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this kind of stuff drives me crazy, especially when it's with someone i'm paying. how much was the deposit?
@kitzy: I know! everyone else that I've been dealing with is great about returning emails, and her lapses aren't restricted to just the few instances I posted about. The deposit was $500.
@USER876: yes, isn't it novel.
I'll have to do it when she gets back I guess - she's gone until the 21st with email access only according to her last email - not like she ever picks up anyway, I'd just be complaining to her voicemail. She seems nice, just flighty I gather, so trying to get useable specifics out of her is proving to be a challenge. Meeting in person was great because she couldn't wriggle away!
I am suprised how professionals don't realize the importance of good customer service.
Example, If you are bad at keeping up with and returning email,etc, a simple, "please call me I never get to check my email much" type statement would probably be fine for most people.
I think you should address these concerns with the vendor. Tell her your expectation regarding answers to questions sent to her via email and phone. Hopefully this will work itself out!
I firmly believe in trusting your gut on this one. I had similar issues and then some with our original photographer and wanted to fire him but didn't want to lose the deposit.
Fate ended up stepping in and he cancelled on us a week and a half before our wedding with the excuse that he double-booked our date. At that point, he hadn't even delivered the e-pics we had taken months before.
I was soooo relieved when he cancelled because we ended up with an amazing photog who responded to my emails in a timely and super nice manner, he saved my day at the last minute, and he delivered all our beautiful pictures within 2 weeks.
Call her. Talk to her about your concerns.
It might just be worth losing the deposit.
@Theresa90405: YIKES!!! fate definitely did you well on that one, your pictures are probably my favourite on the whole site! I just sent her back an email asking detailed questions and ended it with "Oh and if there's a better way to reach you besides email, let me know and I'm happy to accomodate" which hopefully will get her thinking about the customer service. If not though and we have another communication draught, I'll be sure to call her and tell her what's what. I think there's like a "bitch clause" in the contract for irreconcilable differences where I'd get my deposit back so if push comes to shove I can definitely play the bitch card and try to get it back. I do like her work though, so hopefully it doesn't come to that!
Listen to your gut. After our engagement shoot I knew I wasn't in love with our photographers but our deposit was hefty - half their fee, so there was no walking away. They weren't horrible and we have some nice pics, but they aren't what I wanted and working with them after the wedding was a pain, they were late with everything and not very responsive to our concerns. I wish I had trusted my gut and hired someone else, even if it meant losing the money. If our deposit had only been $500 ($500 being relative, I know it's a lot to some but less that the $1500 we would have lost) I would have fired them.
If you express your concerns and you still aren't comfortable then find someone else!
Where is she that she doesn't have phone service? Peru??? I would have serious issues if my calls consistantly went to voicemail. I'm not about making serious decisions over email conversations.
My photographer travels a lot, so she takes a long time to get back to me because she is always between Charlotte, Chicago, and Charleston. My venue coordinator also takes a while to get back to me, but that might be because of the holidays right now. I'm not stressing too much about it now, but I would be if I were closer to the wedding and wasn't able to get in contact with people. I do my best to be understanding that these people have very different lives than I have at a desk from 8-5.
Oh man I can't STAND that. When I was looking for vendors, I automatically crossed off any potential one from the list who didn't respond to email within 72 hours. There's just too many out there to choose from to deal with that. You already paid your deposit though, so I think you're stuck. :( I also suggest voicing your concerns.
I HATE this! We've had lots of trouble with people not comminicating with us, as well...to the point that we ended up changing venues, hotel blocks (TWICE), florists, photographers, and just today reheaersal dinner venues because of poor comminucation from vendors.
If you love your photo and she gets good reviews, then I'm sure she'll do a great job at your wedding in spite of the poor prewedding communication....but if you end up having to play the bitch card, I can highly recommend the photographers that we ended up with.
I think it is just that there are too many new people that suddenly became "pros" overnight trying to get some extra income and don't know how to properly run a business.
@wanderer: well she's not some fly by night, I've been following her work for a few years now and when it came time to get a photographer she was at the top of my list. I don't know what her deal is, but it's getting really old really fast. >:|
@nmsoonerbride: thanks, I might take you up on that! I'd love to know your vendor experiences for flowers, hotels and rehearsal dinner venues if you have the time!
@mcnetn3: that's what I was chalking it up to - I know she does some destination weddings and stuff and I don't mind having some lag, but I'm pretty sure her email goes to her phone or something... it's like she reads it and then forgets to reply!
@Belle2Be: hahaha I know, right? I'm guessing she means away from her office phone or whatever though... she was in Mexico shooting a wedding a bit ago but I'm sure she would have had a phone on her!
thanks, everyone!
My videographer did this. I still don't have my video. If you trust your photographer, then feel free to keep reminding her. You're paying good enough money! If you have doubts, consider finding another photographer!
@lezlers: I agree. There are way too many vendors who would be HAPPY to have your business in this economy. With everything linked to cell phones, I don't know how hard it is to respond to an email. It takes like 2 minutes. Any vendor I email gets cut off if I don't hear anything within 48-72 hours.
Definitely contact the photographer.
And @ Miss Tattoo: That isn't always accurate about smartphones. I only recently picked up a smart phone. So yeah, I am a bit late to the game with that. Prior I been using my cheap slider phone. haha!
Your wedding is some time away, I would definately voice your concerns. It's a long time to be upset and frustrated with such a vital player in your wedding day.
I'm going to play Devil's advocate a little and say that your photographer may just bevery laid back because she thinks that your wedding (and apparently these boudoir photos) are far enough away that you don't need to worry now. I've found that with some of my vendors - because we seem to be several months away, they aren't as concerned about getting things taken care of now. However, that doesn't mean that they don't know what they are doing and won't do a good job with your photos. I think you should just have a relaxed conversation with her and just stay that with your communication style you would just appreciate hearing back right away instead of going into the conversation thinking you might fire her.
that way, if you do end up staying with her, you'll still have a good relationship instead of her thinking you're a difficult bride and then not working as hard!
@rsax: that's my perception of the situation. My main issue with it is that she just sprung on me that boudoirs are apparently like a month away and she's not giving me any details about it. That's close enough of a timeframe that she should be on it and be able to give me timely responses. If I were asking something about the actual wedding photography, it wouldn't be a big deal since we're so far out but these pictures are coming up quick and she hasn't given me much to work with. She's very easy to get along with (I'm an introvert so it's rare that I connect with someone easily) and I definitely plan on taking a relaxed approach because I'm likely sticking with her and her team. I don't expect her to give me weekly updates or anything like that, but if she wants to take these pictures this early in the game, then I need some time to plan and get ready. (aaand... still no response on yesterday's noontime email either haha)
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Am I being unreasonable? I'm starting to doubt if I made the right photographer choice, but I've already paid the deposit so no turning back I guess. My photographer has been consistently late with her correspondences, and I constantly have to remind her to email me back. I'm not trying to be high maintanance and am not asking for menial things, these are things like "the check went in the mail 3 days ago, let me know when you get it so I know it got there safely" (we live in the same city so it would have already arrived) then I have to ask her a week later if it did saying "if you haven't gotten it, I'm going to try and cancel the check in case it was stolen". THAT got an immediate response. She added that if I want to do boudoirs, they schedule days to do it and have upcoming ones in January. I asked her for details about the setup and got no response for 8 days, so I just bumped the convo! 10 minutes later she got back to me, not with an apology for the time lapse but with a "Thanks for reminding me I needed to email you!! Yes we schedule boudoir days. We get a nice hotel room and have hair and makeup if you want. Its a lot of fun. We drink wine or champagne and rock out to music. Our next day will be in January. I'll keep you posted on the dates as they come up. Let me know if you have any questions". so... that's not very specific and kind of a hasty reply. I guess I'll just have to keep bugging her in order to get answers, but for $4000 I don't think a timely response is asking too much. x_x