We got married in June of 2021 and we hired James as our photographer after having a bad experience…read morewith another photographer. We stressed that the biggest thing for us was communication. We did an engagement session with James and LOVED our photos.
Then it came down to the wedding day. The plan was originally that one photographer was going to come to the bride and the other was going to go to where the groom was getting ready. This did not happen. Both photographers showed up to the bride's house. It felt like he was rushing to get photos. We did not get any photos with the groomsmen getting ready. James left the brides house a while before the bride left to go to the venue, and somehow was late to showing up to the venue.
Family photos after the reception felt extremely rushed, we did not get extended family included either. Throughout the night, I figured there would be photos of the tables, the guests, etc. We did not get photos of each table, we got random couples shots. Which there were more couple shots of my bridesmaid and her fiancé than there was of myself and my husband.
At the wedding, James promised we would have our photos in 3-4 weeks. This is when the communication stopped (of course after he had been paid in full and tipped). After 3-4 weeks went by we checked in with James multiple times to obtain our photos. Our gallery wasn't ready until the end of July, almost 7 weeks after the wedding. We didn't get sneak peeks or previews of any sort, and we were the ones constantly checking in to see where our photos were, he never once updated us unprompted. Our Custom USB we were promised was on backorder so James finally sent us a link to download our photos. When we received our photos we were LESS than thrilled. There were photos with the photographers accidentally "photo-bombing", the dress and accessory photos were taken on a similar colored background, not making them pop at all. The action shots that we were given, we are either making faces, or one or both of our eyes are closed. They are not flattering AT ALL. We were told they would be candid but we figured they would at least be DECENT candid shots.
We have posed photos with our immediate family, groomsmen, etc. I have only one photo with the bride and bridesmaids all together. NONE OF THE BRIDE AND GROOM. We have "action" photos, where we are walking. Not one photo is a posed, looking straight towards the camera, except for one that is impromptu on the dance floor. We are extremely disappointed in our photos from our wedding. The quality of the engagement photo session and the quality of the photos that we received from the wedding were not the same.
Communication halted for a months time from August to September. There were still items outstanding that we were waiting on including our framed photo, our photo album, the USB. We reached out via email, phone, instagram message - anyway that we could think to get ahold of him and heard nothing in return. I finally reached out from a different email address and got a response the next day. We understand that things come up, but we expected to be kept in the know. When our photo album finally came in, James dropped it on our front porch (it is somewhat covered) in a garbage bag on a rainy day. He did not text us to let us know he was coming and he has both of our numbers, he did not call first to make sure someone was home. We got an email asking if we received it. The quality of service and communication we received was not acceptable.