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New York-Hudson Valley
Help- I hate my wedding pictures
We got married a few weeks ago and a couple of days after we got home from our honeymoon our photographer sent us the link to the online gallery.
We hate our pictures! At first I thought I was being too picky so I let them settle in, but I hate them more and more each time I look at them. Every time I look through I find more things that she missed and just how bad they really are is revealed more and more. At this point I feel like I am going to cry when I look at them. To make matter's worse, we paid a small fortune for this photographer and to think about the pictures we received and the amunt we paid makes me feel sick.
What should I do? Or could I do?
We hate our pictures! At first I thought I was being too picky so I let them settle in, but I hate them more and more each time I look at them. Every time I look through I find more things that she missed and just how bad they really are is revealed more and more. At this point I feel like I am going to cry when I look at them. To make matter's worse, we paid a small fortune for this photographer and to think about the pictures we received and the amunt we paid makes me feel sick.
What should I do? Or could I do?
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Re: Help- I hate my wedding pictures
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Honestly, no one is going to be 100% happy with every detail of their wedding. If your photographer blatantly didn't take a picture that you specifically requested, or if the pictures are of poor quality and not what you had seen of her work beforehand, I would contact her. Otherwise I don't think there is much you can do.
There are pictures I'm sad we don't have - but after a couple of months you kinda forget about it. If you feel like you photographed poorly - maybe you can ask her to do a "day after" shoot with you and your husband in your wedding day attire so you have some good shots of you and your dress.
And remember, you don't need to love every photo - hopefully you can find enough that you do like to make an album.
There are no pictures of me waiting with my dad for the church doors to open and walk down the aisle and there are only two of me walking down the aisle and both are bad.
There are no pictures of my parents together and only one of me with them.
There are only 3 pictures of my husband watching me walk down the aisle. All three are identical and are from an angle that all you do is look up his nose.
We have no pictures of our entire bridal party together because the photograpger only took 5 to begin with and all of those are useless because there are sunspots all over people’s faces and/or someone is looking away. I know that some people think sunspots are creative and sometimes they are, but not when they completely block out someone’s face! I don't know why she didn’t check her shot to make sure everyone was looking at the camera.
There are tons of pictures of mundane things like a close-up of a single water glass on a table, a close-up of the back of a chair, and a close-up of one random melted candle.The assistant was extremely lazy. She was with my husband and his groomsmen gettig ready and we only have 17 pictures from this 2 hour period and none include his parents, who were also around. My husband told me he actually had to instruct her to take pictures. When he was getting his tux shirt, vest, and bow-tie on he said she was just sitting there and he said “maybe you can get some pictures of me putting my tux on.” The assistant also somehow managed to unplug one of the videographer's cameras during the ceremony, but he didn't find out until the end so hald of our ceremony isn't filmed.
My photographer didn't take pics of me and my father waiting, and my pics coming down the aisle weren't amazing either (i think it's difficult because there's 100 guests trying to get pictures). I don't have a picture of just my parents, but I have a few with me and my parents. That said, I'm making a stinkface in all of them which I wish someone would have told me so I could Stop!. Those things you can't get too riled up over - they happen. Having tons of the "mundane" things makes sense, because they take those when they aren't really rushed and are waiting for the reception to start. I really liked having my details caught on film.
But - not having a decent bridal party picture is really not acceptable. Your husband having to micor-manage really isn't acceptable either. And the big thing I think you can complain about is not having half the ceremony on film. I would speak to her about these things and ask her what she's willing to do to make up for it. You may get some free prints or a free session.
I agree with Riss....
I think there are some things that I would probably let slide and others that I would complain about. Did you give your photographer a list of pictures you wanted before? If you did, and some were missed, then I would mention that as well...I know no photog can get all of them but if you had specific pictures you wanted, you should have mentioned it to your photographer before hand instead of just assuming she would get them. The fact that the assistant was lazy is unacceptable. She should have been snapping photos and certainly, I would complain that she contributed to a video that was not up to par. Those are legitimate complaints.
As far as some of the shots that weren't taken, it happens (although I agree there should have been at least ONE good bridal party shot). In retrospect, there are several photos I do not have...I noticed I have no photo of me with all my work friends, there is one member of the bridal party that did not have his picture taken with his wife, I forgot to have my nephews (who were RBs) come outside for the bridal party shots...but, these are all me...I did not give my photog a list of "must shoot" pics and I should have mentioned these to someone else so that they got taken...and the fact that the groomsman doesn't have a pic with his wife is no big deal...i just noticed that i had one of all the others and not of him. But, there are a bunch of photos I never would have thought about that were taken and again, like Riss, I am glad to have some of the shots of the favors, the memory table, the centerpiece...those were all details that made up the day.
Talk to your photog but try not to get too upset.
And, I agree with Jaimie...maybe post the link so we can help
1. The photographer and/or assistant was obsessed with our flower girls. They spent the whole day following them around and documenting them. On the photographer's blog it even says they "stole the show."
2. There are is an unusually large amount of pictures of our reception venue. I even commented that it looked like this photographer was hired by them for new advertising and promotional material. Well sure enough, only a day or two after we even saw the pictures for the first time the events manager at our reception site called me saying that our photographer reached out to her trying to get her pictures used on their website. This is a little fishy to me...
The venue thing does sound odd. What was the opinioin of the event coordinator?
I also have a question - you said the assistant wasn't really taking photos. Was this an assistant or a second shooter? We were blessed with an assistant who took tons of photos, but really, if they aren't there as a second photographer, I don't know how many photos you can actually expect them to take.
I totally understand feeling that some photos were missed - we realized later that we never took a photo of everyone on my side of the family, but this was our fault.
Did you look through complete weddings that this photographer shot before booking, or only an album?
Also who did you use?
For Sale
My Blog:Life in the Glam Lane: Where curves are beautiful and made for fashion!
Planning
Married!
.::Hudson Valley Bio::.
Anyway, fwiw, you have many gorgeous wedding photos there. It isn't right that the second shooter wasn't acting as such, and I might bring that up, but unless it's defined approximately how many photos the 2nd shooter will take, I'm not sure there is much she'll do.
[QUOTE]I just looked at the blog also...I have to say this, you do have some gorgeous photos...really.
Posted by ssage[/QUOTE]
Agreed!
I feel like this is double dipping... especially if items on your original list are missing but there are pics from the venue (that you didn't request).
This is going to be my last reply post to this thread. I just found out that the photographer is watching it.
I wish I could re-stage the ones with our families but I know that will never happen. They came out so bad, very shadowy and I'm missing some of the combos of people I would have liked to have had.
My only reconciliation is I'm hoping to have my husband and I get dressed up again (order my boquet again) hire a new photographer and retake ones of us at the same venue so I can at least have one of the 2 of us we're happy with. It'd make me feel better about not being happy with the ones from our actual wedding day.