I feel like we are being shafted by our Wedding Photographer, and I'm sure that I'm not the first bride to feel this way. I'm sure that the reason for this problem is a break-down in communication on the photographer's part (since I've tried to contact him in the last week with no response), but none-the-less I'm still upset.

The photographer sent me an email last night that stating that my wedding album (which I had not approved the layout of, OR the images for that matter) was going to cost me an additional $1,000 on top of the $4,000 that we already paid him before the wedding. This additional cost was due to the additional images that he was going to include "at over 50% off of the regular price," as well as all of the time he invested in the album layout. The thing that really miffed me was that I was allowed to make only three changes to the layout without having to incur additional costs.

First off, I was expecting to get a copy of the proof book three weeks after the wedding- and I do not have a copy of this as of yet. Secondly, we were supposed to collaborate together to create a layout of images that Kyler and I would both be happy about. Thirdly, I was not aware that the wedding album was going to cost an additional amount of money due to the fact that we paid him well for his services in the first place. Lastly, what the hell is up with the photographer trying to sell me additional services? I guess I can't help but feel shafted because my family has been using this photographer since 1984, and he has an excellent reputation in Southern California as a master photographer.

I calmly sent him an email after cooling off and discussing things with my Mom on how to approach the problem. I have yet to hear a response, and I feel that he will never truly understand how upset I am about this. Of course, I can't just fire off an email saying a bunch of mean things that I might regret later (especially since my wedding pictures are involved), and I have to be as nice as possible in order to rectify the situation. It just sucks that all of this even had to happen, and now I am a very distraught Bride!

Weddings suck.

*Update: The photographer messed up! Bah! I was totally right... and the type of album that he was designing was not the type of album that was in my contract. He was laying out a "picture book," when my album type that I specified was a classic leather bound with each picture printed individually and mounted on the page. But still... I'm miffed.