Wedding Vendor Horror Stories: Wedding Photographer Shares Crazy Experience 

Definitely a crazy story and very unprofessional of that coordinator. Hopefully she learns from it. One of the most bizarre wedding photography stories I have had, was that I was hired by another photographer to be a 2nd shooter for a wedding. We messaged back and forth and spoke on the phone to go over details. We confirmed I was supposed to arrive at the venue (ceremony site) at 2:00pm. The morning of, he calls me and says he actually wants me to be at the hotel for getting ready photos at 10am. It was a 90 minute drive for me to get to the venue to begin with, and I was not at all prepared for a last minute change of plans the morning of! We even had a contract with the start time etc. I manage to rush and get to the hotel, and the bride said "oh good, the photographer is finally here, so we can get some pictures." The "lead photographer" guy who contracted me was already there, so I thought that was strange.. he said hi etc, and told me he wanted me to get some photos of the bridesmaids. I started taking photos and then saw the "lead photographer" with a video camera going around and videoing. I figured he was probably just taking a clip, like hybrid shooting and then would step in as the lead photographer. We later drive to the ceremony site and I chat with him asking where he wants me for the ceremony, and he said "do whatever you usually do." Basically he lied and hired me under false pretenses as his 2nd shooter, without once mentioning I was actually the lead photographer and he was a videographer! I was paid as a 2nd shooter rather as a lead photographer as well. He also had initially said he would buy my card off me with the photos and he would do all the editing (I even had bought a new card just for that purpose). At the end of the night he said he wanted me to edit the photos and send them to him via drop box. I wouldn't have taken this gig if I knew I would have to edit it, since I was already too busy to take on another job that required editing. It was far from ideal to say the least!