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Our photographer LOST all of our wedding photos!

sparklemotion15sparklemotion15 member
First Anniversary First Comment
in Wedding Photography and Videography Forum
My husband and I got married on June 1 at Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico.  We had an okay time.. we ran into a number of issues but really tried to be positive about everything, considering how much money we spent on our wedding/vacation.  We were supposed to get our wedding photos back on 
June 12, but never received them.  Over the weeks, I emailed several people at the resort and the photography studio (Ocean Photo Studio) about this and they kept either ignoring me or putting me off.  A little over a week ago I got a phone call from someone at the studio and she said there was a miscommunication problem and my pictures would be on their way that Friday.  She even said they would upgrade my photo album to the biggest one for the inconvenience.  I said that was fine and waited for her to send me the tracking information.  Friday came and went and I never got the pictures or any tracking information.  On Wednesday, I emailed the studio again and told them that if I didn't hear back from them I was going call back to speak to the manager about this situation.  I got a phone call the next day from the manager saying the photographer lost all of our pictures! She said something happened to the SD card and everything was gone.  They apparently sent out the card to try to get the pictures retrieved but they were unable to get them back and there was nothing they could do.  We have no professional pictures from our wedding, only other people's blurry cell phone pictures.  We didn't even get engagement pictures done because we were saving for this and I figured we'd have nice ones from the wedding anyway.  I'm so upset.. not only did NOTHING turn out the way it was supposed to, but we have nothing but memories from our wedding and I was lied to for a month about where our pictures were!  We still haven't even received our marriage license!! I'm sure that's lost too.  I never expected everything to go perfectly for our wedding.. especially since we were doing a destination wedding.  But I never thought that it would be such a disaster.  I kept saying "well, at least we'll have nice pictures!" Joke was on me, I guess! 
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Re: Our photographer LOST all of our wedding photos!

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    anajaxanajax
    Name Dropper First Comment
    I am so, so sorry. This is devastating. However I have a really really hard time buying their story. How many hours of coverage did you have? It is HIGHLY unlikely that the photographer shot your entire wedding on one card. I go through about 10 for one wedding. So "the card was corrupted" would not explain losing ALL of the images. What does your contract say about this? Are they refunding your money? This sounds like human error, in which case you may be able to pursue action with them and cover the cost to at least get dressed back up again and have some beautiful portraits taken by someone in your area. I know it's not the same at all but you'll want something to remember this time in your lives. UGH I'm so sorry!
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    SofiaCristSofiaCrist
    First Comment
    I am so, so sorry too. One of my friends  did post-wedding photos because they did not have a professional photographer on a wedding... Look his review ( see post-wedding photos)(http://www.photobyoxana.com/testimonials)You can do the same - post-wedding photos in wedding wear
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    JoanE2012JoanE2012 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    SofiaCrist said:
    I am so, so sorry too. One of my friends  did post-wedding photos because they did not have a professional photographer on a wedding... Look his review ( see post-wedding photos)(http://www.photobyoxana.com/testimonials)You can do the same - post-wedding photos in wedding wear
    Have you looked at the website of this photographer you are recommending?  The photos look like it's someone's personal photo album (Photos of Mom, a trip to Moscow).  It is very amateurish and it's clear the person does not have professional experience.  

    By the way, you only have a few posts, and a couple of them now keep coming back to this website.  Are you the photographer?
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    jimDjimD
    First Anniversary First Comment

    I hope this Photography Company has good Errors and Omissions Insurance!   (which all business owners should have)   This is definitely grounds for a law suite regardless of what the excuses are.  BTW  I am a pro wedding photographer with 40 years experience and NEVER lost a single image from thousands of wedding shot!   With digital I shoot jpeg not Raw so I only use one or two cards at every wedding.  So it IS possible one card could go bad but highly unlikely.  Even when a card seems to go bad there is recovery software out there that can retrieve most images.

    Back to the law suite.  It's up to you to pursue it.  First,  look at their contract and see what their limits of liability are stated there.  Even if they say they have limited liability,  just because it's written in a contract doesn't make it litigation proof!  A judge must review it and decided whether the contract is FAIR to BOTH Parties.  if not,  he can decide in your favor.   But can you afford to pursue this and go thru the litigation,  especially with a company outside the US?

    You should be getting all your money back you paid for photography,  at the least.
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    anajaxanajax
    Name Dropper First Comment
    edited August 2013

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    theretamaragoestheretamaragoes
    Name Dropper 5 Love Its First Comment First Anniversary
    I am so sorry that this happened to you!!

    For one-- you should absolutely be getting a full refund back on any photography costs. ALSO! The resort should be offering you (at the very least!) some sort of a free-vacation package. I sincerely hope that you talk to the powers-that-be and advocate for yourself. They messed up BIG TIME, and even though they may not be able to recreate your wedding photos, they can at least attempt to 'make it up to you'.

    Also! I like the idea of 'recreating' your wedding photos. Yes, you will always know that those images were not taken on your wedding day... But at the very least, you will walk away with a handful of beautiful portraits that you can hang on your walls, and can be cherished by your future children and grandchildren. 
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