Wedding Album

In 1998 we were planning our wedding. We met with a lot of photographers, but because my husbands father was paying for it, we agreed to meet with another family member who used to be a photographer. His previous pictures looked good and we discussed what we wanted, which was for him to take the pictures, provide a proof album and a wedding album. We even picked out the wedding album that night. We never discussed the cost of this because my husbands father was paying for it. The wedding came and went (8/98). A few months later we received the proof album. We placed 2 orders for pictures and asked that we be sent a bill. After many, many phone calls and emails we finally received a note from him that contained the amount that we owed (1/17/01). To this day we still don't have our wedding album. He said he finally ordered the pictures for the album and that we owed him money for these. We were under the impression that his father had already paid for this since that is what we talked about before the wedding (father says that is what he thought he was paying for). Because this is a family member, my husbands father didn't worry about getting any paperwork when he paid for the services. The photographer acknowledges in a recent email that we need to pick out a new wedding album because the one that we had chosen 'some time ago' has been discontinued (so he knew that we wanted a wedding album -- why wouldn't it have been included in the price that he quoted?). We also wanted to purchase the negatives from him because of all the trouble we have had trying to get pictures made. He is not willing to sell them to us. We are at a complete loss for what to do now. We live in CT and the photographer lives in NY. Some people have suggested taking him to small claims court. Is it worth it?

You now know that one of the many mistakes in this deal was not beinf specific what you were getting (whether you paid or not), and putting it in writing. But, that is just another 'lesson learned'.

I sugggest that since you don't have any idea what you purchased, ask the photographer to furnish, in writing, a detailed list of what he is providing for the funds that he received. Also, ask for a detail 'optional' price of specific extras that you might want. Then, once you know what HE is going to provide, you can decide what you want to pay extra for. Really pretty simple.

Then, if he doesn't provide what he was paid for, you will have the basis for possible legal action. And you can decide what you are going to pay for. (It seems strange that you would believe that you can ask for ANYTHING you want expecting that 'someone' else has already paid for, especially since you are not a party to the payment or the agreement. Get what WAS paid for and then pay the difference for 'extras'. Oh, and after you get the 'paid for' list, make sure that the purchaser agrees that is what HE purchased.)