Booked a photographer and now found another i prefer...help

I’d go back to the photographer and see if they’re willing to give your deposit back given it’s so far away. Say that you’ve decided not to go ahead with the day or try to think of something a bit better rather than you don’t like their style otherwise they might feel inclined to keep it anyway

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Putting aside any ethical considerations, unless OP pretends the engagement is actually broken off, the photographer is just likely to suggest holding the deposit until the couple are ready to go ahead with a new date. That's assuming they don't do some checking and find out they've been lied to (and how easy would it be to check up on that, considering the amount of stuff that everyone shares on line these days?!)

OP, you could try asking nicely for your deposit back - it's just possible that the photographer might decide to refund as a gesture of goodwill, but I wouldn't bank on it. But I would think hard about whether you are going to still cancel if you don't get your deposit back, because it's going to make for a little awkwardness at the wedding if you stick with the original photographer just because of the deposit - it's not going to be great for them to know that they are second best and that you only stayed with them because you couldn't afford to dump them!

Are you sure that the new photographer's pictures are so much better that they are worth all this stress? Yes you want nice pictures of the day, but as long as your photographer is likely to produce good photos (i.e. a professional quality set of photos that include everything you want for your album) I would worry less about style. In 10 years' time, I doubt you'll even remember the difference between the two photographers.

View quoted message I do agree with the above.. Maybe you can ask if they’re willing to give you back your deposit if they find another couple for that weekend?

Thanks everyone. I agree with the above also, I wouldn't want to lie about reasons for wanting to cancel, but I'm so torn over what to do as if I have the conversation and the current photographer won't refund me the deposit, it would be so awkward to continue working with her. I really regret rushing to book now as this part of the wedding is so important to me, I don't know what happened I just got caught up in planning and getting things sorted after booking the venue that I didn't take my time with one of the things I knew would be important. If the deposit was smaller I think I'd be ok with losing it and cancelling, just finding it hard to justify losing £1200

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I don't know if this will help, but the photographer we went with was not my preferred choice. Photos were less important to my husband than to me, and he was adamant that we went with the cheapest one on our list. There is absolutely nothing wrong with our photographs technically, I just preferred the style of a slightly more expensive photographer on our shortlist and she was also a bit more creative in her choice of angles etc. But it didn't bother me hugely at the time and five years on, it doesn't bother me at all.

If our photos had been poor quality (blurry, whited out, red eyes etc) or poorly composed (e.g. fire exit signs right over our heads or microphones obscuring faces as I've seen in one of my friend's wedding albums) then yes, it would have bugged me a LOT. But I think as long as the photographer you have booked is competent, it will be ok - and to be honest, it's hard to imagine any photographer being brilliant enough to justify throwing away £1,200 just to be able to book them!

In your place, I think I would try to stop thinking about the 'new' photographer and just concentrate on the things you liked about the first photographer in the first place. It's like any other aspect of wedding planning - if you keep looking after you've made a choice, you're bound to find something you think would have been better. So try to put those other pictures out of your mind and just look forward to having some lovely photos of your wedding, regardless of style.