Photographer

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Non-disparagement clauses are actually legal in Canada at the moment, but several US states have outlawed them under freedom of speech laws! I hate that they are still legal here because that does not allow for accurate representation of the business!

Yeah that sounds sketchy to me. The 40% discount is pretty average but the no reviews and the low guarantee seem problematic. Sounds like the minimum picture amount is if they screw up, you can’t sue them. And if you had good practices you wouldn’t need a bad review clause (which doesn’t sound legal lol). I’d definitely shop around. If you have a weird feeling about something, listen to that.

Check out photographers websites and make a list of things youre looking for or you want, also make a rough timeline of your wedding day so you can figure out how long you need a photographer for. then email photographers and send them the list of stuff your looking for. also 50 photos is NOTHING. my e shoot which was free with my package included 200 touched up photos!! so ur wedding day that is not a lot photos. i dont like the sound of this lady i would contact other people.

Thank you everyone for your opinions, its good to know that it was a little off and not just me being crazy! I think I am going to keep looking for now!

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Great thank you, her work looks amazing, I sent her a message!

I have a photographer that I have loved so far. I've had friends use her in the past and her photos are incredible. She is such a easy going woman as well. So happy to discuss anything, including her contract. Her name is Beth and her website is www.bgracecreatives.ca

Just a suggestion if you are looking for a different one! Happy hunting.

The no negative reviews is a huge red flag to me. That means that you can't really trust any of the reviews about her, because there may be all kinds of poor experiences with her out there but the couples won't say anything because of that contract. I would think that if a photographer is really as good as advertised, they wouldn't anticipate poor reviews and wouldn't need a clause like that! Personally, I would not sign to that kind of clause.

If that isn't an issue for you (which is fine), then you can ask for more guaranteed photos. Sure, she's saying that you'll get more, but maybe she only gives out 50 to couples and the unhappy ones then feel like they can't say anything because of the non-disparagement clause (several states in the US actually have laws against these kinds of clauses in contracts to prevent this exact scenario!). So I would definitely look into what the average is for how many photos are provided to couples, and say that in order to sign the contract you want a minimum guarantee of X number that you looked up to make sure you come away happy.

Your guarantee does seem low to me IMO. I think I got 50 photos from a one-hour engagement shoot.

We had 2 photographers for 8 hours and our contract stated that we'd get 300-350 photos. We ended up with more but that was just the guarantee in the contract.

I'd also be wary of no negative reviews. It skews all her current reviews, which all had to be positive. There could be couples she worked with who were unhappy, but didn't/couldn't post a review.

Personally, I would look at other photographers. My gut feeling tells me you don't want to chance it with this one. They do book up fast, I'd try to book with a year to go still, which is coming up.

Photographers book up quickly, so I wouldn't wait too long. If you can book before March you should be safe with your wedding in January 2021.


I agree with Allison, the bo negative reviews things would scare me too! I think if you're having this many misgivings you should take it as a sign to keep looking. As far as numbers, we got 75 edited photos from our ~1 hour engagement shoot so you should get more from a full day!
We also paid 30% deposit before booking our engagement photos and to save our date.

I would say a couple things to note;

- From all of the photographers 30% deposit seems to be the standard (30% upon signing, 30% 6 months prior, and the rest on the day of)

- The "no negative reviews" thing is a huge red flag! With no "threat" of potentially getting a negative review, there is no incentive for the photographer to work hard and provide quality photos!

- I would ask to up the guaranteed photo number - contracts are negotiable! All of the photographers I've spoken to say you should likely get between 50 - 100 photos per hour if you have one photographer (and 100 - 200 if you have a second shooter!) so I would definitely ask if she can guarantee a larger number. If she can't, that typically means she's not confident in her ability to deliver a larger number of equally beautiful photos.

- Booking a photographer is tricky, because they might not be busy now but come the holidays (aka engagement season) more and more newly engaged people will start booking! Also, if you book now you'll guarantee yourself the 2019 rates, rather than their rates next year if they happen to go up!

Firstly, look at how many photos you're getting, amount of coverage, whether its's one or two photographers.

We didn't have time to go meet our photographers beforehand as their hours conflicted with our working hours - so we gave a deposit just from speaking with them, receiving a quote and outline of our day, etc.

I can't remember the deposit that we paid but I think it was a third of the total bill.

Photographers book up fast! I'd book sooner rather than later, especially before photographers start increasing their annual rate. We booked ours over a year and a half in advance.