Yesterday my sister and were out checking out photographers. Of course the ones I like are the ones she doesn’t want to visit, go figure! Don’t listen to your maid of honor, sis! We saw some nice work, but two photographers really left a bad taste in my mouth.
The first one, I’ll call Acme Photo (no real names on this post), was just so obnoxious! His work was good, but his opening sentence was about how great he was, how he was an award winner, how my sisters wedding was his wedding. Which wouldn’t be bad, all vendors in the sales pitch tell you how good they are, his just came across as conceited though. It only got worse from there. We were informed that neither family or guests would be allowed to have cameras at my own sister’s wedding and that if we wanted video we needed to hire only his referral. Wrong answers buddy! I couldn’t pull my sis out of there fast enough. First of all no one is telling me I can’t bring my camera to my own sisters wedding! How rude! Some of my favorite pictures from past weddings are the ones I or a friend took. Second no one is dictating who my sister can hire for anything but my sister or our parents who are paying for this extravaganza or me. 
I believe who Acme Photo really is is who my predecessor wrote the Consumer Alert about. Never thought I’d actually encounter one of these vendors though. So many professionals believe in working as a team, this guy wanted to be the dictator.
The next photographer we visited was my sister’s favorite prospect and the one I call Desperate. His work was nice, but too many fish eye lense shots in his albums in my opinion. Anyways we sat down and started to talk and he was amicable enough. His problem was he just came off as desperate. My sis had no intention of signing a contract with anyone yesterday and I am still trying to get her to agree to check out my favorites. Well we got to the end of the meeting and when mys sis said she needed time to consider he got desperate.
Our original quote for everything my sis wanted was $3000, when she balked at signing he suddenly started throwing add ons into the price. By the time we left by my calculations, his origianl package at $3000 had ballooned in value from $3000 to nearly $8000, he even threw in video production for the price of $3000. We got extra albums, a love story shoot, video and large size wall prints thrown in. Of course on the drive home my sister was ecstatic, she was going to get from Desperate Photographer $8000 worth of merchandise for $3000, what a deal!
I have a different opinion though: What is she going to give up? He started out telling us that 8 hours of wedding day coverage, him as a photographer with an assistant, an Art Leather album, engagement shoot and large frame portrait had a value of $3000. When we walked out the package had grown to include a coffee table album (something that most photographers charge thousands for and he had listed at $2000) two parent albums, a video, thank you post cards, a love story shoot and album and additional large frame pictures. Which left me wondering, his price hadn’t changed, but his costs had just skyrocketed! The coffee table album demo he showed us comes from an Italian company, probably the best manufacturer out there and costs $1500 just to print. Video is time to shoot and edit, and burn to disc plus the people he has to pay to do the work. The additional albums for our parents those cost something.
So I’m left wondering what is my sister going to give up to get her $8000 worth or products for $3000? Is the coffee table book going to be of cheaper quality than the one we were showed? Is he going to try and pull double duty and do the video while he also shoots the stills? Will we get his best assistants or the ones with less experience who costs less? Will the pictures be printed on quality archival paper or some cheaper alternative? Or was he just not worth the original price he quoted and the new package for $3000 is a better representation of what he is worth? In other words if my sister had singed for the initial offering would she have been getting ripped off with overpriced product!
Everyone is in business to make money and everything a vendor offers has a specific fixed cost to produce or sell. So I’m just left wondering how do you give someone $8000 worth of product and services for $3000 if there isn’t something given up in the process. As I told my sister, you can’t go into Tiffany’s and purchase the 1 carat diamond, 24 carat gold band priced at $10,000 for $2000. For $2000 you will end up with the 10 carat band and quarter carat diamond!
Ladies if you encounter Acme or Desperate, stay away!
