We originally met Rick and his wife at a Wedding show in Lisle. His company offered a great package if you booked with him at the show or within a few days of it. We loved his books and thought the price was such a great deal. In hindsight we should have known the package was to good to be true…
Our package included a free engagement session. What Rick failed to mention was he only does engagement photos at one location, since this was not stated verbally or in our contract this was a surprise. Rick was pretty adamant about not budging on this. He even tried to charge us $150.00 per hour with a three hour minimum to do the shoot anywhere but at the waterfall in Rosemont. After my now husband threatened to cancel our contract and demanded our deposit back, Rick changed his mind. Please note getting Rick to change his mind took about 3 months. He would only do the shoot on a specific day and at a specific time. Not surprising Rick was half an hour late that day. The shoot went well and he did take around 150 images but knowing what I know now I wish I had trusted my gut and found another photographer.
Fast forward to our wedding day… I felt everything went fairly smoothly until we arrived at the reception hall. From my understanding after talking to my planner and my husband this is what happened- My DJ asked Rick to move his equipment because it was near the outlet the DJ was using. Rick refused to move his equipment and complained to my husband. My husband told him that they were adults and needed to handle the situation themselves because all of our guests were starting to arrive. Not happy with that result Rick then came to me and lied saying my planner had threatened to cancel his check and my DJ had threatened to ruin all of the wedding pictures by being in each one if he did not move his things. After speaking with my husband I found out none of this was true but what could I do at that point? The rest of the evening went smoothly and it seemed like Rick had gotten over the argument. At the end of the night Rick promised to have my photo discs to me within 3 weeks.
Eight weeks later, I finally received the discs and upon reviewing them became aware that pictures were missing from my husband’s and his best man’s speech. Rick checked with his other photographer but could not find them. His reassurance was that I wouldn’t be putting them in my album so it wasn’t a big lose.
When we booked Rick he explained how after the wedding he would design our book and enhance pictures to create a really unique book. He showed sample books that had enhanced pages and special effects that I adored. When he gave us our discs he stated he does not do that. It was up to me to choose the photos and how I wanted them to be laid out in our book. When I asked about whether or not he would be adding special effects he said I should tell him if I wanted anything specific done and he would do it. I was under the impression that was what we paid him for. Just yesterday we picked up our albums. They are beautiful. There are not any special effects except the two pages that are in black and white but it is still nice. The cover on my album is incorrect we ordered an acrylic cover and received leather but at this point I’ve given up and considering Rick didn’t reply to my email informing him of this I think he has too.