Ok so my family is new to this wedding planning stuff, its been over 10 years since the last close family wedding so were doing the best we can as we only have my mom and us planning this. Anyways, we completely paid off our photographer in August. We signed the contract in April. We met her at an expo and instantly liked her and knew she was it. Well our e pics were a nightmare, due to weather we had to change the date 3 times. Each time we felt like it was a burden to our photographer as she had to squeeze us in wherever possible and the last time I had to fight to get a spot on the last Sunday that would have any fall color. (She had us under the impression we could move our date freely to get the best fall color.) We finally got them done Oct 21st and were told 3 weeks to get them back. Its now been 4 and still no pictures! We feel almost like because we paid her in full she isn't putting as much effort forward to please us. Did we make a mistake paying her off early? Our goal is to have everything except the reception/dinner paid in full by next spring. Obviously since that requires a head count we can't pay that until a few weeks prior to the weddinng. Is anyone else paying things in full or is it a bad idea and a good idea to stick to the deposits and pay everything off closer to the wedding?
My mom doesn't understand my frustration, so I hope some of you do!