Wedding photographer taking forever

af2909_2

Hello all

We got married at the turn of the year and still haven't had our images on disk or the draft of the album.

Now we've paid the full fee before the wedding, so how do you think we should proceed in displaying our unhappiness at the slow turnaround? We both feel rude as we haven't been able to send our thank you cards to our guests.

Any thoughts on what to do? We have e mailed and called a few times and have had blunt replies.

jakiphoto

Did he ever say how long it would take for the pictures to be edited?? Im also a wedding photographer, my maximum editing period is 6 weeks per wedding but I do know other photographers who take longer, especially if you getting all the pics on disk. I would just drop him a quick email asking him when he plans to have them finished.

Normally the album would come after the CD, are you picking the photos for the album yourselves?? this will also add more time on.

I know its seems like forever when your waiting to see your wedding pics but Im sure its all ok. :j

jakiphoto

sorry I've just read the part about blunt replies.

Exactly what did he say in his replies or is he just completely ignoring you??

arcon5

If you've chased it and he hasn't given you good reason then get more blunt with him!
"Look pal, it's been nearly 3 months, if you can't do it then I suggest you get your wallet out now rather than us having to sue you."

Even give him a deadline to do it by before you "take your complaint further".

Si_Clist

Before we retired, my wife and I were shooting 40 weddings a year professionally, and the longest any client waited for their files on disc was 13 days. That's for anything from 150 to 300 full-size, edited files ready to print.

Is your snapper full-time? Do you know if he's a member of any trade association/society or whatever? And when you booked him, did he say when you'd get your files? Does it give any clues about that on his website?

InsideInsurance

How long did he say it would take?

Is he cheap and cheerful or expensive/exclusive type?

10 weeks is fairly long and the fact you've paid in full already doesnt give him much motivation to hurry along unless he is going to try and upsell you on prints/ albums etc.

Our photographer was a full time tog but mainly doing modelling photography. We knew from the outset that he was immediately going to some tropical island for a week or two after our wedding for a couple of shoots and so our photos would be taking a back seat. From memory it was about 8 weeks for us to get the photos but ultimately it was worth the wait and when the DVD he gave corrupted 18 months later a new one was in the post FOC the same day

Keep on at them but do factor in what level of service you bought

Si_Clist

InsideInsurance wrote: »

...and when the DVD he gave corrupted 18 months later a new one was in the post FOC the same day ...

But if your snapper had gone out of business by then, I trust that it wouldn't actually have mattered because you'd backed up several copies of the original as soon as you got that?

:cool:

InsideInsurance

Si_Clist wrote: »

But if your snapper had gone out of business by then, I trust that it wouldn't actually have mattered because you'd backed up several copies of the original as soon as you got that?

:cool:

At the time we hadn't because we'd moved house just after receiving it and it was in the to do boxes. We had been emailed a load of the photos so it hadnt been a burning issue at the time.

Of cause now backed up locally, on the cloud and physical copies on 3 different continents thanks to wide spread family. Havent worked out how to protect against a world ending event but I'm guessing ill just live with that risk

af2909_2

Thanks for the replies guys

We paid £800 for 3.5 hours photography to include a USB and a storybook album.

The wife has just sent this now:

Dear ********

It is unfortunate that we are having so send this email however we are very disappointed with the fact that we are yet to receive a copy of the album proofs. When we last spoke you advised that if we sent you the proofs we wanted for our album that this would take three days and then once this was done and sent to Italy that they would then take five days and then you would send the pdf back to us. We sent you a copy of this list on Friday 21st February (a week after you sent us the link and on the day that we spoke about these deadlines) however it is now the 12th March and we have still not received this. Is there a reason for this hold up as we are getting concerned why this is taking so long? We know that you mentioned the album we have selected will take 8 weeks for print however without seeing these proofs and agreeing we are looking at a date in May for the album to be ready.

Moreover ***** emailed you a week ago expressing our wishes for the USB so that we could use the images to send our guests a thank you card. You informed ****** that this would not be available until the album was ready but you would send an email attaching the proofs we wanted to use. He emailed you on the same day with the proof numbers and yet we have not received these either. It has now been 10 weeks since the wedding and it is rather embarrassing that we have not sent thank you cards to our guests as we were waiting on this. Could you please advise when these will be available?

Regards

x & y

Si_Clist

Hang on, I'm thoroughly confused.

You say you paid £800 for 3.5 hours snapping, files on a USB stick and an album.

What was to be on the USB stick? How many images and in what form?

And how many pictures in the album?

Kayalana99

Si_Clist wrote: »

Hang on, I'm thoroughly confused.

You say you paid £800 for 3.5 hours snapping, files on a USB stick and an album.

What was to be on the USB stick? How many images and in what form?

And how many pictures in the album?

To be honest I don't see how any of this is relevant to the OP's question on getting her photos off him and more to have a dig at the photographers pricing.