Wedding Photographer Ruins Wedding
Written by Stephanie Padovani Friday, 08 January 2010 16:52
Bad Wedding Photographer Delivers Horrific Photos
Imagine this scenario...
Sylvia and Marc Day of West Yorkshire, England are excited to plan their wedding day. They want to do everything right, so they attend 11 different wedding shows in search of just the right professionals for their wedding.
After meeting dozens of photographers, Sylvia and Marc settle on Gareth Bowers of Fresh Images photography. He seems nice enough...he has all his teeth and smiles broadly when takes their deposit, promising them unforgettable photographs. They pay the equivalent of $2133 for his services.
"Unforgettable photographs," is right. When the couple finally received their wedding photos, they were horror struck.
Out of 404 photos, only 22 were tolerable.
The rest were horribly cropped and poorly lit, featuring headless guests, a one-armed bride, unfocused images and shots in which the groom was completely unrecognizable. At one point the photographer missed a photo of the bride and groom exiting the limousine and was caught on video "redoing it" with an empty limo.
To top it all off, the couple's thank you cards were printed with both of their names misspelled.
Check out the evidence for yourself in this article.
When your wedding day is over...and believe me, it goes fast...all you have left are your photographs. Sylvia and Marc can never recover those lost memories.
The good news: the Days sued their photographer and WON. The court found the photography service "woefully inadequate" and ordered Gareth Bowers to pay a partial refund, damages and court fees that were enough to cover the cost they paid to hire him.
But was it enough? After all the heartache and drama, the couple was vindicated in the courts and awarded "free," albeit unflattering and pretty much unusable, wedding photography. I'm sure Marc and Sylvia would agree that it doesn't come anywhere near making it right.
This is a terrible example of what can happen if you don't check references, ask questions and read your contract (yes, even the tiny print!) Viewing a photographer's work is not enough; check them out on the Better Business Bureau, call recent clients and professional references, ask for reviews in bride chat rooms. If someone is misbehaving, it catches up with them pretty quick and chances are someone is ranting about them on the internet.
This goes for ALL your wedding professionals, not just the photographer. Most wedding service providers are good people offering a good service...but it's the few like this guy who remind us we've gotta stay on our toes.
I'm betting some resourceful brides out there could come up with an adequate, creative punishment for this bad wedding photographer.
What do you think?
