My best friend was married on July 1. As her wedding gift, I offered to assist with the payment of a photographer for her special day. Her choice of maid of honor owns "Newlun Photography" and claims to be a professional photographer. She quoted a price of $725.00 for her services for the day of the wedding. She stated that this would include photos at the church, remote pictures, 2 assistants, and pictures at the reception. She also stated that this would INCLUDE the "wedding album".
Well, firstly, at the church, her "assistants" are two giggly teen age girls, neither of which has graduated high school yet, and she claims she pays them 12 dollars per hour. She had the girls take the vast majority of the pictures, because she was IN the wedding party, and thus, was one of the subjects.
Then, as we were in the church basement prior to the wedding, she told her assistants that she didn't care WHAT the pastor said, she wanted flash pictures taken DURING the ceremony. After all, what was he going to do? Stop the ceremony and tell them to stop?
This is the EPITOMY of unprofessional behavior. The pastor specifically stated that because of an eye condition he has, he allows pictures during the ceremony, but NO FLASH, as it literally blinds him, and he loses his place, making it awkward for everyone involved.
Her assistants got right up behind the bride and groom, facing the pastor, and took several pictures with flash during the ceremony, causing Pastor to lose his spot a couple of times, and it was just aweful.
THEN comes the reception. She took so long with pictures, more than the 90 minutes she said she needed, that the bridal party was actually late for the dinner, which started without the bride and groom in place. She and her assistants DID take numerous pictures of the guests at the reception, and they were there till the end, however, The reception ended abruptly when a fight broke out among a couple of the guests, some of which were the groom's daughters, and the evening was quite ruined.
Amanda did not call, talk to, write, or otherwise contact either the bride, or the groom, for a couple of weeks, despite their repeated phone calls, and requests for her to call. Then about a week after their last call, she left their "wedding album" and some loose pictures in a wal-mart Bag between the screen door and the inside door, on a rainy night.
The "album" was a $2.00 picture book from Walmart, with pictures that were DEVELOPED at the photo kiosk AT Walmart. It contained 104 pictures, none of which were any more special than anything I could have taken myself, with a digital camera.included were cheesy captions on some of the pages, done with stickers, OVER the pictures, and the worst of which were pictures of the people that had started the fight at the end of the evening, WITH their alcohol in their hands, with the caption: "Good friends, Good Times" COMPLETELY innappropriate!
My friend, for her 725 dollars, recieved 130 4 X 6 regular, glossy paper photo prints, 3 of which were close up pictures of the photographer's daughter, there were NONE of the bride and her father, it was just a mess.
This woman is the epitomy of unprofessional business practices, and I just pray that she was only joking when she said she had given us HALF OFF her regular rates, because the bride is a friend of hers. I'd be mortified if I agreed to pay $1500 for photography for my wedding, and recieved this pile of badly done scrap she calls an "album".
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