Started out good but ended with more stress than wedding planning!
I never thought I would be writing a negative review for Lindsay. I really liked her throughout our professional relationship. We met few months before my wedding, in January, and everything was great. I signed the contract, she was punctual every time we met, and same thing for the wedding day. I'm very organized so she even told me that having a wedding day timeline, being punctual, and organized helped her a lot. I even suggested hanging out after the wedding at some point! As I said, no issues whatsoever!
We got married on July 21st 2019. She sent us the wedding pictures a little late on August 3rd instead of 7 days after the wedding like it says in the contract. That was also ok, we were on our honeymoon and we were not in such a rush. She sent a lot of pictures but a lot were missing as well. We noticed that the exposure was very high (at least in our opinion) on many pictures. They were so bright/washed out that you couldn't see the details especially details of my wedding dress. A lot of other pictures that were taken inside during the ceremony were dark and full of shadows (I did ask her ahead of time before the wedding if she needed the lights to be different, she said no.) I emailed her back the same day on August 3rd regarding the exposure issue. I also mentioned that a lot of pictures were missing such as a front view of me walking down the aisle, one of my maid of honors and I leaving the house, etc.
I am a graphic designer and my husband is an avid photographer, so these are easy fixes for us. I offered her to fix them ourselves if that was an issue she didn't want to deal with.
She replied 4 days later on August 7 saying that she is going through the pictures and she asked for examples of the exposure issue. I told her that it's a lot of them with that issue. And since I kept remembering missing pictures, I asked if she could just send all the pictures she took that day in RAW format which makes it easier for us to fix. I assured her that I will not do anything else to the pictures besides fixing the lighting. She said she trusts me since I am a graphic designer. I also offered to pay her extra for that, she said there was no need and that her work was already done.
She said there were about 2000 photos and she told me to make any changes I want and delete the pictures I don't want. I was excited to be able to go through them all since many I know she took weren't sent to us.
August 12, still no pictures. I emailed her and she said they are uploading to dropbox and she will send them as soon as they upload.
August 17, still nothing. I emailed her and suggested maybe uploading them to a jump drive if that was easier. No Response.
August 23, I email again telling her to please let me know if she isn't going to send them anymore so I don't keep waiting. I also want to print them and put them in an album. and I also suggested paying her again.
August 26, She responded saying that there was some issues with gmail or whatever and that she will drop off or mail me the jump drive first thing the next morning.
September 6, I emailed her saying I didn't get any jump drive. No response.
September 13, I still have nothing and I emailed her to say that I am assuming I won't be getting anything, but if she at least just send the missing pictures and I gave her a list of about 17 pictures.
September 19, still no response since August 26 when she was supposed to mail the jump drive. It's been almost 2 months since our wedding!
Being an organized and punctual person, this issue has added a huge amount of stress to my life. I am very fond of memories and pictures, especially that these are our wedding pictures. This is a once in a lifetime very special event and I want to make a unique wedding album with all the pictures.
I really do not understand what's going on or why she doesn't reply on time. I'm very confused and hurt, because I thought we had a good connection and understanding. I don't even want all 2000 pictures anymore. I'm at a point where I just want the missing ones. I already edited the pictures she sent us, which was hard and time consuming without having the original file.
She agreed to send them, why not do it? why say yes and make us wait if you aren't going to send them? it's basically copying files and pasting them to a jump drive or to dropbox. I have been emailing her since August 3rd. This shouldn't take that long!
I offered paying. I'm just very confused. What else can I do? It's very disrespectful to not reply, to say one thing and not do it, and to ignore someone who is your client.
She has a facebook page and she has been online posting stuff, so it's not like she has no access to the internet.