And the winner is...... Cristi and Curtis! The girl whose terrible wedding photos inspired this very contest just couldn't be topped. So congratulations Cristi and Curtis! We'll get your new shoot scheduled and go capture some new images of you two-- and your love for each other 5 years later.
Here is their story and five of their original wedding images... (remember, these images were not an exception to the rule - this is what the rest of her images look like too, if not worse.)
Cristi and Curtis's Terrible Wedding Photos Story
While planning our wedding, so many things went wrong that I remember a co-worker saying “Good thing you don't believe in signs, otherwise you probably wouldn’t be getting married." At that time her comment didn't really bother me. I didn't really care about where my wedding was going to take place, what my flowers or cake looked like, or that my custom-made dream dress had just gotten ruined. The most important thing to me was to have amazing pictures and I knew that I had an amazing photographer and that made me feel so incredibly lucky. Unfortunately, not for long. My amazing photographer had some personal problems and had to cancel shooting our wedding about 3 weeks before our wedding. Ok, maybe now I should believe in signs. However, I'm a very positive thinker and I believe that everything happens for a reason.
The same day that I found out I no longer had a photographer I went out dancing with some friends. There, I met a girl whom I had worked with while in college. I told her my story and she said the magic words: "Don't worry my husband is a wedding photographer! Let's meet this week so you can see his work and I'm sure it will all work out. The meeting went great. I really liked his pictures, they gave me a big discount and she even offered for me to wear her veil (they had just gotten married a couple of months before). Let's stop here for a moment. We met at a restaurant, he brought one photo album, with pictures of lots of different weddings and had a list of poses for me to check off. I told him I wanted more of a photojournalistic approach and thought I was covered. When you choose a wedding photographer, make sure that you see a few whole albums of just one wedding to give you an idea of what yours will look like. Make sure to be critical and not overly positive like I was.
Our wedding was so beautiful and so much fun! We left for our honeymoon and when we got back all I cared about was seeing our wedding photos. I remembered first looking at them and wanting to cry, but they were both there with big smiles on their faces saying “aren't they beautiful?" and “they turned out so great”, “you looked so beautiful” and so on. So I took the pictures, gave them the check, grabbed my purse and ran to my car. I called my husband crying telling him how bad the pictures were. He calmly said, “I'm sure they are not that bad. You just had really high expectations. I'm sure they are great. Come home.” I drove home and prayed that he was right, as he usually is. I ran inside and handed him the photos. As he looked through them, he avoided making eye contact with me and proceeded to go trough each picture a little faster than the one before. Pretty soon, he stopped, as he had given up. He looked up at me and said “I’m so sorry, honey." My heart sank and I cried – a lot. He hugged me and held me while I cried. Then I realized that I had something a lot more important than pictures, but still I wanted the pictures.
I called the photographers and told them how disappointed I was. She said that their style of photography was great and that she was sorry I didn’t see it the same way. When I went over to their place to return her veil, they gave me back my check so all I paid was a deposit (about $1,000). I explained to her that it really wasn't about the money. I had dreams of displaying my wedding photos all throughout the house, being able to relive my feelings on that day and sharing those photos with my kids and grandkids but now I would never be able to do any of that. She said she was sorry. I know she was, but it still didn't make me feel better. They were really nice people and I was never mad at them. I think I was disappointed in myself for letting this happen.
Now, I'm thinking this all happened so I can win this contest and have some truly amazing and special pictures. And also to be able to tell my story so this doesn't happen to others.
This August, we'll celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. I know that the wedding day cannot be recreated but I also know that we love each other more today than we did the day we got married. The feelings that can be captured now could not have been captured 5 years ago. Plus, when we got married I had my grandma's ring and now I have my own!
Picking the worst 5 pictures was no easy task as there are so many! I picked the ones I really wanted to have: the first kiss, walking out of the church, in the car on our way to the reception, a view of the church during the ceremony, and a “posed” picture outside on the bridge by the beautiful lake on a beautiful day. So here they are. Please don't cry, I'm okay now! And If I win this, I will be REALLY happy!
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