Welcome to the world of wedding photography. There isn't much you can do, as the event is over, and she's going to stay mad no matter what you do.
Learn something from the experience. Take careful note of why she's PO'd at you, and make sure you don't make the same mistake again.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you need to service more than just the bride and groom. When you do your consults, make sure you talk to the mothers and see what they want to see from the wedding.
Thanks David. She called today and said something about engaging an attorney. Haven't talked to the bride or groom yet. I told the mother she needs to give me pictures/list that are creating a problem. In 25 years I haven't had anybody that mad. At least I could talk to the previous families that were having a problem. Well, we'll see what happens.
Thanks for listening.
Mike H.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
sorry, this is funny. legally you are obliged to the client, whom ever signed as client, usually B or G. she is going to engage an attorney, if so for what. while it is right that you should provide service, there will always be those few that are out there and no one can satisfy them.
I've had a few comments made over time - mostly a style thing. "Why didn't you take X picture?" and the response was "I never take X picture that way. You saw my work before you hired me, and I asked you 10 times at least during the day 'is there anything else you'd like?'. I told a parent or someone once that teh bride chose me for the way I see things and if she's happy, I'm happy.
So what is her issue? Your style isn't "what I got when I got married in 1974!"? Did you not make her the center of attraction or leave her out of some formal photo or something more 'tangible'?
I'd agree with the others here that you're contracted by the B&G -usually anyway. I know some photogs that regardless of who pays they have the B&G sign the contract. I had one where the B&G broke up before the album was delivered, GM paid for it all and didn't want a refund but wanted to choose pics of her son only and the like. The bride has signed the contract so I told her it was up the bride - she understood. But I can see the legality if she tried to sue - she had the canceled check as proof so it would have been interesting to say the least. The bride has a signed contract saying I owe her an album so if i paid back mom i'd still be on the hook for stuff.
Nothing is ever as simple as it first seems, is it?
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
A tactic I picked up some years ago whilst still in full time employment for an international household brand name was as soon as an attorney was threatend / mentioned we would stop talking to the opposing party immeadiatly and refuse to talk to them directly insisting they had their attorney contact our own attorney, (supply name, address and contact details of your attorney) we also indicated in the letter that ours charges $850 per hour or part of and that he would recover his costs from them, as would their own attorney recover costs from them also, so they were looking at huge legal fees.
This had two effects;
1) Usually disarmed the complainant unless they felt they had a rock solid case and made them talk to us reasonably. ie not threatening us but wanting to reason.
2) Demonstrated that we were not going to be pushed around and drop our trousers just because someone was blagging the "Attorney" card.
On the few occassion we had to use this tactic it never failed, they always backed down and then tried the "Mr nice guy" approach as they realised they couldn't bully us.
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