so here's what happened

I finally connected with our engagement photographer on Monday and she finally sent me the pricing and the same “1980s what-not-to-wear brochure” for the 4th time. I took a serious look at the pricing yesterday and discovered that in addition to NOT selling the digital images they don’t sell their proofs. Their system is this: photo session, photo slideshow @ their studio, order photos from giant slide show on the spot, don’t come back (unless you want to pay $25), photos are mailed 3wks later.

Can you tell I’m not pleased?
Our “gift certificate session” includes the sitting fee and one 4x6 portrait.
So this means we could take hundreds of fabulous photos, in my dress, in jeans, with the dog, etc, but we only walk away with one photo. This one photo is the one that will be printed in the worst quality possible in the newspaper. It's not that I wasn't expecting to pay to have photos, but I wanted all of them to make into a cool guestbook, regardless of digial or printed proofs.

So at the risk of getting my dress dirty, having the dog look like a giant stain on Andy’s lap, or looking like ants sitting on a bridge, we’re just going to show up all “casual” take the head shots and go home.
I am incredibly disappointed. I guess wasted my time on outfits and locations before reading the fine print. Part of me thinks it's silly that I want to spend so much time and money on pictures that aren’t even from our wedding day, but I want to capture us looking “normal” and include the dog since he won’t be invited to the wedding.

Is this me or the wedding machine talking?
We're thinking of having a friend or parent take our photos in those same spots on the cheap… this sounds like a better plan, but I’m not sure that my mom is up to the photojournalistic expectations I have in mind…