A couple of friends have recently had some bad experiences with their wedding photographers, unfortunately they only asked for advice after the event rather than before making their choice and parting with money.
There are a few simple checks you can perform before you book your wedding photographer to try to avoid the pitfalls of wedding photography disasters. Generally with wedding photography all money is paid up front before the day so it isnt possible to withold payment in the event of poor service.
One couple were very disappointed by the results from their wedding photographer. He had charged a premium price of £1500 for a basic service but even so the couple were disappointed by the results for someone supposed to be a professional and claiming membership of the SWPP and BPA professional photography bodies. When I was told the name I immediately popped it into Google to run some checks. What I found both shocked and amazed me.
Firstly the photographer's website was no longer operational, a single address on the page surrounded by Google adwords. More suprisingly the photographer had been convicted of a criminal offence a couple of years previously. Finally despite claiming professional membership it appears that this had lapsed and he was no longer a member of SWPP.
All of this information would have been available before the booking was placed. The conviction was at least 12 months before the booking was placed and was on the website of a national tabloid.
I would urge anyone thinking of booking someone for wedding photography or indeed any other service to use Google to perform some basic checks. Sometimes this isn't possible when a name is very common but often a search will throw up some very useful information that could confirm your decision one way or another and possibly save you the heartache of a wedding photographer disaster.
