Massive Photography Regrets -- Need Advice

Wow, that's totally a crap situation. It's hard to say no to free if you think you're getting something decent. Hindsight is always 20/20. Good luck if you decide to re-shoot. Most of my immediate family and BP is out of town, but if it works out for you, great! We're hiring a friend of FH's family who has done a handful of weddings and wants to get into it more. It does have me a bit worried about quality. She is a professional photographer, just not a professional wedding photographer. I've seen the weddings that she has done though, and they are good.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I don't even have any advice, just hope u are able to find a way to make this better and move past it

In regards to the actual question in your post - no I wouldn't do retakes. I personally don't see the point of them. If you'd wanted pictures of you and your H just in wedding gear you could have taken them any time. There won't be the same feeling. You won't magically forget that those pictures were taken at a different time and so when you look at them you're likely to just be reminded of the fact that you didn't get the photos you wanted at your wedding. I don't think you'll enjoy them as much as you think you will.

That's just my opinion though. I know for a lot of people the photography is super important. But really, the only importance to it should be that it is capturing a day you want to remember for the rest of your life - not just pretty, professional pictures of you and your husband. Otherwise it has no meaning.

Ask around with your guests. You may be surprised to find some great photos that can replace the ones your photographer didn't get.

Maybe you could plan a whole day and do other special/romantic things before (and after) the reshoot that would make it more exciting. That way your associations with the new pictures wouldn't just be "Oh, these are the ones we took months later cause our first set was crap." You could make it a whole fun thing, so it wouldn't just be about fixing the pictures -- it would be one more day of celebrating! This situation sucks, but it is what it is, so might as well embrace it.

I would retake the photos with your bridal party. I have a coworker in which their professional, signed contract with photographer accidently erased all of their pictures. They were able to get stills made out of their video but other things they were unable to do. Unfortunately a lot of their families were from out of town so pics of the bridal party posed at certain landmarks couldn't be recreated but the pics of Just them could be. Truthfully if he hadn't told me the pics were recreated I wouldn't have known. Take then if it will make you feel better.

Wow! So sorry to hear this. I would definitely ask her if she can retake some of the bad ones!! You do look beautiful, though! Congratulations!

Sorry that happened to you. Just ask yourself if would make you feel better retaking them and would you display them? My mom had a very small ceremony and only a few pictures but she's not one to display a lot of pictures either. I have a few friends who had lots taken and they only display a few. The rest are in a book that no one ever sees but once in a blue moon.

Retaking them will not recreate your wedding day but it will give you some nice pictures to display.

Ouch this is no fun at all and a sad story. Saving for a budget is always nice but you also have to think about what you'll be getting when saving for a budget. My wedding was SUPER small and due to this I wasn't able to find a photographer. My aunt ended up shooting the wedding but I didn't expect much from the wedding. And just like I thought the pictures were so-so.

Me personally I probably wouldn't do the "staged" wedding photos. Mainly in my opinion it might be forced. Especially if you don't like posey pictures because the 2nd time around it's going to need to be mainly posed since it's not an actual event. Now maybe doing another shoot just as supplementary pictures of you all together makes more sense. Something you can have fun with and really show your love. That would be my opinion.

Sorry to hear about your loss here. Let us know what you end up going with. I'd love to see this issue redeemed.

The film for my parents wedding was ruined. I think there are maybe 5 crappy Polaroids of them on their wedding day doing stupid stuff (like eating cake). They're still happily married 27 years later and my mom is so over it that she didn't even retell the story once while I was wedding planning. I know that Pinterest and Facebook tell you that you need to have 200 stunning photos of your wedding, but you don't. You have a few "lucky" shots and some bad ones and I'm sure guests have some photos. That should be plenty to hold you over to the next milestone!

I'm so sorry that this happened. :-(

We are not doing a videographer and I would be so soooo sad if this happened to me. We are really counting on our photographers to be awesome! Our engagement shoot came out really well so fingers crossed!

Aw so sad! Definitely think of guests that may have photos!

As you now know, there are benefits to hiring a pro, not a co worker or Uncle Bob. Not only for qualifications and style / quality of work, but also accountability. I am always sad to things like this happen, and sadly it has happened to a few that I know of who went with "someone cheaper" and am sorry you had to go through this first hand too. There really is no advice that can un ring that bell at this point....except maybe hire a photographer for an hour or 2 long shoot, similar to engagement style shoot with your hair and makeup done and dress, and him in his wedding attire, at your favorite places, just to have those at least. Perhaps include your respective parties in some too. I know it's not the same but it gives you so much more than what you have now.

I'm sorry about this situation. I agree with the other comments about asking guests for good shots they may have taken. Also maybe you and your husband and mom can go to a nice nearby park and take some pictures, just so you can have something for keepsake, like you mentioned. Don't beat yourself up though. What's done is done, and karma is definitely gonna come back on that ex friend of yours who lied to you about the quality of her work. The silver lining is that you have some good ceremony pictures and your loved ones were there to share the moment. The cherry on top is you married the man of your dreams. :-)

I don't know what I would do in your situation. You could re take them but they won't be your wedding pictures. I would definitely ask around for shots friends may have gotten. Were there ANY good ones from the photographer?? This totally sucks!

I'm so sorry, and I really don't think you should beat yourself up for this. Weddings involve so many decisions, and it's clear that you thought you were doing the right thing. Hopefully, you got some decent amateur shots and you can get some professional photos of you and your husband and bring your mom & MOH. That sounds important to you. Most importantly though...you are married!

I would definitely hire someone to retake them. So sorry this happened to you!

From having managed a portrait studio for 7 years... sometimes someone who is talented can "rescue" an image. I'm not saying all, or most, (or even anything) will be able to be saved but ask for the original JPEGs and see if you can find a graphic designer who can do it. As long as you HAVE the images, it gives you the option to go back and do it. It doesn't even look like that image had the levels balanced (to correct the tonal range), or a warm filter added, both of which would help. You still have detail in your whites and shadows, so the image isn't *completely* blown out, and a crop would help (but not fix) the composition. Can it be made *right* - No. Can it be made better? Yes.

As long as the resolution is high enough, sometimes its a matter of "this one person looks good in the group shot, but everyone else is glare and awful, lets make it a portrait of the MOH." Sometimes you can piece together enough to at least do a collage frame of not terrible images, especially if it isn't possible to get everyone back together.

If it were me I'd see what can be saved, and hire someone to re-do what I "must" have - couples shots, pictures with my mom, ect.

And at the end of it all - my parents who have been married 34 years paid $300 (which was a lot) for images that didn't "turn out." My best friend was married 2 years before she divorced, and had lovely pintrest worthy pictures. The wedding album does not make the marriage or the memories, and a pricier photographer doesn't mean you would have gotten better pictures, so don't blame yourself! Just focus on what is important (and it sounds like you are!)

This seems to be coming up often lately, unfortunetley. I would retake pics with you and your husband, if possible. It may be hard and pricey to get all the girls done again and guys renting tuxes, if they did.

I've received pics from family/friends and love them so far. I'm hoping that our photographer (who is brothers good friend and was doing this for us as a gift) pictures turned out decent too. I've been really nervous about it until I get them, hopefully soon. If for some reason they don't come out I think I would try to just have him and I redone. He probably wouldn't though, so hoping it doesn't even become an issue.

eta - maybe you could reach out to a photographer, who for a decent price, would be willing to look over the pictures and edit them using a real photoshop. They may be able to make the pictures much better without having to have them retaken.

Hello Private user, I have read through this thread and it saddens me that this happened to you. Far too many times I hear or read a similar story. What I'd like to offer to you is a free photo shoot with you and your husband so that you have some professional quality photographs of the two of you. If you have not already done a re-shoot and live within a reasonable distance from Boston contact me and we can set something up. Perhaps a shoot where your ceremony was would be the best location.