Still no photos... how long did yours take?

My contract says they aim for 6 weeks but in busy periods up to 12 weeks.

Im getting married off season so I have been told it will probably still be a month as they still need to process the photos before getting them sent over to us.

I would say leave them a little longer as it has only just come out of peak season. Its annoying but its one of them

I think 4 weeks is a ball park average, but what can be worse is when you are told 4 weeks and after 5 weeks you haven't had them so its not uncommon for shooters to quote 6 or 8 weeks to err on the safe side. I like to deliver within 2 weeks, sometimes longer in peak months, I prefer to edit straight away while everything if fresh and to do this I limit how many weddings I shoot to allow for editing, I am also a full time professional. There are a lot who shoot weddings whilst also having another job and so that could sometimes account for a longer delivery time, also some people send their shots off to a far east 3rd party for editing, although potentially that should be quicker.

I am sure she is taking so long because she is doing a really good editing job on them for you

Send her a message saying how super excited you are about seeing the shots and see if she comes back with a approximate delivery time for you.

I sent some images once after 2 weeks and 9 weeks later I had a message asking how I was getting on with with the editing. They just had never received them and (bless them ) they said they left it so long because they thought I was just busy,but they were lost in the post all the time.

I see that last year you had some issues with a photographer, did you keep the same photographer or is this a different one.

Hiya,

This year the longest I've taken is four weeks, but when we got married we waited 9. It depends a lot on how busy the photographer is, if they have kids, another job, a holiday planned or just simply stick to so many hours a week for reasons of sanity.

Our photographers for example valued their relationship and worked to live, rather than lived to work. They would make sure they had time for each other and if that meant a delay in editing then so be it. I think that every photographer should give an ETA for photos and I think managing expectations in this regard are really important because for most couples it's their first time getting married / booking a photographer so need to know what to expect.

I've 52 weddings this year and since August the 1st have shot 17 weddings. I've just delivered my weddings from the first week of September and had to work 12 hours a day, every day in order to do so, no social life whatsoever....and I'm still editing now with Spotify on.

If I had a family or did a Mon-Fri 9-5 job as well as weddings like some do I would expect it to be an awful lot longer and it's realistic on reflection because instead of having one wedding a week throughout the year people tend to get married in the summer, all that work compresses and causes delays.

The first week of August next year I've four weddings in a row and at some point we'll need to sort out our admin and emails as well as a tonne of grown up stuff before we even start the edits. It's crazy.

8 weeks on and I'd be asking for an ETA.

We deliver photos within 6 weeks, but it varies between photographers - it took just over 3 months to get our wedding photos.

What does your contract say?

Andy

We're not married yet but our photographer says we will have our photo in three weeks.

Reading this thread makes me appreciate how fast a timescale that is.

Thanks for the replies all.

We did keep the same photographer. She appeared to have a lot of bad luck on the personal front, both her mum and nan passed away... We spoke to her on the phone and everything seemed to be down to misunderstanding/miscommunication, so after we spoke we thought everything was great. We also didn't have the time/inclination to filter through hundreds more photographers after we found our runners up were all booked. On the day both shooters were fantastic, although we didn't get a couple of the shots we really wanted (evening ones before they left) but on the day it didn't seem to matter/register to us with a million other things going on.

I'm hoping that I'm mistaken also that I didn't see her shoot anything on film. She spoke about polaroids and film a lot when we booked her - it was one of the things that made her stand out, that she shoots quite a bit on film. Another reason I'm curious to see the shots.

We checked the contract and unfortunately there's no mention in there about the time expected for delivery of images. It's not even something I had thought about pre-wedding, we were more worried about making sure she had a back up plan in case of emergency, cancellation/refund etc. Didn't even cross our minds that that info was missing.

So far as we know she is a full time photographer. I know and appreciate that she has been super busy, but we're 8 weeks on and all we have is a single facebook quality collage. We did contact her 2 weeks ago and asked if she could let us know when we might be able to see even just a few images, she said she would send us something after the weekend. Well last week came and went, and so did another weekend still not a peep!

If she had said 2 more weeks then fine, we would wait patiently, but one thing I really can't stand is people not keeping promises, or not even offering any apology or explanation for not doing so. We really feel like we're a low priority for her - from the difficulty we had arranging the pre-wedding shoot (that ended up being only 2 weeks before the big day) to being fobbed off now... Is it too much to ask just to have a handful of images? We really wanted to send Thank You cards out before the Honeymoon (4 weeks to go) using photos from the day but that's looking increasingly unlikely now

Hmm - I would be getting v fidgety by now if I were in your position - like you say, if she sets expectations that it's going to take another x amount of weeks then that's fine, but when you don't know how long the metaphorical piece of string is, it's hard!

I think you're well within your rights to chase again now (not that you should have to of course).

I think you need to go back to her and say that you would like the photos delivering by x date as you need to issue your thank you cards.

See how she responds to that.

Yes, what Paula said. If she's super-busy that's probably why she's not getting back to you, but she needs to commit to a deadline so you know she's not going to run out on you! Wedding season is coming to an end now so hopefully that means she'll be catching up on late work.

Gah, I'd be stressing out too. Hang in there! x

And we're still waiting......... ?

I'm getting really really hacked off now....!

We tried to call her a couple of weeks back as suggested above, no answer, get a text saying she's out, and she'll call us tomorrow, or the next day. No call came, but there was a text later that evening saying the editing is taking over - she had meetings on top of that and 'at a push, if she works through' she could have something to us by the end of the following week. Way to make us feel like an inconvenience!

Well that was last week. We tried to call on Sunday but surprise, surprise no answer.... Not even an acknowledgement of our call this time.

We're off on honeymoon in just over a week and I can't help worrying that the photos have been lost/ruined/are complete rubbish and there's some reason she can't deliver. Doubt we're going to see them before then, let alone get our thank you cards out

On top of the dramas that are STILL lingering following the wedding it's another thing I could do without...

Don't know what else I can do if she won't answer the phone and just keeps fobbing us off with imaginary delivery dates...

Sorry for the rant....! Just need to vent. It's been a proper Monday day!!

Perhaps try looking on any reviews she may have and seeing if there are any that indicate that she has delivered a wedding that was shot after yours.

A good test to see if they are stalling you is to send a fake enquiry via their site. If they respond quickly to that I'd be a lot sterner with them.

Does she have a business address? She's messed you guys about for a lot longer than is acceptable - I'd be turning up at her door. It's a lot harder to ignore someone at your front door that it is on the phone!

This is getting crazier. I think you need to write to her via registered post. You need to send a letter stating that "I am making time of the essence to our contract"

Check online for sample letters.

I think Paula's right - time to get stroppy. If there was a genuine reason why she can't deliver, she could have just been straight with you from the start - you've given her enough chances to explain. If she had some kind of illness or family crisis or something, why not just be honest and tell you and say the photos will be ready later than expected?

I don't think the photos can be rubbish/ruined, as I remember you posted a sneak peek from her a while back? They were OK, weren't they? She managed to deliver those without any problems. All very weird. You just so don't need the anxiety of this, what with everything else. How are things with your OH's parents now?

x

Thanks All,


Had a pretty sh!tty week... Sister has fallen out with my mum, my auntie and my dad (brother and sister) have fallen out bigger style than usual, and my dad ended up in hospital last week for an apparent attempt on his own life over everything...!

Plus OH's parents refuse to acknowledge any attempt he makes to make conversation with them. Completely refusing to reply when he asks how his niece and nephew are...

So really, we'd like a little bit of something happy for once! This really has been THE most stressful year of our entire lives. Don't need this on top of everything else.

We're off on Honeymoon this week, so have tried to get in touch with the photographer to tell her that if she does post the memory stick (as we're now approaching her implied 12 week 'deadline') she will need to send the package to my mum's, otherwise it risks being returned to sender.

Well. This morning, she's uploaded on her instaproofs site a shoot from 30 October, which takes the absolute p!ss if you ask me! Tried to call a few times this morning and she's not answered, but she has been online on whatsapp.....!
Tried to find an address but can't at the moment. Tried searching companies house but nothing comes back. All I get on Google is a potential address from an old groupon page...

A question about time of the essence letter. I have Googled, but stupidly, we don't have a delivery date/time in the contract. It's just not something we thought about pre-wedding We covered all the other questions - contingency in case of illness, equiptment failure etc. So in this instance, can we still send a letter (once we find an address).

What else can we do?? We're so upset over this

So sorry to hear about your family troubles it must be horrible having all that and then this awful situation with your photographer on top of it. Big hugs!

I would wait until the 12 weeks are up then once you find an address, I would send a letter demanding to see the 'product' by a certain date like others have already mentioned above. If you wanted to go down that route, you could also put that you will be seeking legal advice as maybe that might give her a serious kick up the arse. You could always pop into your local citizens advice bureau after your honeymoon and ask them for some advice.

I think it's totally bloody rude that she hasn't given you an explanation. Wouldn't even take her 5 minutes just to even send you a text/email to let you know whats going on.

Hope you have a lovely honeymoon xx

That is awful, sorry about your horrible week.

I'd try and forget about them (easier said than done, I know) until after the honeymoon, and just enjoy yourself.

Does she use any networking groups (i.e. Facebook wedding groups) that you know of? Could you post on her facebook page/any of those pages asking if anyone knows how to contact her because it's been X weeks and no photos and no contact? The embarrassment/potential harm to her business might give her a kick up the bum!

That is awful, sorry about your horrible week.

I'd try and forget about them (easier said than done, I know) until after the honeymoon, and just enjoy yourself.

Does she use any networking groups (i.e. Facebook wedding groups) that you know of? Could you post on her facebook page/any of those pages asking if anyone knows how to contact her because it's been X weeks and no photos and no contact? The embarrassment/potential harm to her business might give her a kick up the bum!

It certainly sounds like you are getting the absolute run around.

To see if you can find her address, firstly you could try to look who registered her website. Often this lists the address as most people when starting out have good intentions and few realise it's a matter of public record.

Another tactic if you need to be a bit more sneaky would be to find a friend to send a fake enquiry and try to arrange a meeting. Tell her you'd prefer to meet at hers and see if you can get an address that way.

From the sounds of things it does sound like you will have to make more noise.

Well she replied, apparently she is in hospital right now, but she says all the images are complete. If they are then, unless she was suddenly hospitalized whilst finalising them, I don't understand why they haven't been sent to us, she never messaged us despite our regular trying to call, or why she was able to upload someone else's shoot from 30 Oct to her client area over the weekend and not ours. Just seems like there's always SOMETHING.
Also pretty p!ssed that I went back through our email history and it's mentioned a few times that the reason we booked her was that we loved the look of the shots on film, and no one remembers her shooting anything other than digital...

Anyways, she said if she gets out tonight she'll give us a call... Cue further broken promises.....?

I really hope she keeps to the promise TrixieSaurus this must be so frustrating for you. I hope it gets sorted before your honeymoon, it sounds like you need a really good relax xx

We replied to her message, told her we'd really appreciate a phone call this evening, as she suggested. Told her sorry she's in hospital, hope it's not serious etc.

and..................

NOTHING.

She hasn't opened the WhatsApp message, but she has been online on WhatsApp... Does she not realise we can see that she's been online or what?!

Just downright RUDE!!

So infuriating!! If the photos are ready why on earth would she be avoiding us? Surely it would be the easiest phone call so far? Sorry, I messed up, but yes, your photos are ready. They will be sent to this address by this date, and I can upload the edits to my client area asap.

?

I may sound a little inconsiderate, if she really has been in hospital I'll probably feel really bad... it's just the fact that she's messed us around so much, I'm wondering if its just a ruse....

To be honest, it sounds like she's trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Does she have a FB page?

I don't think you sound inconsiderate at all - I really hope she is in hospital or something and that's why she can't send them to you. Fingers crossed she sorted herself out soon

This is just beyond unprofessional. I can't believe this person! If she's been in hospital since all this started then that's one thing, but obviously she hasn't if she's been out shooting AND uploading somebody else's event in the last couple of weeks. Once you've actually got those photos in your hands, I would do some serious complaining, if only to protect other brides in the future from this sort of thing. Besides, you deserve a refund for all of this hassle! If only there was some official Board of Photographers you could complain to, or something like TripAdvisor for wedding suppliers where you could go to warn other people about her!

x

Reading this makes me more concerned. Hospital admission is what I term a "red flag" used by traders who are not honest. You wouldn't believe how often it's used as an excuse for non-supply of goods. In this case, the "illness" does not explain the delivery delay.

Also, brides need to be aware that it's a legal requirement in the UK for traders to display a registered business address. So if you're supplied with a contract that does not have an address on it you should not proceed. An address should be displayed on the traders website.

Over the years doing consumer rights work I have dealt with brides who don't know the identity or address of the person they gave money to.

You might find this blog post helpful http://ww2.ollievision.co.uk/wp/index.php/wedding-buying-selling-scams-facebook/ - I wrote it to help brides recognise when they are being scammed.

Beyond upset now,

Received a message this morning - sorry, it was so late when I got out of hospital last night. Severe vomiting on and off for a week...

Really? I'm no PI but a quick bit of googling yesterday and clicking around finds her personal profile and those of the people she spent Saturday night with at a family do. Doesn't sound very sick to me?

Anyway. she woke up at 5.30 and made a point of uploading our pictures to her client area. Despite feeling awful still (tiny violin, anyone?)

Disappointed is not the word. Livid, upset, angry...

900 images, some of the must haves (which were on a list, written down, which they has in their hands) are so poorly composed... I'm not a photographer. But supplying one of my must have images with my niece's eyes closed? All of our group shots over exposed with the flash so we look washed out and awful. People not even looking at the camera. People not standing close enough together in some shots. Weird looking angles.... Most of these pictures comprising of a mouldy balcony ceiling for half the frame. I'm SO upset it's unreal. 3 months waiting for this!?!

When we met her (eventually) we discussed the kind of shots we wanted, details etc... She was like, oh yeah, those are the things we get anyway (which we trusted, based on galleries on her site), we just need a list of 8 max, must have shots - one of which included our shoes. And it's AWFUL. The pictures look nothing like those on her blog. The pictures by the second shooter are way better than hers IMO... NO shots on film, despite that being her USP. And the reason we picked her for a couple of hundred quid extra over our second choice.

Hardly any pictures of my family.

I just want to cry :'(

Oh Trix

There are no words I can offer to make this feel any better, please accept a virtual hug instead ??

I think you need to look at taking action against her, but I don't know how this is done exactly

I'm so sorry

Xx

Oh no, that's horrendous!! Oh Trixie ☹️

I guess this explains why she's been so cagey about getting back to you. She obviously realised she's messed up on your photos and has just been stalling because she knew you'd be (very rightly) angry and upset. What a piece of work she is!! She'd have been better off coming clean months ago and offering you a refund rather than putting you through all this waiting and anxiety...and all for this! Why did she get it so wrong??? What were the photos like of the shoot she did on the 30th?

You DEFINITELY have cause to fight this and get your money back. And then use it to have a truly beautiful shoot with another MUCH BETTER photographer, maybe for your anniversary, or in your wedding gear again. It's not the same as having lovely photos of the actual wedding day, I know. How utterly heart-breaking ☹️ I'd be absolutely tamping ?

HUGE hugs to you
xxxxxxx

This is really awful, I'm so sorry to hear that they turned out like that. And after all the time she made you wait for them ☹️

I think you need to look at taking legal action against her, especially if what you received wasn't as described in your contract. If your pictures look nothing like the work on her galleries, it seems to me that she has completely mis-sold her work and services as a photographer.

You absolutely deserve to get a full refund, what a horrible cow that she obviously knew she had cocked it up but wouldn't tell you!

Massive hugs!! xx

Aw Trix that's awful. I'd let her know how unhappy you are but given what's been going on I don't imagine she's going to offer to do anything.

The photographers on here have always been really helpful so I'm sure one of them will have some good advice for you.

It's rubbish that she's let you down like this. Can you get in touch with your guests and get all their photos together? Maybe then you might get some decent ones and feel a bit better?