Duet Brides

As some of you know, I am less than happy with my pics- there are ones that are great but that are so many that just missed, including any close up of my DH and me. All of our pics, with the exception of kissing photos are so far away.

SO my question is- are there pictures that they don't print and could just one close up of my DH and me be out there somewhere? I am trying to do a thank you and DH wants something with our faces in it bigger than a pin. They tried to crop one of our photos but we are still hopelessly far away for a wallet size. I am getting so frustrated! Help!

Christine,

I feel your pain. I feel that while pictures are ok they could have been much better.

I only have one that shows my entire gown to the end of my cathedral length veil. This was important as I sewed lace from my mom's dress on to the train. The picture was taken in our living room and my MOH's husband left a cycling mag on the couch. NO ONE saw this!!! So there is a touching picture of me and then you see Lance Armstrong's face on my couch

I switched to Duet from another photographer. I loved my engagement photos but when I compare my wedding day photos to other girls who have posted their photos with Duet mine don't seem nearly as artistic.

They missed the shot of me kissing my Dad at the altar... it's one second after.

They missed me putting the flowers from my breakaway bo-kay on my deceased mother's empty chair... that was also VERY important to me.

There aren't enough pictures of my Dad.

They didn't pose people right for the shot of both families... there are gaps of spaces between people and it looks messy.

Far too many... at least 75 pictures of my nieces and nephews... cute but they weren't even in the wedding party and it's not like I don't already have several hundred pictures of them.

Oh, and no good shots of us doing our first dance.

I look at Maxine's (SoontobeMrsZ's) prrofs and Julz33 and wonder if we had the same company.

I was expecting a lot more cool photojournalist shots.

Way too many shots of me on the dance floor making wierd faces... seriously, over 200 of me on the dance floor.

There were many people at our wedding that there is not one shot of. Maybe a little less nieces and nephews and a little more of the older people... I told them to take couple shots (especially of the oldest couples) during the Anniversary Dance. Not to be morbid but my aunts and uncles are older and many people at my wedding may not be around in ten years.

I still don't know what to do so I don't know if I can offer you any advice. I also know the distance is a problem for you.

Maybe you and DH and me and DH could meet at Old Westbury Gardens and have a do-over

Be very honest with them about your concerns. Maybe the pictures that seem far away can be touched up and brought in closer. I think the photographers you get from Duet play a big role in how your photos will turn out.
Overall I loved my photos, but I didn't feel there were enough photojournalistic ones. And the complaint about a million pictures of nieces and nephews is funny to me because there are barely any pictures of my FG and RB- and they were too cute all night on the dance floor. I guess sometimes things are hit or miss. I would definitley call them and let them know you're disappointed and see what they can do for you.

---

Posted by David'sbride

Christine,

I feel your pain. I feel that while pictures are ok they could have been much better.

I only have one that shows my entire gown to the end of my cathedral length veil. This was important as I sewed lace from my mom's dress on to the train. The picture was taken in our living room and my MOH's husband left a cycling mag on the couch. NO ONE saw this!!! So there is a touching picture of me and then you see Lance Armstrong's face on my couch

---

You can ask then to digitally remove the magizine from the photo. I had them create a photo from various other ones because they missed taking it.

Thanks guys for all your replies- I have been emailing Sue about the thank you and she is being very patient with me. I am trying to just get over this and move on.

Theresa- I feel your pain- I don't even have one in my parents living room with my piano that I played on as a child which they now sold. He just didn't even take any in my parents house with me dressed. What makes me so sad is that I really did my homework on who to use from them and they didn't give me the photographers I requested and had in my contract. When I do meet with them in person I will be telling them just how upset I am.

There is one proof that was missing from my day that was special also. It was mostly because of my florist being late but why couldnt they take the pic of my invite and shoes without the bo-k?

There are TONS of dancing pics, but I guess thats what the bulk of the night was.

I so think that the photojournalistic characteristics were better in past brides but your pictures were beautiful...

I didn't used Duet, sorry. But I did want to tell you that I understand how you feel. I have the same problem. All of my pictures were so far away. We had to zoom in and crop one far away picture to make it a thank you (that was one of the few pictures that came out well). Even the kissing pictures like you said. I was unhappy with a lot of my photos (most of them that is). Some of my poses (the only few closes ups that she took), my back is hunched and it is very noticable, so I won't enlarge them. If I noticed these things then how didn't my photographer I wonder? Hum...strange. The two pictures that I have hanging are far away pictures, which were the only good ones! I just wanted to let you know, you are not alone.

---

Posted by Sweetd

I didn't used Duet, sorry. But I did want to tell you that I understand how you feel. I have the same problem. All of my pictures were so far away. We had to zoom in and crop one far away picture to make it a thank you (that was one of the few pictures that came out well). Even the kissing pictures like you said. I was unhappy with a lot of my photos (most of them that is). Some of my poses (the only few closes ups that she took), my back is hunched and it is very noticable, so I won't enlarge them. If I noticed these things then how didn't my photographer I wonder? Hum...strange. The two pictures that I have hanging are far away pictures, which were the only good ones! I just wanted to let you know, you are not alone.

---

Thanks so much- it really does help, especially when you visit your next door neighbor and her pics are just breaktaking. I just wish I could get over this obsession and move on already. Sorry you have the same problem- I wish no one did.

---

Posted By ckgmwedding
Thanks so much- it really does help, especially when you visit your next door neighbor and her pics are just breaktaking. I just wish I could get over this obsession and move on already. Sorry you have the same problem- I wish no one did.

---

Everyone I know had great pictures as well. The wedding pictures that I have seen had great poses. While mine where basic. The funny thing is that the day of the wedding, I had told her to take candid pictures and close ups with unique poses. I had anything but! Atleast, the pictures with my immediate family pictures came out well. But the ones of the extended family are so far away! I wish I could get over it too. I think in time I will. I am just trying to focus on the three good ones that she did take in hopes that I will forget about the other ones.

Christine, I can totally understand why it is hard to let go of things that didn't go just right on that day. Still, you do have lots of beautiful photos and Duet has a good customer service ethic, so I am sure they will try their best to get you what you want.

I asked them to go back and look for photos of our seating cards and our CH musicians because they weren't in our proofs and they found them and sent them to me. So it is possible they have other good ones that weren't sent.

To the Duet brides.. first of all, I am so terribly sorry that you are not entirely happy with the variety of your proofs. I have seen some of your proofs, Christine - and I personally think they are GOREGOUS .. BUT its all relative, and if you aren't happy with them, (or feel some shots are missing) then by all means that is what matters

I was completely happy with my proofs, so I'm not really able to commisserate - however, I do recall a few of the '04 brides that I am friendly with who had some problems with Duet, and when they expressed their concerns to Eric and Nicole, they did eveyrthing they could to make amends and appease them. I will say that Duet does NOT give you ALL the pictures they have taken.. they do 'weed out' the proofs they think are poor qualitiy and the like. HOWEVER, I do know of one bride in particular who demanded to see these proofs that were missing , and it turns out that there were many shots she really LOVED in that 'discarded' bunch.. things the photographers initially thought were not quality pics

SO my point is, its definitely worth an email or a call to Nicole/Eric to see if you can have them gather ALL your negatives and see if there is anything in those shots that might be worthwhile to you... you never know what you might find!

I have to say, that while I did have a wonderful experience with Duet, when you do go back to them with any problems/issues, they really do try everything they can to make you happy .. so definitely talk to them and see if there is anyway they can compenseate for your unhappiness. They can definitely crop pics, try to zoom in more for a closer face shot, take out things in certain pics you dont want, etc. There was a few pics where there were people in the shot and for our album we wanted them taken out, and they happily accomodated us

Good Luck ladies!

edited to add - I guess its been awhile since I got married, I dont' even know who Sue is at Duet

I hate to say negative things about Duet because their customer service is amazing-- they were so patient with me about my sign-in board selection-- and many of my pictures are stunning, but I do empathize with you on some levels.

While I am happy with my proofs overall, there were nowhere near as many interesting photojournalistic shots as I expected-- and those are the ones I was looking forward to the most.

There were a million dance floor pics, which tend to show the same people over and over--and as someone said, lots of silly faces. While we didn't request table pictures, I think they should have mingled around the room and taken candids of the older people who weren't dancing.

Plus there aren't any pictures from our cocktail hour. Yes, we took most of our pictures during that hour, but for the last 20 minutes of CH, DH and I went up into the bridal suite to have some alone time. I assumed that one of the two photographers would have at least walked through the cocktail hour, so we could see pix of people enjoying the outdoor CH, what the stations looked like, etc. I assume it's because they were in the ballroom at the time. I have 10 'table setting pictures' which were taken before the reception-- none of which show the tables completely set (one has no chair covers, one has chair covers with salad plates but no salad, one has half the salad, another has the chair covers and the salad but you can't see the cp, etc.) It's like a photo essay on 'the making of a table' but without the payoff of showing the final product...lol. They could have gone to the cocktail hour, taken a few pictures there and came back into the ballroom and taken one complete table picture and that would have sufficed.

I feel like part of the problem was that the two photographers were constantly side by side shooting the same thing, resulting in a lot of very similar proofs.

I am lucky that I have a lot of beautiful pictures to choose from, but I think that's just it: luck. My mother was upset b/c she thought that there were more of DH's family. I don't think it was a conspiracy. I think that unless you spell out very specific things, they are going to take the most obvious shots-- people on the dance floor, shots that guests posed themselves (a bunch of my friends were taking group pix with their digital cameras and the Duet guys would just get right behind them and take the same shot), etc.

I am so sorry that you had too go through this. Photography is probably the most emotionally charged component of a wedding, because it does last beyond the 'day of'. Definitely talk to them about how you feel. I bet there are some proofs that they rejected, and I am sure that through the magic of photoshop they will be able to address some of your concerns (certainly the one about the magazine getting stuck in the picture). Good luck!

You guys are wonderful for support and information. I have to say the customer service has been wonderful- they have been so patient with me and its not even this woman's fault. I have been very appreciative of her efforts. She is going to talk to Alberto today about the problems with my pics and get back to me so I am not concerned about them helping me- I have heard horror stories about companies NOT doing that so at least I know they will do their best to make up some of the missing pics.

I definately learned that I need to be more assertive about my needs and making them clear. I just assumed that since I had seen such beautiful pics that they would be the same for me. I should have been very detailed and basically a pain in the butt then instead of now.

But thanks for listening and sharing your thoughts- ALL the advice, information and compliments really have made me feel so much better