Wedding Planner Withholding Photos

SDKev

Hi All,

I've been a regular lurker here planning our wedding and I'm hoping someone can give me some advice.

Got married on Nov 4th in Phuket, we'd a lot of items booked directly ourselves once we confirmed the date (Ceremony Location, Celebrant, Reception, Entertainment, Transport)

We opted for a wedding planner to coordinate the day and give advice on the last few items, Flowers, Food, Photographer. - Done our research, had good reviews on facebook / tripadvisor, native English speaker who lived in Phuket. All good we thought!

Wedding Planner was next to useless, constantly forgetting items, Including that we were having a starter & canapes (this was 2 days before the wedding when we were doing the tasting)

Quotes were doubling & tripling coming up to the wedding and when we queried them he'd been double charging / adding up incorrectly...

It got to the stage where we started recording his calls / meetings so we could be sure we weren't going mad!

Anyway, there were lots of other incidents but to get to the point;

We emailed him yesterday looking for our photos, he's saying we owe him another 21,000 THB (500 Euro Approx) for flowers and won't release the photos. We've contacted the Photographer & Videopgrapher and they've said deal with him directly.

We've everything in writing, so we're not concerned we're wrong but will be pointless pursuing the legal avenue considering it's in Thailand

My plan is (and this is where I'm looking for advice)

Email Him and copy all the vendors in the email.

-Screenshot his last email (yesterday) where he outlines the 20k and the reason
-Screenshot his previous email (the day of the wedding) where the price was agreed)
-Screenshot his costing sheet (google drive) with agreed price, in the details it also shows he was the last person to edit it (on our wedding day) so I can't be accused of editing it.
-Upload a 1 minute snippet of the footage I have of him admitting his mistakes
-The post which I'm going to post on all social media and wedding forums.
(I have this post written, its in the email, I've listed all the wedding forums which I'll post it on)

Tell him that if he doesn't release the photos that I will post the content, both listing all the incidents that occurred and the youtube footage.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

pwurple

Do you owe the money for flowers?

What's your ultimate aim? Do you want to get the photos... or would prefer to humiliate the guy publicly and can suck up losing the photos? Because this is the choice you are offering him, and he may choose option B.

I would discuss the money with him if you think you are right, go through each line item, set up a skype etc.

If you dive straight to threatening, he can just destroy the photos and said feck ye.

clint_silver

Yes, if the matter is now solely about the money for the flowers, try to expend every avenue in resolving that.

If the humiliation/shaming/bad press avenue is sought then we can help max that out but you will no doubt be pressing the destruct on the photos. Unless you say that the bad press will be removed when you get the photos. That would be your very last bargaining chip.

SDKev

Thanks for the replies!


We didn't owe any money to anyone by the end of the Wedding day. We opted to pay everyone in cash directly as we didn't trust him to do it.

We want our photos and we're 50% of the way there...

On Monday night I emailed him asking for an update. I got his reply on Tuesday morning "FYI - Here's my bank details"

I'd already the email which I spoke about above typed up, so my reply was

"F.Y.I. - I'll be sending this email to the people listed below if you dont release our photos this morning"

The email was 1800 words and contained every incident where he messed up, screenshots of confirmation of payment and a 50 second video/audio clip of him confirming the balance for the flowers. (The camera was on the table pointing up, so you couldn't see him for that part, but you could hear him & us perfectly)

By the time I got to work I'd an email from the photographer telling me he'd been authorised to release the photos and he sent me the dropbox link this morning.

We still need to get the video which is due between the 15-20th Jan so its not over yet unfortunately.

I'd love to have seen the look on his face when he opened the email and clicked the link of him!!

I'm also wondering how many other people has he done this too!

Gatica

Unfortunately, Thailand is awful for all sorts of scammers. Fair play to you for recording and being able to prove your claims. Hope you get your pictures and video

SDKev

Ye were encountered a few of them on our visits!

I was amazed at this fella trying it considering his career and the fact he's heavily present on social media with good reviews!

endagibson

SDKev wrote: »

We opted to pay everyone in cash directly

SDKev wrote: »

I'd an email from the photographer telling me he'd been authorised to release the photos

I'd also have words with the photographer, asking him just what the hell kind of authorisation he needed from the planner, considering that he'd already been paid.

Sounds like they were in it together.

Once you have your photos and video and need nothing more, I'd make your experience public, with an update at the bottom saying that it was resolved in the end. If you don't, he'll simply move on to the next couple.

SDKev

I agree with what you're saying.

I'm possibly naive, but I don't think the photographer was involved.

He was very apologetic in his replies and even said if I've everything in writing please send it to him & the planner and he'd try help.

The photographer gets work from this guy and he probably didn't want to burn his bridges.

CocoSoft25

I'm having a similar problem with my planner but with my marriage certificate as well. Hope you got 100% sorted?

westernlass

Planners do the marketing to attract foreign couples so they take a cut of the other suppliers services.  This is normal practice.

SDKev

CocoSoft25 wrote: »

I'm having a similar problem with my planner but with my marriage certificate as well. Hope you got 100% sorted?

Sorry, I only seen your reply now.

Yes, we got 100% sorted, I'd hate to think how many other couples he has done this too. I must post our review on his TripAdvisor page.

Have you resolved your issue?

SDKev

westernlass wrote: »

Planners do the marketing to attract foreign couples so they take a cut of the other supplier's services.  This is normal practice.

It may be normal practice to take a cut/commission from a suppliers service, its not common practice to agree on a price, then increase it when the photos are due.

westernlass

No my comment was in relation to why the loyalty of the photographer lay with the planner