money back? I'll leave my MOH out of it then. I'll send the photog another message in a few days if I don't hear anything from her and say what you recommended. Thanks Sara!

If you get the pictures eventually you won't be able to get all your money back, but you likely would be able to sue her in small claims court and get some of it back.  If you never get the pictures, you should be able to get your money back.  But I hope you get the pictures!!!

I had a problem getting my pictures from the photographer, and even getting any form of communication from him after the first few weeks after the wedding. We paid 2/3 of the cost before the wedding with a delivery date of 3 months after the wedding. When the pictures didn't arrive and the photographer stopped responding to any form of communication we pursued legal action. I live in Canada and I'm not sure where you live, so the process might be different for you. We had to wait an additional 30 days after the contract deadline before we could pursue legal action against the photographer. We lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. They followed up with the photographer. The ministry contacted the photographer and listed off all the things that could happen if he doesn't respond which includes hefty fines and jail time. The photographer had to either give us the photos OR refund the money to avoid the penalties, and the final payment would be forfeited for failure to fulfill the contract. If the photographer didn't respond to the ministry then we would be able to go to small claims court. We did get the photos after the ministry contact, we did not pay the final 1/3, and we did not have to go to small claims court. I was married 7 months before receiving my wedding photos, so I know how much this sucks for you. Good luck. 

princessleia22

I would let her know you wanted them for Christmas gifts and give her a hard deadline, of like Dec. 15 or something.  I know a lot of people (myself included) are more willing to put in the extra late night hours to finish something if there is an actual deadline, as opposed to someone just wanting them quickly. If there is an actual date, I will stay up all night to finish a project, where if there's no date, I will take my time and finish it whenever it gets finished.

Also, I don't see any problem with asking for the ones that she has finished already.  If she really done have it mostly done, that should include enough to do your photo albums for Christmas.