Have you paid him a large deposit? If not, I would suggest that you pull and look elsewhere. If you have then can you afford to loose the money for peace of mind?

You don't mention wether or not you met with him and viewed his work together. I'm assuming you did?

I certainly wouldn't write off £85. Its a lot of money when trying to stick to a strict budget. Don't pay him any more money, and go with gut instinct. if necessary, and depending on where you live, I can put you in touch with our photographer, who will accommodate you price-wise, I'm sure.

You may not be able to get your deposit back as they are often non-refundable. Although £85 is nothing compare to the whole wedding package itself so you're lucky that's all you've lost. Although I would argue that he did say he'd be there a lot longer so the costs would have to change respectively.

In future do check reviews and other work before committing. It maybe exciting to book these things there and then but you need to do these checks.

A huge lesson learnt. You must, must shop around. The photography is the single most important factor of any wedding, large or small. A good photographer will capture every detail. The fact you have a receipt for the deposit is something. If it were me, i would be asking for my money back. The fact that you booked so recently may be used as a bargaining too against him, so give it a go.
£850 (Subject to your getting your £85 back) should buy you a decent photographer. That's another thing - you must tellyourself that your paying for the photographer/s, and the quality of his photos. don't let them cloud your judgment with special packages with free albums, etc. That's no good to you if the photos are of poor quality.

...And next time, don't rely on the internet for suppliers. yes, sites like this one are an excellent platform for suppliers, but word of mouth speaks volumes. Try to fine one locally near you. I think you'll be surprised. There's one commodity that you do have plenty of, and that's time. so use it wisely :-))

Lecture over! LOL ;-)

My photographer gave us terms and conditions and a contract, so we knew what we were paying for. If he's changed his offer after you paid that's out of order, but if he didn't give you any kind of contract or terms and conditions unfortunately you don't have a leg to stand on. You need to know exactly what you're looking for. We've got an £800 package that includes photos at my house as well as photos of people arriving at the church, and it will go right through to first dance. We also have a pre-shoot so that the photographer can get to know us. We get three albums, so we have copies for our parents, and access to the digital photos. These things are perfectly reasonable to expect, so don't short-change yourself. Bad luck about the £85, no one wants to lose that.

could you not screen shot what he wrote on the 'quote me service' im assuming you asked for something specific and he responded with what he could do and a price? to go back on that yet keeping the price surely counts as fraud as you are not getting what you were quoted?

I think UKBride need to vet their advertisers better..... you found them through here and i found a chair cover company through here and they ran off with my money. Maybe they need to get references first or recommendations! xx

Basically, you could get a minimum of £55 back then. But truthfully, you really have to stand your ground where money and weddings are concerned. Point out to him that, as far as you are concerned, you have given him £85 for the sheer hell of it. Appeal to his better nature and that giving you your money back will be good PR oh his part.

People talk - if you get what I mean! :o)

Is the only problem that he isn't emailing you back & that there's some bad reviews on facebook? Without knowing the content of the reviews, I think I'd give him another chance. Like someone else has mentioned he may be prioritizing brides getting married in summer. This is a really busy time for wedding vendors and he may be answering emails by event date.
If I was having wobbles I'd arrange another meeting to look at previous weddings, ask about the negative reviews, and see if he'll do a engagement shoot with you two so you can see if you really mesh with him. I'd also continue looking at other photographers.

I think you are making the best decision Shvonne, I know it's not ideal losing £85 as it IS a lot of money, but in the long run I honestly don't think it's worth the stress, or worse still, bad photos and having shelled out the full amount.

I found my photographer through recommendation from a friend in the end, have any friends or fam been married recently that can recommend their photographer?

And Im amazingly powering ahead with my arrangements, im so lazy as well, I guess it took a wedding to motivate me to get things done hahaha

get as much as you can done now, deposit wise at least, then you can just put it all to the back of your mind, better than waiting i think!! ive got deposits down on everything now, bar the DJ - Whom i have picked, just things keep coming up and i cant afford to put the deposit down (my poory kitty comes first though lol )