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Life on Prints - Disappointing

Life on Prints may take beautiful pictures if you've ever seen their finished product, but they are less than nice to work with. We met with them a few weeks back because we saw their work at St. Clement Church - where we are being married next June. While we knew their prices were higher than most other photographers out there, we thought their work was worth it.

We met with them, liked the work even more when we saw their finished albums and told them we'd like to talk about pricing and moving forward with booking.

They gave us some money off their packages and threw in some freebies like thank you cards and a few hours free since their packages only start at 6 hours of photography unlike most others who offer full-day coverage or at least 10 hours to start.

Then we get the contract via email. My fiance looks at contracts for a living and thought it was very one-sided. It was also much more one-sided than any of the other contracts we've signed for our other vendors including videography, DJ, and wedding coordination.

So we asked some questions - which we thought were very appropriate questions. We even mentioned in the email that we were just looking for clarification and that we looked forward to working with him.

A day later we get an email back with answers to our questions and a note that Life on Prints is no longer available for our date. We honestly felt that just becuase we asked questions of a contract we were signing agreeing to pay over $6400 for services for the most important day in our lives thus far, they decided they didn't want to work with us.

Afterwards, we even called and left a message with Tony Cabrera - the photographer we met with from Life On Prints - that explained our disappointment. I doubt we will get a return a call.

We thought that was incredibly unprofessional. We just wanted other brides to be advised before they get their heart set on working with Life On Prints.
BabyFruit Ticker

Re: Life on Prints - Disappointing

  • edited December 2011
    SoonToBeMrsDi,

    Sorry to hear you had a negative experience with LoP. We just worked with them for our August wedding and loved them, so it's sad to hear that you didn't enjoy your encounter.

    We also looked at Bobbi+Mike and Kevin Weinstein, both of which have wonderful work with that wedding photojournalism/artistic style in case you haven't chosen a different vendor yet. Hopefully you'll find a photog you really click with and don't be afraid to ask for something important to you to be added into your contract. I know we did that with LoP and other vendors-mostly for peace of mind.

    In any case, I wish you luck finding a great photographer and hope your planning goes well other that this hiccup.  :)
  • edited December 2011
    Check www.wasabiphotography.com. My niece used him for her wedding and everyone was thrilled with him.
  • edited December 2011
    Thanks for the suggestions ladies! I know we'll find a great photographer.
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • edited December 2011
    I'm sorry about your experience.  That is not cool at all.

    Another suggestion, Tasha Schalk of redwallphotography.com.  She did a completely fantastic job on our wedding photography and her package is really reasonable.
  • edited December 2011
    WOW! That's awful...I'm so sorry that happened to you. We used Danielle Aquiline and she was fabulous - a real gem - super sweet and there's nothing in her contract that you need to look over with a fine-toothed comb!
    imageimage
    Finally...we are Mr. & Mrs.!!! WooHoo!!!

    Planning Bio
    Married Bio (Work In Progress)
  • aimers1525aimers1525 member
    2500 Comments Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    A second for Tasha Schalk!  My dad is an attorney, thus I had to ask many questions about the contract. She was very receptive and flexible, and not to mention she is a fabulous photographer!
  • KVMW9182010KVMW9182010 member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I am sorry about that - we were in many situations where we almost "lost" a vendor because someone else was looking into the same date as us.  But in all those cases, the vendors told us that someone else was inquiring into the date and unfortunately, it was who ever got the contract/deposit in first.  It is quite possible that is what happened to you.  But, LoP should have told you someone was looking into your date if that is truly what happened.

    We used S1 Weddings, which isn't mentioned on the boards often, but is in the same price range as LoP and our pictures are amazing.
  • edited December 2011
    LoP is in demand....Just because you lost your date, doesn't mean you should be bashing them!

    I have been working closely with Tony after our E-photos, and he just designed our STD's....and I got them 4 days after he finished, 

    He is a true professional that takes pride in his work, and goes out of his way to make sure his customers are happy.  He even doubled the time for our shoot to fit in more locations, and didn't charge us a cent extra.

    Losing your date happens all the time....it comes down to business.  You really shouldn't take it personally if you lose a vendor because they book someone else. 
    image **Married 7/9/11**
  • edited December 2011
    One of my co-workers used them last year for her wedding and was really happy with their work. When I looked into my vendors, several had said, without a deposit and signed contract in hand, they could not hold the date. It is a first come, first serve bases. Once we knew who we wanted, we got everything in right away. What was on the contract that you had questions about?
  • edited December 2011
    I kind of agree with PenelopeSnuz.  I've never worked with them so I can't comment on how they are to work with, but my impression of wedding planning is that if there's no deposit and no signed contract, you've pretty much got nothing.  We lost out on our original date at our venue because we didn't get our contract in in time - and they knew we wanted the specific date and had just looked at the room a week earlier.  It ultimately worked out for us and we just changed our date, but I think the moral of the story is that you can't expect anything to still be available just because you're looking at the date. 

    I honestly don't think it's their fault.  I understand having issues with the contract and wanting to talk about it, but if they can get someone to sign it before you, then I think that's fairly typical of what most wedding vendors will do. 

    Sorry that you had a bad experience with them.  I love my photographer, Becky Hill, if you're looking for recommendations. 
  • edited December 2011
    To take it one step further...I got an e-mail from Tony 5 minuets after I posted above checking on my thoughts abotu the Save the Dates, and making sure I got them.

    LOP is great!
    image **Married 7/9/11**
  • edited December 2011
    I'm glad there are several of you out there have had good experiences with Life on Prints. Let me clarify a few things.

    1. We didn't lose our date to another couple who paid the deposit before. Life on Prints just decided not to work with us after our questions to the contract.

    2. I completely felt at the time, and can now pretty accruately infer that this is the reason they decided not to work with us since they haven't returned my fiance's call.

    And I quote, "I just wanted to point out that we've successfully done over 300 weddings with the same exact contract and we've never had any trust issues with any clients. This is our lively-hood and I confidentially (I think he meant confidently) say that based on our work, it shows we have passion and we actually care about the output. I'm sure that's the reason wh you pursued us in the beginning, our work."

    We were not questioning their trustworthiness but merely had questions about what some of the terms in the contract meant. I guess that isn't acceptable to them.
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • edited December 2011
    It sounds like you we're questioning their quality and output? Is that right?
  • edited December 2011

    I feel like I'm defending myself to this group, but I just want to make sure people don't think we're bashing them becuase we lost our date. We honestly feel like since we questioned the contract, they decided not to work with us.

    We didn't question their services or output. We questioned a few sections -
    - exclusive photographers (we wanted to make sure our guests would be allowed to take pictures as the language here seemed like they discouraged that)
    - limits and liabilities (we wanted to know who would be our replacement photographer if they couldn't make it since there are only 3 of them in the group)
    - copyright reproduction and client usage (we wanted to know if we had the rights to reprint our images of the files we get)
    - creative license and image retouching (we wanted to know what the extra costs here were)
    - day of coverage (we wanted to know if there would be  cost for 2 locations for prep coverage as it said there would be but in our meeting they said there wouldn't be)
    - permit and venue rules (we wanted to know where they thought we might need permits based on our conversations about pre-reception photos)
    - price list changes (we wanted to see if they could guarantee us a rate for prints or additional albums - just an ask)
    - service details (we wanted the contract to say specifically which photographer was doing our event and wanted to clarify how many pages were in our album since it said pages in one spot and sides in another spot on the contract)

    I am I think these are pretty reasonable questions. I guess if they aren't, I'm really not understanding how other people pay so much for services without asking these types of questions.

    I dont' want to bash Life on Prints whatsoever. They are very very talented, and I wish we could have worked something out. I merely wanted to warn other brides that they might not get to work with them if they challenge them at all.

    BabyFruit Ticker
  • edited December 2011
     I'm sorry you had this problem with LoP.  I just used them for my wedding this past weekend, and they were wonderful to work with.  I also liked that the contract/pricing is more upfront than other photographers we met with.

     I think Tony was great at answering all my questions, same one you asked, and never had any problems.  Maybe there was some misunderstanding?  Either way, I'm sure you can still find another photographer. 
    image
  • edited December 2011
    Your questions don't seem out of place. It is your right to ask questions. Maybe you should have done it in person, or on the phone, instead of an email. But there are a lot of great photographers out there and you will find one I am sure.
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