Luminosity
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2004
- Messages
- 2,507
- Reaction score
- 17
- Location
- Melbourne, Oz but missing Toronto.
- Website
- www.flickr.com
Hi guys,
I have a question concerning wedding photographers and regular practices. Would appreciate some feedback from those of you who own and operate wedding photography businesses and anyone else can also feel free to chime in...
Some of you know that my fiance and I were smack bang in the middle of planning our wedding in Hawaii, which was to be on May 31st this year. We had paid deposits and booked most of our vendors and really only had loose ends to tie up, like decorations etc.
Our photographers were the first vendors we booked. They are members of the WPJA and we were really happy to have found them.
Our package was this:
2 Photographers (husband and wife team)
10 hours of wedding day coverage
Unlimited photographs taken
Custom proof album
Digital negative dvd with rights to print for personal use
Complimentary engagement or day-after-wedding session
This was costing us $3,600 (US dollars) and they wanted a 50% retainer, hence we paid them $1,800 USD.
When we found out we were expecting a baby and that I would be in my third trimester by the time of the wedding, we contacted them and told them. We said that we needed to postpone our wedding and that we wanted to retain them as our photographers for our wedding day the following May 2008. We didn't want to cancel them AT ALL and we fully expected them to hang onto the retainer in the meantime.
We communicated that if they wanted to charge us a little more $500 approx or whatever was fair, then that was fine by us.
One of them got back and has basically said that we are going to lose our $1,800, regardless of the fact that we aren't cancelling, just postponing (we gave 6 months advance notice also). They said all that they could offer was to extend the 2007 prices to us, hence we'd have to pay $3,600 all over again.
Josh called her and they went back and forth, eventually she said this is their final offer:
We pay an extra $500 on top of our remaining balance, bringing the balance to $ 2,300 (meaning they are costing us $ 4,000 USD overall).
They cut the wedding day coverage to 6 hours, not 10.
No engagement session/day-after-wedding session
Choice of 50 prints or proof album
If we had the wedding on a weekday, we get a cd of our photos.
So, I was wanting to know what anyone thought of this. Is this 'standard practice'? If you had a client call you 6 months before the wedding, from all the way in Australia telling you they were pregnant and needed to postpone their wedding but they wanted to retain you as their photographer and would pay any penalties, as long as they kept the package orginally offered and your services as photog....what would you do/offer them?
We wanted to work with them on this but they have come back very businesslike and rigid and it has left a bad taste in our mouth now.
Opinions?
I have a question concerning wedding photographers and regular practices. Would appreciate some feedback from those of you who own and operate wedding photography businesses and anyone else can also feel free to chime in...
Some of you know that my fiance and I were smack bang in the middle of planning our wedding in Hawaii, which was to be on May 31st this year. We had paid deposits and booked most of our vendors and really only had loose ends to tie up, like decorations etc.
Our photographers were the first vendors we booked. They are members of the WPJA and we were really happy to have found them.
Our package was this:
2 Photographers (husband and wife team)
10 hours of wedding day coverage
Unlimited photographs taken
Custom proof album
Digital negative dvd with rights to print for personal use
Complimentary engagement or day-after-wedding session
This was costing us $3,600 (US dollars) and they wanted a 50% retainer, hence we paid them $1,800 USD.
When we found out we were expecting a baby and that I would be in my third trimester by the time of the wedding, we contacted them and told them. We said that we needed to postpone our wedding and that we wanted to retain them as our photographers for our wedding day the following May 2008. We didn't want to cancel them AT ALL and we fully expected them to hang onto the retainer in the meantime.
We communicated that if they wanted to charge us a little more $500 approx or whatever was fair, then that was fine by us.
One of them got back and has basically said that we are going to lose our $1,800, regardless of the fact that we aren't cancelling, just postponing (we gave 6 months advance notice also). They said all that they could offer was to extend the 2007 prices to us, hence we'd have to pay $3,600 all over again.
Josh called her and they went back and forth, eventually she said this is their final offer:
We pay an extra $500 on top of our remaining balance, bringing the balance to $ 2,300 (meaning they are costing us $ 4,000 USD overall).
They cut the wedding day coverage to 6 hours, not 10.
No engagement session/day-after-wedding session
Choice of 50 prints or proof album
If we had the wedding on a weekday, we get a cd of our photos.
So, I was wanting to know what anyone thought of this. Is this 'standard practice'? If you had a client call you 6 months before the wedding, from all the way in Australia telling you they were pregnant and needed to postpone their wedding but they wanted to retain you as their photographer and would pay any penalties, as long as they kept the package orginally offered and your services as photog....what would you do/offer them?
We wanted to work with them on this but they have come back very businesslike and rigid and it has left a bad taste in our mouth now.
Opinions?