tl;dr - contract with agreed photo range amount for client price. Got about half that amount, told by photographer months later, after receiving our full payment and tip, that for some reason there's not enough content from the day to provide the number, can meet to look and see what's left but there isn't much that wasn't used. Now I am missing a good chunk of my wedding photos.
Full details below:
Hey everyone, for privacy my date of wedding and name are hidden. We have been married for a while now. We had a contract with our photographer, stating a guaranteed range of photos. Now we are missing near half the photos promised, and it doesn't look like we will get them. I have been dealing with some serious things that unfortunately have delayed my reply to the photographer for a bit, and so I am hoping for some advice on how to approach this to hopefully get a decent resolution for me and my family.
When we spoke on the phone prior to hiring, I told the photog the amount of photos didn't seem like much but was assured that they would be quality, edited, photos compared to other types of photos I might be used to taking of family. Still, they said no problem we will aim for the higher range of the contract.
It all seemed fine. The locations were listed in the contract, the photo range was listed, and we provided a full meal to the photog as our own courtesy. At the wedding we thought photog was kind when they offered to send a short bonus footage clip, unedited, of random parts of the wedding. So we thought wow, photog's going to do the edited and do this too, that's so professional. They said sure it's no extra work on their part since they will have to look through footage regardless for the highlight clip (part of our package). After the wedding, we paid the remaining portion of our contract and gave a tip in anticipation of getting our package done quickly and with a little extra. [ Edit: we anticipated them quickly because we were told it would take about 1-1.5 weeks to get it all, and that impressed us]
The photos were to be ready in a week or week and a half, in their words. A week later, we were sent the video footage. But, no photos. I did ask if we could look through the unedited photos in case there something that pops out to us that may not to them. The photog said they were out of town but can look into options upon their return. At some point an edited picture of us were posted to their social media.
A month and a half later, I hadn't heard back so I asked how the edited photos were coming along and when we could look through the unedited. This is when things kind of went iffy but still made some sense.
The photog called and said the first album was done and was supposed to have been sent, they thought it was sent, and apologized. The link was then emailed to me and my husband. Ok, mistakes can happen and they did look brightened, etc.
A few days later once all the photos were downloaded, we realized we only received about half of our agreement. Since the photog had mentioned a "first album", I naturally assumed a 2nd one is being worked on and said I would like to see it first before we discuss looking at the unedited photos, or if it is not prepared then I'd be happy to look through and choose the photos for the 2nd album.
This is where it all went south and significantly upset me. And I was not able to deal with it then but I'd like to approach this professionally now.
The photog said a few things that aren't correct - saying "if you remember" the photos were cut short as we couldn't go to another location and had to "do something quick" elsewhere in the venue. But we never had another location, in our plan, or contract or verbal. It was always going to be a location in the venue or outdoors during our pre-planned "sneak away time".
I don't know if the above is worth addressing, because this next part is more upsetting:
I was flat out told there wasn't enough content from that day to provide the agreed number of photos, that we can meet and be shown what's left but that not much wasn't used. At first I was pissed thinking well how would you feel if your client said "hey I don't have enough money to pay you the rest of what was agreed in our contract", but I held off responding at all as my emotions have been a wreck due to other things, with this added on top. Now I feel like even if we get some leftover scrap photos or if the photog is professional enough to refund the missing photos, I am still short a huge amount of photos from the most important day of my life.
Any advice, please? Thank you in advance!
