LFE (Lori and Eric Ferguson Photography) was recommended to me for my wedding photos. We had been…read morehaving bad luck finding a photographer, as all of my friends whom are photographers were not available during the weekend of our wedding. We met Lori and Eric at their house and discussed the wedding and photos at length, ultimately, they agreed to do our shoot for an incredible price and throw in pregnancy photos. It seemed like an amazing deal. We had a verbal agreement with LFE, but they told us they would be sending us a contract for us to sign, as they didn't have one drafted at the moment.
My husband received an e-mail from LFE, which contained the pricing info discussed, but no contract - I verified there was no contract in the e-mail. My husband came to the conclusion that LFE would probably draft the contract closer to the wedding or have us sign it the day of. In addition, Lori and I had a preggo shoot, and they kept in contact with us - never mentioning the contract. We sent Lori & Eric a wedding invite, which we sent to all of the people we hired so that they would have the specific address, no response. We never heard anything about engagement shots. My husband had hung out with Eric and nothing was said. five days before the wedding, I called LFE and asked what the deal was, Lori sounded dumbfounded and explained that they hadn't received the contract from my husband; therefore, they cancelled the plans to shoot our wedding. I was infuriated, I thought my husband dropped the ball, but he showed me their e-mail, sans contract. I contacted LFE, who lied, insisting they sent it, and ended up begrudgingly agreeing to shoot the wedding, and had me sign a contract. Excuse me, but if the contract is so important, make sure you send it! If you have not received it, contact the customer and ask before you cancel! They had plenty of opportunities to bring it up, but refused to take responsibility. I was 8 months pregnant and stressed.
Lori decided she'd be the only photographer, I was somewhat disappointed at only having one photographer since we had verbally agreed to two, which was part of what I was paying for. We had a small wedding on a boat, so I decided to drop it. My guests complained that Lori was rude, but I had brushed it all off.
We only had 2 small requests: we get a shot with each of our 30 guests and we get a shot of us under the amazing full moon. When we received our pictures, they were great, except Lori failed to take pics of most of my guests, so it looked like a lot less than 30 people, and most of the shots we took with each guest were missing, something our guests noticed when they weren't in any shots. What sucked most about this is that pics with my closest friends weren't even included that I know we had pictures with. Also, the moon shot looked like something a 4 year old took - it was such poor quality, we were incredibly disappointed.
Recently, my husband was made privy to conversations Lori & Eric had with my husband's ex. We didn't know they were friends, nor would we care as long as it didn't affect our professional relationship. In the messages Lori & Eric claimed they never wanted to shoot our wedding in the first place and had hoped that they could get out of it (THIS explains the contract ordeal), Lori claimed our wedding was trashy, chaotic, unorganized, and that my mother-in-law made "disgusting box cake". She also made sure to let my husband's ex know that my father is an alcoholic who didn't make it to the wedding and my brother had to walk me down the aisle. Really low blow. Lori also mentioned that the messages should be kept secret so they wouldn't have to refund our money.
A) Our wedding cake was from scratch and delicious. Yeah, my mother-in-law didn't make it look the way I wanted, but at least she tried B) Our wedding wasn't trashy - it was simple and beautiful, which is what we wanted. We were surrounded by our loved ones and it was very laid back but detailed and perfect for US C) The only way my wedding was chaotic was when my dad didn't show. The wedding was organized, but when it came to cutting the cake and opening presents, it was a matter of catching my husband in order to do so because he was so excited he was celebrating our long-awaited nuptials and hugging all of our friends.
Calling a couple out on their wedding day to one of the PAYING party's exes is totally unacceptable, especially including the part about my dad and calling our perfect little Texas wedding "trashy". That would be like me saying Lori looks like she eats McD's every day.
If Lori & Eric didn't want to shoot our wedding, they could have told us, but instead they lied, caused a lot of stress, and spread rumors. Their actions were disgusting and completely unprofessional. If you consider hiring them, they may not know people to gossip to, but would you really want to hire people that would trash talk you and act totally unprofessional to your face and behind your back?