Wedding Vendor's a No-Show -- Now What? {Part 2}

My post from a few days ago about our wedding videographer who didn't show up received an overwhelming amount of hits.  Thanks to everyone who read it - I hope it was at least somewhat helpful.

I'm posting today to give you an update of where we are right now with the situation.

On Monday night, not long after I made the blog update, the videographer emailed Matthew back in regards to the email we sent informing him that we would give him until Aug. 14th to reimburse us or take him to small claims court.  His response basically said he plans to send the money and video to us by the end of the week and that he feels ashamed and embarrassed for arriving late.

Matthew and I chose not to respond yet because we kind of want him to sweat over it a little and understand that we're serious about this.

But we're also stuck with what to do.  Our original email to him said we'd be filing paperwork today (Aug. 15th) if we didn't receive a reimbursement.  However, we decided that, based on his email response, we will give him until the end of the week and then immediately file paperwork if we do not receive reimbursement by the end of Monday (after the mail has been delivered).

The only real issue here is if he mails it out Saturday, we might not get it until Tuesday (although that's kind of unlikely - we'd probably get it Monday).  We might decide to call him Monday night (if we haven't received it yet) to make sure it hasn't been mailed already and then file paperwork the following morning if it hasn't.

We really want to be understanding here and give him the benefit of the doubt (that's more my nature, at least), but - honestly speaking - he's lost all of our trust.  He lost a little of it when he showed up late to our reception, missing the ceremony altogether, leaving us with the only option of recording our big day on cell phones (thanks to all of our friends who came to the rescue).  And he lost a lot more when we didn't get reimbursed by the end of August like he said would happen.  And then he basically waited until the last minute to respond to our ultimatum, probably in a desperate, last-minute attempt to keep us from filing paperwork.  So this is the last straw.  We just don't feel like he should get any more chances since we really should have been reimbursed before the end of June, considering our wedding was near the beginning of June.

This whole situation is really quite frustrating since this could have all been avoided if he'd just been at the wedding on time like we hired him to be.  And it's not just about the money...and not just about the loss of wedding moments that should have been captured on quality video.

It's about both.

I honestly think I might just be willing to let it drop - it's not that much money - if it weren't for the fact that we will never get those moments back.  We will only have one wedding and, there was one shot to get quality video...and he missed it.  So, yes, I want our money back because I can't recreate those moments the same way to record them on video again.

On the upside, at least our photographer showed up (and early too)!  She did such a great job, and we can't give her enough praise.  So a BIG shout out to CrypticFishPhotography for capturing all the great moments on - digital - film.  We so appreciate it!