Let me begin by saying this – contractually, Amanda did nothing wrong. Legally, she was able to keep the money, and she did just that.
About 14 months before our original wedding date, on the recommendation of someone, we signed with Amanda a...s our photographer. My fiancé signed the contract herself, something that might seem unimportant, but it comes into play later in this review. To save some money, we paid in full up front, well over $4,000, a huge mistake.
After 3 days, we had another option that felt a lot closer to what we had always envisioned. When we contacted Amanda, she quickly went down a hole as though there was some conspiracy against her. She said she was shocked due to how excited my fiancé had been about signing with her (not true). She then asked who we were going with instead. We told her a relative. She didn’t seem to believe us, to the point that she once emailed me “what is their name” and that was the entire email.
Amanda would remove me from email chains and only email my fiancé, asking if this was “what she really wanted,” as though I was going behind my fiancé’s back. Frankly, it was pretty disgusting to assume that I was someone that would not consider the opinions of my fiancé.
Eventually, she admitted that she thought a videographer had persuaded us to drop her and only use them, something completely fabricated in her own imagination and that led to her constantly accusing us of nonsense.
At this point, she said the only way she’d give us our money back is if she booked someone else of equal or greater value. To refresh, we only signed with her 3 days early and well over a year before our wedding, but this was our only option.
COVID struck and we reached back to her to see if she’d consider settling for half our money in case she could not rebook. She said no. The real kicker was that she’d say things like “everyone in the wedding industry is trying our best to help our clients.” She had every legal right to keep our money, but don’t pretend like you’re helping anyone.
After a few more emails, including talking to a lawyer, Amanda once again started taking me off emails and going behind my back to my fiancé.
I had enough of the disrespect.
I emailed her directly calling her out, telling her it felt misandrist in nature and how disrespectful it was. She responded saying “I should learn to read before I send emails like that,” and that I should be “embarrassed that in this day and age, I would email such a thing.”
Apparently, I should be embarrassed that I was trying to recoup over $4,000 for our family from someone we held a contract with for 3 days. For someone who constantly took me off email chains to email my fiancé behind my back.
When I accused her of removing me from emails, she said it was because it was only my fiancé who signed the contract and that I was no longer entitled to email her.
If you do go with her, make sure you both sign the contract.
She took wonderful photos from what we saw. However, when times are good, it’s easy to go through the motions. It is in the worst of times, such as when someone can make money without working for it, you see people’s true colors.
Out of our various vendors, everyone was understanding, kind, and returned our money when we couldn’t reschedule them, even with a signed contract giving them the ability to keep the money.
Every single one helped us out, except for one.
Shoreshotz.