Sorry if this is long, I need to get it out of my system.
We had our photographers narrowed down to two. #1 was more artistic and creative but honestly seemed a little disinterested in whether we booked him. #2 was more classic and seemed really excitted about shooting our wedding. They had some specific sunset/overlook shots that I loved and I told them I really wanted something like that for our engagment session. They said no problem. They gave us a long speech about how important it was to them to shoot our wedding our way and reflect us as a couple. We bought it and after a lot of discussion we booked #2.
Before sending in our deposit, I talked with the photographers on the phone and asked them about how their engagement sessions went. How long, how many locations etc... They said that there were no restricitons we could do whatever we wanted. Great, I sent in the deposit.
Now fast forward to setting up the engagement sessions, I told them I wanted some downtown Austin shots and some overlook/sunset shots. I get an email back saying that we can do the downtown shots but not the overlook/sunset shots because it was to much. I return the email saying that the overlook shots were more important to me than the downtown shots, can we work something out? (I didn't care if we dropped the downtown shots). They respond that we can do the overlook shots but only if I pay an additiona $200. I wasn't really excitted about this but I agreed because those pictures were important to me.
Now, it's the weekend of our engagment session and suddenly the price is increased from $200 extra to $400 extra. We we balked at the changes in price the photographers got upset. We offered other suggestions like 1 photographer instead of 2 or 30 min instead of an hour, etc... They said they would talk it over and call us back. No phone call but I got an email saying they were no longer willing to photograph our wedding.
I am so frustrated that they canceled on us the day before our engagment pics. I don't live here and had to travel here for my pictures. Not to mention we spent money on hair cuts/highlights (for me), nails done etc... I think it was really unprofessional to not only repeatedly change the price from our original agreement and then sent an email instead of calling us. Ugh.
Sorry for the long vent, thank for letting me get it out.