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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to be slightly disappointed with wedding photos

41 replies

Movingtobucks · 13/12/2018 12:39

A few days ago (and more than 8 weeks post-wedding) we received our wedding photos through. There were 200 photos, and only a handful from the actual ceremony. They were beautiful, but from 8 hours of shooting I was expecting more and certainly expecting some of us actually getting married.

I have asked if she has a few more of certain key moments but not sure if I’m BU?

She’s a professional photographer, has good reviews online. No other pictures of the ceremony so if she doesn’t give us some we’re left without...

If the problem is that she’s realised she’s under-quoted I’d be happy to pay a bit more for editing time, but I don’t know how best to approach it.

OP posts:
Oblomov18 · 13/12/2018 12:48

Ours were truely awful and I was gutted. My friend who was good at photography arranged it. He too was embarrassed and gutted.

Go back to her. But I fear she doesn't have any more of your ceremony. Or else why wouldn't she have included them? If she had loads but they were poor quality/ something went wrong/ bad lighting/ all gone green for some bizarre reason, surely she would have said?

Be brave. Ring her. Or at least put all your questions in an email ASAP.

Sonders · 13/12/2018 12:52

I'd check what's in the contract before you go back to her, ours said we'd have a minimum of X photos, and it's not uncommon to give a range.

For 8 hours though I'd expect a few hundred photos - they'd take a lot of editing but that's what you paid for. Maybe there's more to come and she just hasn't said so?

EmUntitled · 13/12/2018 12:56

200 photos sounds like loads to me. It can't hurt to ask if she has more but I would have thought she would have included them already

3headedpurplegiantpeopleeater · 13/12/2018 13:00

I could have written this post OP!
I was devastated when our photo's finally came through from our photographer.

The most disappointing thing for us was that I did a hell of a lot of research into booking our Tog and met with many in person to look at their work and discuss our wants/do not wants. After booking our Tog and our final meeting before the wedding we were so confident that he understood our wishes and 'got' exactly what we wanted from him (and his scarily large price tag!)......

Fast forward 7 weeks after the wedding - none of the 'want' photos were captured, we have no shots of the kids (we are a very big, close family with lots of little ones who were all part of the wedding in a big way), none of just me and my parents, none of me and my sisters etc etc... Don't get me wrong, we have some lovely pics of us as a couple but the others are very disappointing or none existent.

I contacted him straight away and asked if there were photos that weren't included on our USB from him and asked him to cross reference our wish list to see if the ones we had wanted had just slipped through the editing net. Unfortunately it wasn't a mistake - the pics just weren't taken.

I would contact your Tog and ask. They can only say no, but you never know they may have some of the 'wanted' shots still on their database but they simply didn't make it into the editing round for whatever reason. If you don't ask you wont know.

Hopefully your Tog will be kinder than ours in their after care... I ended up having to cut all communication with him because he became very aggressive - suffice to say we haven't written him a recommendation for his websites etc.

user1474894224 · 13/12/2018 13:02

How many pictures do you need of the actual ceremony? You were there....you have a few for memories - what are you planning to do with them? One will go up around the house....the rest in a book? Surely it's more important to see a picture of each of the guests who came. 200 photos is loads.......

CuppaSarahsCuppaChristmasCheer · 13/12/2018 13:06

I didn't like our wedding photos. But I wasn't too bothered as I loved the guests candid shots and am not a huge lover of photos anyway.

To be honest I just don't like photos of me, I hate how I look in photos and you can tell how uncomfortable I am posing. But the biggest problem I have with the wedding photos what that I was comparing our photos with the perfect images you see online. The reality was never going to live up to it! Is there an element of that do you think?

YahBasic · 13/12/2018 13:10

I was the same as Cuppa - I’ve got a few that I really like, but the vast majority I just don’t like how I look, particularly the “couple shots”.

We’ve had a lot of pressure from family to share out the links for our photos and I just really want to keep them private.

Twickerhun · 13/12/2018 13:10

I can sympathise I didn’t like my dress when it arrived for the wedding after months of fitting and being ordered it was horrible. It’s not a great feeling if your dream day has a tainted element.

KeysHairbandNotepad · 13/12/2018 13:15

As pps have said , do check your contract and also whether she was allowed to photograph during the ceremony. A church may not allow this for example.

That said , the number of pictures does seem low. We had the lowest priced package from our photographer (£300 for up to 99 images and 2 hrs of photography, pics delivered on a memory stick) and he took 120 photos in the end. We like 30 of them but that's just us being super fussy.

allinmyhead12 · 13/12/2018 13:20

It like reading history, think i have been doomed with photos, my first wedding they were all a funny colour, sent them back twice and had some missing ( we know as guests had photos they had taken themselves of the set up pose we did). Then my second wedding (and hopefully my last LOL) the photographer was a no show so only had whatever guests took
Wondering if someone is trying to tell me something in regards to photos of me LOL

in regards to yours i would just be honest, they are your photos your memories and your money, make sure they are what you want them to be.

Original poster
Movingtobucks · 13/12/2018 13:30

Thanks all. The T&C dont specify a number, just the time that she’d photograph. She said on the day we could expect 3-500 but I don’t need loads more, just a few. For example I’d like a picture of us signing the register, and I know she took some because we posed for her!

Hopefully she can send over 2-3 more nice pictures and everyone’s happy.

OP posts:
wellhellojill · 13/12/2018 13:36

The amount does seem low. We only had a photographer for 3 hours but ended up with 400 photos. She was brilliant. You should definitely expect photos of key things like the signing of the register. I hope they have some more for you.

CycleWoman · 13/12/2018 13:42

Ah I was gutted with my wedding photos too. We wanted a mix of formal and informal shots of our day. We got a handful of formal shots with hardly anybody looking at the camera and then a tonne of arty reportage shots (a large percentage were of the only two kids who were there who weren’t remotely related to us!). We didn’t like the images of us alone either.

Grumblepants · 13/12/2018 13:43

I completely sympathise as we had exactly the same. Our pictures came backless than a week after the wedding, so it was obvious no time was spent editing. I specifically asked for pictures of my dress from the back as it had loads of detail but there wasn't one photo of this. The church had a beautiful litch gate which any decent photographer would have used, but it didn't even occur to him!
I cried when I got them back as I had also paid a fortune and done loads of research.
I ended up going to another photographer getting my hair and make up done again and having studio shots taken of my dress.

Grumblepants · 13/12/2018 13:48

Oh and we paid for 10 hours of photography yet every time we saw him in the evening he was chatting to the video guy. He asked us to feed him then ordered the most expensive item on the menu (a £20 steak baguette! Which we didn't know until the next day). We also paid extra for the photo booth as an additional service. But even though he added on a couple thundered pounds more for this he did it within the 10 hours we had already paid for, so we were losi g his time doing the candid shots we wanted.
Sorry I had to get that off my chest....I'm still bitter. Thanks for listening Smile

CantWaitToRetire · 13/12/2018 13:50

My wedding was a good few years ago now, and our photographer was supposed to be the best one from the place we chose. With the excitement of the day we didn't keep close tags on what pictures/poses he was requesting and the end results were awful. He had no idea how to group people, the lighting was terrible, there were no pictures (apart from one large group one) with my brother in, and hardly any nice 'couple' pictures of me and DH.

Original poster
Movingtobucks · 13/12/2018 13:56

Thanks all. I think the reason I feel bad contacting her is that in general we love the pictures. There are some beautiful ones of the two of us, the formal shots are lovely and there’s pictures of pretty much every guest. But the ceremony was obviously the highlight of the day and the part where there was no one else taking pictures. I’d just like a few memories of the key moments. Probably my fault for not mentioning it explicitly but I’d kind of assumed that she’d photograph the big moments of the actual wedding, and we’d get to see the results.

But on the other hand we do have some beautiful pictures so if it turns out there are no others I’m not going to be completely gutted.

OP posts:
amusedbush · 13/12/2018 13:58

200 photos sounds like loads to me.

We got married in New York, paid for three hours of photography and got more than 200 photos. Bear in mind that we travelled between locations (Central Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station and time spent in taxis/on subway) so it wasn't three full hours of photography.

For eight hours (and the prices that photographers can charge) I'd expect a lot more.

TheCraicDealer · 13/12/2018 14:01

I got 920-odd photos- obviously not edited, I just selected a handful for him to touch up from those. 200 seems like very few for the whole day. Could you ask them to clarify if there are other unedited images as well as those already sent?

Jinglealltheway2018 · 13/12/2018 14:02

I got about 200 and was disappointed totally missed out my ds walking down the aisle with bridesmaid he was literally cropped out.

livelyredjellybean · 13/12/2018 14:14

I was gutted with our wedding photos too. We were asked to pick 250 photos to keep and 60 to print (in a photo book, not an album that I was expecting); I really struggled to pick enough. He didn’t get any candid shots, nor picture of the kids - which I specifically asked for. Absolutely gutted 😥

DarlingNikita · 13/12/2018 14:35

I'd be really Hmm about a supposed professional wedding photographer who didn't send me/hadn't taken/needed to be briefed to take photos of moments like signing the register. I wouldn't feel bad at all about asking about it.

redandyellowandpinkandgreen99 · 13/12/2018 14:44

@Movingtobucks

I can't help wondering if you are my friend's daughter! She got married in the late summer, and the photographer, a woman in her 30's, took no more than 5 or 6 pics in the Church, and mostly from the back! We took 10-12 more pics in the church/churchyard than the bride and groom got from the photographer.

I mean, they were good and all, but so few from the church, that she got a bunch from people she knows who took them with their camera(s.) Are you SURE no-one else has any? I find it hard, if not impossible to believe that not a single soul who attended your wedding, has any photos of the ceremony!

Alfie190 · 13/12/2018 14:47

We got married overseas, at an outdoors venue. We got about 100 photos. I don't really like pictures of myself and don't like a lot of them, but I have a few that I really love and that is enough for me.

EmNetta · 13/12/2018 15:01

I've known two professional photographers quite well, one a neighbour (U.K) and one American, working in the Bahamas. Both used to joke about the less able/experienced people in their firms being sent to "do" weddings, which certainly surprised me at the time.

 We couldn't afford a photographer at our wedding, so I've no direct experience as a customer, but my brother, an enthusiastic novice, was asked to take the wedding photos for a friend.   Despite his lack of confidence, we were both surprised at the number of compliments he received as a complete beginner, but after reading this thread, it seems my two photographer friends were probably right.

    I do feel very sorry for all the disappointed brides, and wonder if I should recommend asking a friend to take the pictures if there's ever a next-time.
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