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Elizabeth
Dedicated September 2021

Tips from my wedding experience 9/5

Elizabeth, on October 31, 2021 at 10:11 AM Posted in Planning 0 15
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Hello Brides! My wedding was on 9/5/21, and I wanted to share a tip from my experience. I'm not here to vent, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong, so I hope some of you can learn from my mistakes.
My main tip that I have for you is hire a photographer that will give you a flash drive or SD card with all of your photos. Our photographer uploaded our photos to a Google Drive folder and then completely deleted them from the SD card. They then failed to tell me that I only had 7 days to download all of the photos they shared with me. Of course, being very excited to post some photos, I only downloaded about 30-40 out of the hundreds of photos that were shared with us. So here we are, less than 2 months after the wedding with only the 30-40 photos I downloaded and no engagement photos. So my advice to you is to make sure that you have a physical flash drive or SD card with all of your photos. Hope this helps!



15 Comments

Latest activity by Lisa, on November 3, 2021 at 9:33 AM
  • Sarah
    Master September 2019
    Sarah ·
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    Oh my gosh! This is awful. I’ve never even heard of a photographer not keeping the images for a while after a wedding. Did your contract include this information? If it didn’t, I would sue for your money back.
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  • C
    Super July 2020
    Cool ·
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    Unless the photographer actually deleted the google doc on their end, they will still have them. It doesn’t make sense for the photographers on sake to delete all of your photos (portfolios, etc). Have you connected with them to see if they can still access the drive? Google makes it pretty hard to permanently delete uploaded items.
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  • Elizabeth
    Dedicated September 2021
    Elizabeth ·
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    The contract did not include this information and neither did the email that contained the Google Drive link. I went back and checked our contract and it actually never mentioned a Google Drive folder and only mentioned a flashdrive. I'm going to call back tomorrow in hopes that they've found my photos or will issue a refund but if not, then I think sueing would be the next step
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  • Elizabeth
    Dedicated September 2021
    Elizabeth ·
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    I talked to the photographer yesterday and she said they completely delete the Google drive folder and trash every couple of weeks. I'm going to try calling again tomorrow in hopes that they've found my photos, but the photographer was doubtful that they would still have them
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  • Janae
    Devoted September 2021
    Janae ·
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    That is so devastating!! I'm sorry to hear this but I hope that sharing this helps someone else.

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  • KYLIE
    Super May 2019
    KYLIE ·
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    That is horrific. If it’s not in your contract, she failed to deliver what was promised. Call one more time and mention you will be taking them to small claims court. I feel like the photos will reappear.
    This seems like a very low-rent operation where she’s trying to avoid paying for extra storage on Google. You have good advice re: brides should ask for a flash drive or the memory card—our photographer gave us a keepsake flash drive in a beautiful case and stores our photos for free in the cloud for 10 years. I would have thought that was standard if not for stories like yours!
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  • Elizabeth
    Dedicated September 2021
    Elizabeth ·
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    My husband and I completely agree with you that the company was just trying to save money by not purchasing unlimited storage. It's absolutely ridiculous that they didn't even give us a flash drive or anything considering how much we paid them. Very frustrating!

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  • Shannon
    Super July 2022
    Shannon ·
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    Thanks for the advice. Seven days is not much time at all and it should have been stated as such in the contract. I hope they are able to retrieve your photos.
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  • C
    Super July 2020
    Cool ·
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    That’s honestly insane of them. And was this specified in your contract? Sounds like no?
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  • Elizabeth
    Dedicated September 2021
    Elizabeth ·
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    UPDATE: They were able to retrieve the photos! Of course, I still gave them a piece of my mind because no bride should ever have to worry about not having wedding photos!
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  • P
    Devoted April 2023
    Peyton ·
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    This all sounded extremely fishy. Sounds like a lot of unnecessary stress. Glad your photos magically appeared.

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  • Heather
    Super November 2021
    Heather ·
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    Oh, wow!!! Thank you so much for your tip!!! I will make sure to download ALL as soon as I have access to it haha. I know my photographer usually keeps hers for about 5-7 years from my understanding. But this is definitely good to know.

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  • Fiona
    Super May 2024
    Fiona ·
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    This is good news! I am glad they were able to find the photos for you Smiley smile

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  • M
    Beginner October 2022
    Michaella ·
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    Glad this story has a happy ending! Thank you for passing along the advice, though. Putting that on the "Things we need to make sure we ask" list.

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  • Lisa
    Rockstar July 2022
    Lisa ·
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    Awesome that they were able to get your photos back!
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