Word of warning!! DO NOT ENLIST THE SERVICES OF BOBBI PERRY AT PERFECT FLORIDA BEACH WEDDINGS!! I…read morerecently had her and her company do my wedding (October, 2014) and while the ceremony went off as expected, I was trapped into paying a ridiculous amount for my wedding photos. Here's my story:
While working out the details of the contract with Bobbi, she did send me a price list of the photos and photo packages. I noted them and even saved that email and decided that I could budget $300 for fifty photos on a disc. Furthermore, I noted in her contract that there would only be edits on any photos purchased, and agreed that this was a fair and accurate thing to sign off on. Why would I need photos edited that I'm not purchasing?!
So, the wedding day came and went and when I returned from our honeymoon, I had an email with a link to view the wedding proofs. Turns out, Bobbi's husband has a photography company and, lo and behold, it was his company she uses for her wedding photos. This in and of itself is fine, but I would have liked to known it upfront. The secrecy about this made it seem suspect and frankly creates a conflict of interests. She will never go to bat for her clients against her own husband. So, remember that.
Anyways, while trying to select our photos, I emailed Booray (Bobbi's husband) to clarify that I could get my wind-blown hair "touched up" in the photos. He promptly replied that no photos on the disc would be edited. Imagine my shock!!! When I replied and asked what the $300 charge was for, he sent me a link to a very lengthy blog he had written in regards to why digital photos are so costly. In this blog, he used the example of charging a customer a $50 "session fee" and then making up the profits in the prints. Fine. But my "session fee" was $400 for TWO HOURS!!!!! That's quite a bit different. So, if you're keeping tabs, that brings the total to $700 for fifty UNEDITED pictures.
I had several angry email exchanges with Bobbi where she even had the nerve to send me the portion of the contract that I had signed off on that discusses the pictures. Here it is:
26. EDITING
Digital pictures are color corrected, corrected for exposure and cropped at the photographer's discretion. Items in the background such as people, umbrellas, volley ball nets, lifeguard stands, etc. are not removed on digital images purchased. Additional Photoshop may be applied to any prints and/or albums that are purchased and is completed at the photographers discretion. Special Requests for Photoshop are not accepted
As you can clearly see, she states that additional photoshop may be applied to any prints that are purchased. Nowhere and at no time does she specify that digital pictures do not qualify. In fact, this paragraph starts with the words 'DIGITAL PICTURES"!!! Digital photos are purchased to make prints. This is an unethical misrepresentation of what products qualify. In hindsight, I should have asked for clarification. I took this to mean that the fifty photos I would purchase for $300 included editing, albeit "at the photographers discretion". I was sorely mistaken!! I spent $700 to have a guy come and devote two hours of his life to take some photos, then take five minutes and move fifty of them to a disc and drop it in the mail. If that isn't a rip-off, I don't know what is. Bobbi stated that she has never had a bride misunderstand her contract but when I asked her why her husband had a giant blog dedicated as his response to such questions if that was the case, she had no comment. Seems it's okay for her to mix business and pleasure when it is convenient for her, but she doesn't wish to discuss her husband and his business when it negates whatever absurd point she is trying to make.
So, here I am, a month after my wedding, stuck. These people are the only ones with the photos of my wedding day and if I wanted any of them, I had to pay the exorbitant fee. So, I did. But, this is consumer entrapment at its finest and I want to spare any other brides from having this heartache. Please avoid Perfect Florida Beach Weddings and Bobbi Perry! Not only because of her shady business practices, but because throughout all of this, her lack of customer service and concern about me as HER client, was pathetic. I will be sending copies of our email exchanges to the Better Business Bureau and I will be posting my story on every wedding venue site I can think of to prevent anyone else from being ripped off. I hope your wedding memories aren't tarnished by a company lacking integrity like mine was.
