A story ran on First Coast News a few weeks back of a bride not able to obtain her wedding album from her photographer. Professional Photographers Society of North Florida, a local organization that I am a part of, contacted the news station on our guild's behalf. Obviously when negative press comes out about a wedding photographer, it reflects poorly on all of us so Michael Joseph (the guild's past leader) spoke with Mr. Ken Amaro directly to discss the issue. To watch the clip: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=137212
Now more than ever you need to do your homework about your wedding vendors. Times are tuff in the ecomony so if your vendor isn't well established or if they are struggling financially, they may not continue in business...which means you may not get your photos/albums from them. In photography, one easy way to spot this is if the company is offering large incentives to book them or if their prices are much lower than the industry's. It's not uncommon for vendors to offer a small free this or that or a discounted price if you book by such and such date, but when it seems they are going overboard...it's probably because they are having a hard time keeping business. Unofortunately, the photographer on the news clip that isn't producing albums is not the only one I've heard of so it is something you have to strongly consider when booking vendors.
Things to consider:
1. Are they a member of organizations: Making sure your photographer is a part of professional organizations means they have accountability. Also, if the photographer ends up in a severe situation, there is a group of people behind them that will step up as a team.
2. Ask for references: Find out from a photographer's recent brides how easy they are to deal with. Do they return correspondence in a timely manner, and how long does it take for them to produce the album, orders, etc?
3: Go to message boards: Places like the knot.com have message boards where you can ask these questions to other brides.
