Photographer charges a fee for rescheduling

I would check the contract and maybe it states that there. I have heard of some vendors raise their prices currently and any changes to dates would incur that fee. Did you pay in full for the photographer?

As PP stated, refer back to the contract about rescheduling. If that is not specifically stated, you shouldn’t have to pay it.

Our photographer wouldn’t charge a fee, but I think our venue would charge 2021 rates if we postponed which are slightly higher. Definitely check your contact.

That sucks. For whatever reason, people always have issues with their photographers. I hardly ever hear complaints about any other vendors except for these photographers. 15% increase is pretty drastic in my opinion considering Covid time. Would you be willing to take the 50% deposit loss and find a different photographer?


Another idea which probably isn’t the most ideal or probably something you want to do, but you could also ask the photographer take a bunch of bridal session photos of you both on the day you were supposed to get married. If you have a bridal party, you guys could also take pictures with them too. You can bring your parents along and it could basically be like a photo session day. Then maybe you could find another photographer to shoot your actual wedding reception that doesn’t charge as much. At least you’ll have beautiful bridal photos that you want And then even if the reception photos aren’t as nice of a quality, it’s not like it’s all of your main photos. I don’t know maybe that’s a bad idea LOL but just trying to throw ideas out there for you. Good luck

Often vendors do change their prices each season.

I called all of my vendors to informed that I have to change my date to next year. All of my vendors was fine with that. None of them changed their price. Everything stayed the same for me. One of my vendors asked if I wanted them to refund my deposit bc I changed my date. I told him no bc I wanted to have him for my date next year. All of my vendors except one sent me a new contract with the same information that we agreed upon. My photographer was great bc he had other clients that had to change their dates too. He did not charge me extra. I never hard of photographers or vendor raising their prices because of date change due to covid-19. You should check your contract to see what it says and determine if you want to keep him or change photographers. You may also want to see what he/she can offer you for your deposit before finding another photographer. Good luck.

Why would they have contacted you to see how COVID was affecting you? It's up to you to let them know of any changes to the plans.

View Quoted Comment What I mean is since our original date is coming up. All of our vendors except photographer has emailed us to see how we are doing.

I've had a similar experience with our design company. As soon as I finalized the new date I emailed each vendor to see about their availability for our new date. Everyone got back to me within hours of my email with acceptance of our new date and how they need to handle the new contract and if additional money was due. It was 10 days before the design company got back to me, only to tell me they are booked for our new date. I replied to their email a day later telling asking them what the next step would be since they are not available. Now two weeks later they still haven't responded. I sent another email telling them I want my deposit back. Now waiting to hear back again/still. I've read my contract and needed 6 months notice to cancel for full deposit, well that would have been in March and in March I was not ready to postpone our September wedding. I'm at a loss as to what my next step is other than get angry, which I'm trying really hard to not go there. Any suggestions would be helpful.

View Quoted Comment See if they other staff members who can provide services for you. Sometime companies (if they are big enough) can help out or they can contract someone from the outside to help out.

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Have you tried calling them? Mention to them that you tried to reach out, but they took days to respond. I would also say something like we do not wish to postpone our wedding, but this is a special situation that no one has seen it coming. If your contract mentions anything like unforeseen circumstances, emergencies, etc., bring it up. I understand these people are losing money, but this is bad business. If you were to bash them on social media, their business would be done. Good luck!

We were also 10/10, and none of our vendors charged us to postpone. I feel very fortunate that this is the case, as I have heard of lots of couples being charged thousands of dollars to postpone (usually the venue gives them trouble, from what I've seen).

That being said, I'm going to go against the grain and say I don't think 15% is that unreasonable. A lot of wedding vendors are small businesses; they are losing money on this situation as well and it might be that their fees would have gone up for next year anyway. I wasn't planning to tip our photographer but now I am thinking of giving him an extra 20% because we booked him for the most popular date of 2020 and now we're taking up one of his desirable spring dates as well. I don't think vendors should be taking advantage of people but this is a rough time for everyone.

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Yes. I understand it's a small business, but 15% is small or big depending on how much the service is. Our photographer is roughly 4K, so 15% of that $600. Keep in mind that we have not even met the photographer, hence, we received 0 service yet. On top of that, our venue also asked for a fee, so is our wedding DOC. If possible, I would love to have our wedding on the Perfect Ten. I am still speaking to the vendors, but for sure our DOC is increasing the price. When everyone increases, that's an extra 5K or more for our wedding. We were planning to tip all of them, but now they are making it very difficult. We don't even have an option to cancel the wedding without any loss. 2020 sucks!

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I don't think that's a reasonable expectation. It's great that the others contacted you, but that doesn't mean that the photographer should have contacted you as well or is derelict in not contacting you. It's a nice bonus that your other vendors reached out to you, however!

View Quoted Comment They may not have photographed anything yet but they did take the time to communicate & consult with you about your day & booking, to write contracts, to take payments, pay taxes, reserve the date (turning away other potential business. Running a business is more work than showing up on the day. There’s preparatory work, and turning away business means potentially losing money... .so yes they have provided you a service technically.

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Yea. That's a very expensive service though. I guess it costs 2K to do all that.

Definitely revisit your contract. IF it is in the contract that he can charge a 15% fee, then you will need to decide if you want to pay it. However, if it's NOT in the contract speak with him and remind him that it's NOT in the contract and you will not be paying it.

Absolutely consult your contract given you've already paid half and had a single picture taken yet.

My brother is getting married soon and are having tough time with vendors right now. The venue has cancelled on them and will not give back any monies paid. (Apparently the venue is doing this to all of their remaining 2020 brides). Their florist has all cancelled and will not refund them their monies paid either. I get keeping the deposit because how else will you pay taxes and other overhead? But neither one of these vendors will event entertain the idea of refunding anything paid after the deposit.

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Omg! I feel bad for your brother. Thank goodness I sort things out with my photographer. We are still having problem with the videographer as he is not available on our new date. He told us that he can not refund our $500 deposit , but he will try to find someone else to shoot our wedding day and he will edit the film. Another option I asked was if he could shoot our new save the date video, elopement, or something if he can't find a replacement. I find it unfair that these vendors do not offer any service and keep the deposit. They can at least offer something small in return for your brother. For example, if he find a smaller venue or restaurant, the florist should be able to provide something.

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Thanks! I did, and we worked things out. He will not be charging us a postponement fee.