Wedding Photographer Cancellation - unreasonable?

[Bunny44]

AIBU to think this is greedy and unreasonable of the photographer?

My sister was due to get married this summer however 7 months before the wedding her fiancé unexpectedly broke up with her, which she was devastated about. She was also left to deal with cancelling the wedding vendors. To alleviate the burden on my sister, me and my family have been helping her with it all. I wanted some advice and thoughts specifically on the photographer.

She booked them a year ago and put down a £500 deposit. When they were informed of the cancellation (straight away 7 months out) they weren’t very nice about it and basically said she’d lose the deposit (somewhat expected) but that their policy was to insist on the full payment of £1800 for any dates less than 9 months out as they said wouldn’t be able to re-book the date and they had no exceptions.

We exchanged some curt emails in which we underlined several CMA policies including that they must re-advertise the date and try and get a booking and if failing that they could re-coupe for possible losses where reasonable. They said they would do that and we didn’t hear from them.

My sister’s friends took her away for her would-be wedding date to take her mind off it. The photographer emails her on the would-be wedding day with the invoice saying they’d not been able to book and needed payment, which she was obviously extremely upset about. Personally I cannot believe the lack of tact! Considering the industry they work in surely they understand how upsetting this sort of situation can be. It makes me think they really really don’t care about the couples they are dealing with. I did call him and told him to stop messaging my sister and really he didn't seem like a nice man at all.

I worked out that he must make at least £200k+ out of this business a year based on rough dates he said he was booked up for the year. Surely they have some leniency than to insist someone forks up such a large amount for him to do nothing with so much notice, he’d already be getting £500 out of her. Seems incredibly greedy.

As a side note, I should mention I’m a small business owner myself and have a rental property for short term lets. I have built into my business model cancellations with reasonable notice because it’s just part of doing business. I’m a bit shocked about the T&Cs in the wedding industry. I think a lot of couples just agree because they’re naive and caught up in the moment and they get taken advantage of.

Any advice on fighting this also welcome, if you think we should.

I think he is being totally unreasonable. I'd say the point of full payment is to cover the time someone spends providing their services and the materials they use, and I guess their skills in doing whatever, like the teaching they've paid for etc. The point of the deposit is to cover their time if they have reserved it and then it isn't used.

In this situation no skills, materials or time have been used so there is nothing they need to be paid for. I guess you could argue that they have missed another booking for the date, but I find this questionable so far out. Like even if you'd cancelled on the morning, you'd have still given him back all the time he would take editing the photos. It's not like the cake has been made...

Sigh. Please go and read the law which has been quoted on this thread a million times already.

"you signed the contract so you are bound" is becoming like "cancel the cheque" but it isn't as (or at all) funny.

He gets to keep the deposit, but can’t get the additional money.

yes he’s an ass. Please give all the horrible reviews everywhere!

@rwalker the photographer in question is an utter chancer - yours, a wedding photographer who has been more than capable of filling a lost slot with 9 months' notice.

Surely he can’t charge the full price for not doing anything? That’s nuts!

I used to do catering for weddings and had one couple who had booked a year in advance and then one of their mothers was taken ill just before the wedding and they postponed for a year. The next year the other mother was taken ill, delayed for another year. Then a week before the wedding the groom called it off!! He’d met someone whilst on his stag weekend! You couldn’t make it up!

He dealt with all the suppliers himself, was extremely humble throughout and understood there would be some charge as it was literally a week before the wedding. I charged him for the staff that I would still have to pay and the loss of income for me, but all the other costs for food and equipment hire became irrelevant so I didn’t charge him for them as I didn’t have the outlay myself. He was delighted to get away with that as some other suppliers had been less reasonable about it. And I got a very rare Saturday off in the middle of summer!!!

Emailing your sister on the date was utterly tactless. I would look at the physical costs he would’ve had; staff, travel, photos, display books etc. and at the very least deduct that from the total cost because he no longer had to pay for those items. Good luck!

Oh, and I think it will massively help your case that he only told you on the day that he hadn’t been able to rebook. If you’d known in advance you could’ve arranged for him to still come and take photos of SOMETHING for the day, and he could’ve provided you with all the agreed prints etc too!