Question on Wedding

[EricC]

You said that this was a friend of a friend.

Contact your friend and ask 'em to find out what is going on. DON'T discuss money, just a simple "hey Brad and Jen haven't picked up their photos" then toss in that you haven't been able to reach them and maybe HE could drop them a note.

This might just be the nudge needed or you may find out that there is a 'good' reason that you haven't heard from them. I just had a bride finally contact me to do her album TWO years after the wedding. Everything was paid up front so I never worried about the money and frankly they had slipped from my mind.

Come to find out that the Girl broke her foot on the honeymoon, came back to the states to have a surgical repair. While she was on crutches she has another fall and has to have emergency surgery to repair a damaged spleen....... then if that wasn't enough she goes and gets pregnant. Don't ask me how or where she found the time Getting around to designing her wedding album wasn't high on her list for the first 2 years for good reason.

The baby is beautiful and I'm sure that we'll be getting the call for family portraits....... sometimes there is a back story worth hearing.

[Mike Keller]

I'd follow several bits of advice posted here:

Check with your friend to see if he has any inside scoop about the situation. They may have had a last minute expense. Of course, if he doesn't personally know them, it may be no help.

Continue to send monthly statements of balance due. Did they ever ask at all about seeing the pictures after the wedding? Do they have any idea how they look?

Was anyone else there taking pictures, especially the portraits after the ceremony? Perhaps they decided they didn't need the professional photos.

[PaulCosmic]

I wouldn't waste any more time and money on this. Cut your losses, forget it and a lesson learned. Keep the files of course, you never know what may happen in 12 months time.

[Peter Gregg]

You don't really know what is happening in their lives so you don't have all the facts. It seems to me that the only place to get more information is with the in-the-middle friend.

You are however wearing different hats here. When you where taking the pictures at the wedding, you were the photographer. Now, you are the businessman. So you need to ask yourself, in the big picture of things, what is the best course to follow for your business? This would not only include money, but also goodwill, and your reputation too. No one can or will watch over those things for you.

If you are holding the pictures then you are as they say, holding the cards. You don't need to rush into anything at this point. The mistake was made by not getting the money up front. When clients try and come down hard on me for insisting for the money up front, I tell them it is necessary so nothing comes between us after the wedding, I don't want to feel like a bill collector and have you hide when I come around. When I see you I want an open friendly family feeling.

You don't have that feeling with them now. It is exactly why you want to get paid up front. If you turn into a bill collector, you no longer have that nice relationship - it leaves - totally. I think we all have to go thru one of these type of ordeals to have first hand experience why to collect up front. this one may be yours

But still, they may be having marital problems, or something else may be going on, or they may have spent all the "envelopes" they got at the reception (another reason to get paid BEFORE hand) already and no longer have any money. The pictures move downward on the priority list REAL quick when that happens.

Still, small claims court, in my opinion, is not the road to take. I think the best chances are to hope they get to wanting the pictures eventually and nothing is going wrong with them. Your leverage at this point is not great, and any action like court may tarnish your reputation in ways you can't foresee now. I would contact the intermediate friend in a way that you seem concerned about the couple. If you get any more info, good. If not, back off, you have the pictures and they don't. If they ever want them, there is only ONE place to get them - YOU

Peter

[Ed Gerson]

You don't really know what is happening in their lives so you don't have all the facts. It seems to me that the only place to get more information is with the in-the-middle friend.
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Very sound advice, I've had parents knock on my door Sunday and blurt out they're getting a divorce. I've had a mom whose son married a very sexy but flakey woman. The mom still wanted those photos of her son and husband (who was in bad health) dressed up nice. You just don't know. Get a healthy deposit and let the good times roll. After all, it could have been you instead of them. - Ed

[jeffcable]

Originally Posted by PB&J photography

I wanted to get some other opinions on this....

Recently, I photographed a wedding...

I agree with Paul. Cut your losses and avoid investing any further time in the matter. Not just because of any attendant hassle but to argue with clients is unseemly and you cannot educate the unwilling... besides which, it won't do much for your general well-being. It should be a lesson learned for you and because you work to be paid (not just for fun) you were the author of your own misfortune. Your price of entry was $x and the failure to pay the agreed admission fee ought to have meant no work.

I don't understand how people can expect to receive services for which they have not paid. One of the great myths which one can hear time and again is that working at fees that are 'more reasonable' than the prevailing rate is a great way to get known and to establish a business. It results in some work being done far cheaper than it should be and the reputation which follows is "there is the idiot who does not know what we would normally have to pay for this work". (in this particular context, working without being paid in full)

Some people would believe that you were too expensive if you were to ask them for 5 dollars for a wedding shoot and they should stay very firmly beneath your radar. Friends, in business are what I term 'love jobs' because it will usually end up with you doing the job for nothing... if you value their friendship. In this instance I would not have started the job without the payment (the value that you place on your work) that you required.

There is no fault that can be ascribed to you when people learn that you refused to do a job for free. It is not that I am advocating that we all become inhuman and money is the only thing that matters. When I don't put food on my table, because I decided that I was going to be a really nice person and it resulted in my attitude being misconstrued, I should look at that situation honestly and understand that it shows that I should not be running a business.

I make sure that there is no area for 'misunderstandings' when I am hired. The term implies that one is working for recompense. You worked and were not paid... thus, you were not hired.

Reasonable attempts to make contact have not met with a reasonable response (Our house burned down and our pet dog died and I was fired and one of my relatives has a terminal disease but... I will pay you what I owe within the next 5 years or sooner if I can manage it)

Write it off to experience and never work without the monetary value, that you have placed on your own time and skill, being paid in full.

[Bruce_Stenman]

Above all you want to keep it on a professional level and leave emotion out of your communications with the couple. At this point they feel like they can pay you whenever it is comfortable for them to do so. So I would send them a registered letter stating the amount owed and that if it is not received in 30 days in full that you will be deleting ALL the image files from the wedding and they will get nothing.

If they come back and want to make payments make sure that you receive 100% of what is owed before providing them with a single image, even proofs.