A PHOTOGRAPHER has assured the Chronicle that brides and grooms waiting for their wedding photos months and even years later, will get them.
Neil Makins charged couples between £500 and £1,500 for photos, wall canvases and albums, but has kept them waiting for what was promised to them.
He has now promised to honour every order.
Reece Vaughan, 26, of Wombwell, married his wife in July last year and paid Neil £650 for 800 photos, two albums and a wall canvas.
He said: “We struggled to pick the final 95 for our album. A lot of my family live in Birmingham and travelled up. My nan and granddad are ill, and I wanted a nice picture of them. He didn’t get a single one.
“I wouldn’t have been so annoyed if the pictures were stunning. But it is the principle more than anything.
“I will be taking him to court regarding this.”
Donna Lee and her husband Fran, got married in September last year and paid Neil £500 for 800 photos and a wall canvas.
Donna, of Athersley South, said: “I have the disc with our photos on but I wanted this canvas for my parents. My dad died in September and he never saw it.
“I had promises for months on end.”
Mark Brunt, of Sheffield, paid Neil £1,500 to take photographs of his daughter’s engagement in 2015 and her wedding in July this year.
He said: “We got so fed up of asking him that we asked him to put the engagement photos with the wedding photos. The memory stick he gave us didn’t work. Some of the photos are on the website. The quality of the images is abysmal, and the amount of photos we should have got as part of the package is nowhere near what we got.
“We paid out £1,500 and I would have been better off doing it on my phone.
“I just find it unbelievable.”
Mark has complained to the police, but had been told it was a civil matter.
When the Chronicle contacted Neil, he said he had fallen on hard times. He said he had split up with his wife and had some financial problems.
He said: “I’ve been in contact with everyone I owe to, it will be resolved. I’ve made them aware that I owe them an album or canvas and I will fulfil that.
“I am not a crook. I’m not out to destroy people’s dreams, I’m not out to rip anyone off.
“The only crime I’ve committed is burying my head in the sand, not knowing which way to turn or how to deal with complaints and the situation.
“I could just pull the plug and say I’ve gone bust but I’m not like that.”
Neil said he was not taking any more bookings.
