Wedding advice

[Landscaper]

Originally Posted by freddieg

I have to agree with Scaper. Always factor in unexpected time delays when determining the time frames for delivery of product. When you are able to deliver sooner than expected, you are considered a photog God. If you deliver later than expected, you are on the list for public stoning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another way to look at announcing delivery dates to customers (of any kind) ...

"If anything CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong." Prepare accordingly.

[AndyK]

You've received some very good advice from previous posters (another reason these forums are a gold mine to gaining experience). I learned the hard way to put some kind of delivery date in my contracts to keep people happy (and give myself enough room to deliver on time in case something unexpected happens).

My most recent wedding went very well, thanks in part to great parents and obliging wedding party members. However I had a bout of illness and lost 2-3 days of post processing. I barely got the images ready in time to deliver but the family was great from start to finish. I did send them some 'sneak preview' downsized jpg files so they had something to look at while I was finished the post processing. The mother of the bride had been using one of them as the wallpaper on her computer at work -- free advertising for me among all her coworkers.

It takes all kinds to get married and at some point you'll run into a variety of good and bad folks.
Best,
AndyK

[oldfilmguy]

Jude; From what I read in your post It sounds like the bride may be a bridezilla or ljust getting cold feet at any rate When your dealing with the public this stuff will happen You as the Hired Photographer must maintain your composure and professional attitude This I know is hard when clients become unreasonable, it takes away from the fun and then it becomes a job,regretably Your next shoot in may will probably be uncomfortable with the clients but I would again explain the reason for the earlier delay but I would not appoligise for thier inconvience Good Luck

[judestar82]

Originally Posted by coppertop

Yes, the bride-to-be did over-react but I have to scratch my head on texting a client.

Email's I can understand but texting just seems too informal. Then there are some situations that nothing less than a phone call is proper. Personally, I would have replied to her initial text message with a phone call to explain the minor delay and arrange for a time to meet.

Curious, did you have a contract for services? If not, you may want to consider adopting one that outlines the terms of services, payment and delivery times. Hand-shake deals are okay for some situations but it's hard to beat the security a written agreement offers.

Not every client is a bundle of joy and you learn from each experience to make the next one easier to handle.

oh damn it! and once again i totally screw up. I didn't know that texting was considered not proper. i wish there was a class or something to take on business ettiquette. I must confess to having almost all of my clients text me, so i just assumed that texting was ok. Well, i guess the old saying is true...assume makes an *** out of you and me. who knows. maybe she got irritated at what she thought was a slight...dang it!

i had a contract give the wedding photography times, but not the engagement times. and your right! she was NOT a bundle of joy and i HAVE learned from the experience! lol. from now on, there's gunna be a small contract for the engagement shoots too! we live and learn...

EVERY ONE ELSE: you guys have given me great advice and while its not a situation i'll run into again, I'm sure they'll get worse as time goes by. I'm going to start the advice of underpromise an overdeliver from now on. it did make me feel pretty horrible, but it was tempered by some Very very kind wedding clients as well. I had one person find out through the grapevine (her maid of honor is a photographer that i hang out with) about my grams death and she called me up just to give me her condolences. another client sent me a card. So, for every bad apple there are tons or good ones! thankfully!

I'm also going to look into a noteworthy business etiquette website or something because i don't want to do something idiotic again! (ie. texting a client when its considered not proper...)

[ronk]

Weddings are rituals and should be traeted with all the respect and seriousness that one can show. It might even impress the client.
In the "olden days" phone calls were followed up by a letter, just so the details were spelled out just there were no misunderstandings as to what was agreed upon. Texting, with its use of abreviations and general informality, may not the best way to communicate. Microsoft Works still has various letter templates, so the idea of formality has not entirely diappeared from the social scene as yet.
Professionalism starts with the way in which you answer the phone.