My Wedding Photographer ruined my Wedding Day…

 

I knew my wedding photos were bad but I never realised just how bad they were until I started working with Sue Taylor. 

 

I met my photographer about 8 months before my wedding. He came to my house and showed me his portfolio on a computer. His work looked good and he was able to point out some flaws on photographs like where a flower on the grooms lapel was crooked, when people were blinking, ugly backgrounds etc. I felt confident in his ability as he appeared to have an eye for detail and he assured me he didn't make those mistakes.

 

On the wedding day he arrived late which started to stress me out. I was so stunned that he turned up wearing a bright red jumper I was speechless. I thought he would wear black to blend in but instead he stood out like a beacon.

 

The brief we gave him was for lots of natural and candid photos. Mingling with guests and sharing wonderful moments. We didn't want a big formal shoot as we are a bit camera shy, but we knew what we wanted and even supplied him with a list of key shots. We only asked for around 15 specific shots and the rest were to be candid.

 

The ceremony was over and we were so happy to be husband and wife. Just as we were heading to our cocktail room at the venue, the photographer told us that the images he took earlier in my room didn't turn out very well and he needed to reshoot them. This was when I really started to worry. 

 

Because of the reshoot we missed a full hour of our cocktail reception. The reason we opted for a cocktail wedding was so we could talk to everyone and catch up with family and friends as we don't get to see them as much as we would like to.

 

The rest of the day went off without a hitch and when the photographer left, he reassured us that the images were beautiful and that we would have them by the time we got back from our honeymoon which was in 10 days time. I was so excited and couldn't wait to see them.

 

Ten days later and no photos arrived. On day fifteen we emailed him and he said they had been posted a week ago. He said he would resend them to us via express post. Day twenty one no photos, day 25 still no photos and many phone calls and emails later we finally received them on day 31.

 

I raced inside and put the disks into my computer and my heart just sank. Hardly any of the photos we had asked for had been captured. I was so upset I cried my eyes out.  There wasn't even one photo of my mother and I. Half of the images had people blinking and there were so many shots taken of my flowers in the reception room I could have made an album just for them! We noticed  there was an hour where the photographer disappeared and had not taken one shot, not to mention there was not one single candid photo. There were shadows across faces from terrible flash, red eye, blurred shots, crooked flowers on lapels and many missing photos. We later found out he was taking shots of the venue and trying to do a deal with the venue to buy them off of him, on our paid time!

 

These memories were for us to cherish for a lifetime for generations to come and they were ruined.

 

We tried to contact him and he wouldn't reply to us. He just passed us off to someone else who told us the images were being reedited and we would have them by the end of the week and we are still waiting for them all these years later.  We contacted the Department of fair Trading and even they couldn't contact him so there was nothing they could do. Our wedding day photos were ruined and our memories were lost. I honestly thought by meeting the photographer before hand that I would not have a wedding day horror story and boy was I wrong!

 

I wanted to share my story with everyone because I personally know how heartbreaking it is to have your wedding day ruined by a photographer that dosen't care and is only in it for a quick buck.

 

On the plus side, I now work alongside the most amazing Photographer, who cares deeply about her couples and loves what she does with a passion. I get to see so many amazing photos that I know the couples will be over the moon with. We have decided to plan a vow renewal ceremony sometime soon and this time I know my images will be perfect. Who knows, if I’m extra nice to Sue she may even give me a discount :)

 

Hugs

Sarah

Brides Best Friend