That's an awful story. Such disgraceful behaviour. Fair play to you for not naming and shaming.. it must have been tempting!! I hope it gets sorted out for you birds.

Oh wow what a story! Jesus, that must have been a nightmare. Opening the cards in front of you scrabbling for cash - I actually cringed reading that. And then the bloody cheque bouncing. The outright brass neck of them! That's just plain bad manners.

I got married last year and while I did haggle with suppliers and ask for a decent price I wouldn't have DREAMT of treating someone like that. I'd always advise brides and grooms to haggle with suppliers and see if there's any extras or a better price that can be worked out - but Mother of God there's a limit like!

We paid off our hotel in installments and then the rest of the suppliers we paid a big enough deposit and then either paid the week of the wedding or the day of the wedding. Those on the day of the wedding we paid in cash (priest, DJ etc). Bigger amounts we paid by money transfer, our bank account to their bank account so there'd be no bouncing cheques or cash getting lost along the way.

OP - this is absolutely horrendous, I really feel for you. Seriously, good on you for posting here.

Smileykaz wrote:Oh wow what a story! Jesus, that must have been a nightmare. Opening the cards in front of you scrabbling for cash - I actually cringed reading that. And then the bloody cheque bouncing. The outright brass neck of them! That's just plain bad manners.

I got married last year and while I did haggle with suppliers and ask for a decent price I wouldn't have DREAMT of treating someone like that. I'd always advise brides and grooms to haggle with suppliers and see if there's any extras or a better price that can be worked out - but Mother of God there's a limit like!

We paid off our hotel in installments and then the rest of the suppliers we paid a big enough deposit and then either paid the week of the wedding or the day of the wedding. Those on the day of the wedding we paid in cash (priest, DJ etc). Bigger amounts we paid by money transfer, our bank account to their bank account so there'd be no bouncing cheques or cash getting lost along the way.

OP - this is absolutely horrendous, I really feel for you. Seriously, good on you for posting here.

+1 Well said

Unfortunately here in Ireland people can write a cheque and nothing really happens, well apart from a small fee that they will pay but really nothing happens to them. You try that in Europe and you'll be lucky to still have a bank account at the end of it. The penalties there are huge. Just try and get a bank account there too, nothing short of your DNA will suffice. There a good few companies that I know here won't take cheques anymore, simply because they have lost so much money from cheques bouncing. My final payment is cash only for the very same reason. My payments work in three stages with the majority of the package being paid before the day and that's simply because I don't want to be handling cash on the day. I know some of you are not comfortable with that but I make that very clear in my payments terms, there's nothing hidden. I just want to get on with my job and photograph the day, I don't need to be wondering who has my envelope. I think whats really important is that your supplier makes it clear what their payment terms are before you book them and if they don't, then ask. Opening cards is just plain rude, not only for Birds but also for the people that gave them the cards. I don't know what their guests must have thought of them as well, opening their cards in front of everybody.

Regards.

Terrible behaviour from the bride, and the groom. Really hope you get sorted.

Smileykaz wrote:Oh wow what a story! Jesus, that must have been a nightmare. Opening the cards in front of you scrabbling for cash - I actually cringed reading that. And then the bloody cheque bouncing. The outright brass neck of them! That's just plain bad manners.

I got married last year and while I did haggle with suppliers and ask for a decent price I wouldn't have DREAMT of treating someone like that. I'd always advise brides and grooms to haggle with suppliers and see if there's any extras or a better price that can be worked out - but Mother of God there's a limit like!

We paid off our hotel in installments and then the rest of the suppliers we paid a big enough deposit and then either paid the week of the wedding or the day of the wedding. Those on the day of the wedding we paid in cash (priest, DJ etc). Bigger amounts we paid by money transfer, our bank account to their bank account so there'd be no bouncing cheques or cash getting lost along the way.

OP - this is absolutely horrendous, I really feel for you. Seriously, good on you for posting here.

OP - thanks so much for posting your story here - this is a side of the coin that we never see here and I think it will benefit everyone to read it.

Smileykaz - agree so much about haggling. I haggled with all my suppliers but when we finished haggling and agreed the price for the service we drew a line and accepted that price - it never crossed my mind to go back and try and re-negotiate the price - to me that's just being lousy. Imagine your suppliers coming back to you a month before your wedding day looking to increase their prices because of increased fuel costs or something, I'd have been disgusted.

Hi all, I think I should make my side clear here, I am not the photographer mentioned in the seemingly famous, "Photographer to AVOID" thread, I'm just a photographer who doesnt get online much but read that story and although I had intended to keep my story to myself as I figured nothing could be gained from telling it, reading that story about the photographer to avoid encouraged me to let people know my story.

Sorry for any minunderstanding here, It wasnt my intention to mislead people into thinking I was that photographer, I dont know that Wollie in question, I dont even know that photographer, I just hope they both get their problem resolved.

Again, my apologies, I can see how the confusion arose, in hindsight I should have made it clear earlier.

Regards,

OMG I am sickened reading your story. That bride sounds crrrrrazy and the groom like her little lacky
Having worked in hotels before i quite often got to see how much work the suppliers put in on the actual day, sometimes before the bride and groom even arrived at the hotel. Ye dont get half the respect and praise ye deserve. I think most wedding suppliers just accept it as part of the job but it shouldnt be like that. Brides and grooms need to realise that without these people they wouldnt even have a wedding day.
As for getting "uncle Tom" to do it instead, id tell them to go ahead and let uncle Tom do it. Why would someone even say that?? Would you, as a supplier, seriously turn around and say "Oh no please dont do that, il do it for free instead"!!! I dont think so
And she didnt even feed you All my suppliers that will be there during the meal will be sitting down to the same meal as my guests. I would have thought this to be common courtesy, no?
This post has just made me so mad
I will be sure to have most of my suppliers paid the week leading up to our wedding. And definately all before we sit down to dinner
Best of luck with your business and i pray that you never have to deal with another couple like this again

birds wrote:Hi all, I think I should make my side clear here, I am not the photographer mentioned in the seemingly famous, "Photographer to AVOID" thread, I'm just a photographer who doesnt get online much but read that story and although I had intended to keep my story to myself as I figured nothing could be gained from telling it, reading that story about the photographer to avoid encouraged me to let people know my story.

Sorry for any minunderstanding here, It wasnt my intention to mislead people into thinking I was that photographer, I dont know that Wollie in question, I dont even know that photographer, I just hope they both get their problem resolved.

Again, my apologies, I can see how the confusion arose, in hindsight I should have made it clear earlier.

Regards,

yes,your right you should have made it VERY CLEAR that you were not the photographer involved with this particular bride,why would you start a post with the the heading WOLLIE TO AVOID and a whole story of how you were booked and not payed for your services,if that other post had nothing to do with you? everybody now thinks that the wollie trees is a nutjob,thanks to you! i dont know what your playing at,but i hope the wollie involved gets a chance to come back on and clear her name!

Not fair Errigal08 - not fair at all.
He explained how trees post inspired him to teel another point of view, never claimed it was the same story. I for one never thought it was the same story. Think you need to relax.

Shazl wrote:Not fair Errigal08 - not fair at all.
He explained how trees post inspired him to teel another point of view, never claimed it was the same story. I for one never thought it was the same story. Think you need to relax.

I have to say I thought it was the same story...the way the title was copied definitely led me believe that. Whether it was done on purpose, or whether it was a silly mistake, i have no idea

i always that the title was deliberate but I felt it was because he was portraying the other view point - once I read the detail it seemed obvious to me that they were different stories.

curlysu wrote:

Shazl wrote:Not fair Errigal08 - not fair at all.
He explained how trees post inspired him to teel another point of view, never claimed it was the same story. I for one never thought it was the same story. Think you need to relax.

I have to say I thought it was the same story...the way the title was copied definitely led me believe that. Whether it was done on purpose, or whether it was a silly mistake, i have no idea

i read both of them and i honestly thought the two were the same,to me there was nothing in his post to in my mind suggest otherwise,i did kinda question why he had given her the photographs if she hadent payed,but i still thought the two were the same...and if i thought it, im sure alot of others did too..

Thanks for clearing that up.

And are you sure that the Bride your post is about is a Wollie??

Gawd this made me angry reading it, I don't work in the wedding industry but in IT and I get a lot of
"I know someone who got an all singing all dancing self updating website that's the top result in Google for 100 euro you know!"
My advice, find that person and hire them, fook off and leave me alone. (only not in those words)

If Uncle Tom takes a good picture and Aunt Sally holds a tune well bog off and use them then!

When we booked our photographer we paid a 50% deposit there and then the other 50% when we got the pictures.
While I felt the 50% was a bit steep (what if he left the country before the wedding!) I can understand why he did it.

Would you guys who are taking payment on the day put something in your contract to say that for every day the payment is late there's a fine? say 10-20 quid a day?
Or would that be evil?

The super evil in me would never give that couple their pictures.
Or just keep fobbing them off when they ask for it