Hello ladies!
So I am writing basically because I'd like to sort of update my vendor review on my photographer because I don't want anyone booking her on my initial recommendation based on what's happened since.
So our wedding was January 16. The timeline we agreed on was within a week, she would send us a slideshow of 30-40 of the best images edited and ready to be used for thank you's, announcements or whatever we needed. Two to three weeks later, we would receive a customized DVD with a photo show plus all of our images completely edited. We paid her in full the night of the wedding and had a wonderful day with her so everything looked great.
Fast forward three months and we have not received our photographs. The one photo I have as my thumbnail is the ONLY photo we have received from her and it was one she sent to me on Facebook. In mid February she told us that her computer had crashed and she lost all the work she did on the editing so she had to start over and that was the reason for the delay. She ignored all of my emails for a month and finally emailed me on March 27th (I can only assume she finally emailed me in response to seeing my FB post asking people if they had any information about taking wedding vendors to court or something like that) saying she sent our DVD out and we should receive it in a few days. She told us the reason for THIS delay was because the second shooter had taken so long editing his images from the wedding. Which is sort of funny because both she and the second shooter told me at the end of January she had been given all images from the wedding. I waited five days and after getting no DVD, I began emailing her asking what address she sent our DVD to so we could ensure she had the correct address since we hadn't gotten anything. Since then we have gotten no response to any method of communication, she has blocked my ability to contact her via FB and clearly we have not gotten the DVD that the post office swallowed I am sure.
I'm not bashing anyone, I'm not calling anyone names. I'm giving an honest review of what happened because I reviewed her very highly at the time and have had a few girls ask me for her infomation and I do not want to be responsible for causing someone the same heartache we are going through at the moment. My thinking here is that when her computer went down, our pictures went with it and she's just stalling on telling us this. I can't think of any other reason for this. The thing that complicates this and hopefully explains why it's even worse is that this girl happens to be one of my sister's best friends and someone I have known for over ten years - in other words, someone we felt we could rely on and trust and not just some shady businessperson who is screwing us over.
When I was planning my wedding, everyone told me there are several areas that you can skimp on but that photography was the one area that you absolutely could not be cheap, cut corners or try and save your budget. To all you girls out there planning, please please please trust me. Do NOT cut back on photography. Do your research on your photographer, make sure they have a good reputation for delivering their goods. We actually didn't get off all that cheap for our package but I guess the other lesson here is don't mix business with frendship because you never want to have to sue your friend for not delivering on their business!