Photographer dilemma continued..

I'm so sorry you are in this situation! Have you looked into local facebook groups/communities? I've seen some where you can post what vendor you are looking for, your budget, location, and a lot of vendors especially photographers will respond back to say if they can work with your budget.

If a vendor cancels the booking, there is generally never any obligation for them to do anything such as helping the customer find another vendor so I am not entirely sure why you are surprised that the contract doesn't contain such a clause.. In saying this, if it were me, I would either be chasing up very soon to confirm that they will be able to go ahead with the booking, or, start looking for other photographers for your plan B. Good luck

If you end up not finding a local photographer in your price range, I would suggest a larger photography company.

I ended up booking George Street Photo & Video. They hire out local photographers to take the photos on your wedding day and then have an editing team that works with you on what type of editing style you want.

For their basic photography package they offer:

• One George Street Certified Lead Photographer
• Choose Your Photographer
• 8 Hours of Coverage
• Unlimited Locations
• Non-Watermarked High-Resolution Images
  • Free Digital Negatives
  • Online Proofing & Ordering
  • Personal Online Planning Portal
  • Team of Wedding Coordinators
  • Hand Color Corrected Images

Take a look at thumbtack.com and Instagram

I have had photos taken by photographers i found on thumbtack. Both were great. I found my wedding photographer on there as well. Then after researching found he is highly rated on the wedding websites. However, because I originally found him on thumbtack he is giving me what he charges through them which was super cheap. Good luck. I hate when people don't respond. Makes the situation so much harder then it needs to be.

I was going to suggest Thumbtack as well as I see some others did. I've used Thumbtack for a few of my vendors and it's been great. They have a lot of affordable options.

These other photographers that you're seeing for more money...can they work something out with you? Like maybe they don't do as many hours and that makes it cheaper for you? Some photographers will let you build a package with them for something you can afford, so that's why I suggest maybe reaching out about that. They also might even have some recommendations for you because a lot of photography companies work with other photographers or hire out their second shooters at a cheaper price, so they may be able to point you in a direction that you can afford.

So sorry you have to go through this .

This is a tough situation for sure. I would call. Knowing sooner is better than waiting for a response and feeling stressed. If they cancel I'm sure they could point you in the direction of fellow photographers they have worked with. But the longer you wait the more certain people will be booked up, cheap and expensive probably equally so.

I would call and leave a message if she doesn't answer basically saying "I know you have a final say on if you want to break the contract and not do the wedding but it would be really nice if you could let me know ASAP so I can make other plans if necessary".

I do have hope that you will find someone in your budget, a lot is very wishy washy now and I'm sure a lot of photographers have weddings postponed/canceled as well.