The short version

  • If your gallery is running late: your client experience team communicates with you directly and works to resolve it inside the contracted delivery window.
  • If your photographer becomes unavailable: the regional team manages a replacement lead whose work matches the style and experience you booked.
  • If you are unhappy with your gallery: your concern goes to your client experience team, who work with the post-production team on a resolution specific to your case.
  • Resolutions: decided case by case, based on what happened. There is no fixed formula, percentage, or published credit schedule.
  • Escalation: if your first point of contact does not resolve things, you can ask to escalate within the client experience team.
  • Your files: handled under a backup practice designed to protect your images and footage through editing and delivery.
  • Delivery windows: 30 business days for sessions, 90 business days for weddings, regardless of what needed to be worked through along the way.

What if my wedding photos are late?

If a gallery is going to take longer than expected, your client experience team communicates with you directly rather than leaving you to wonder. Sessions are contracted for delivery within 30 business days and weddings within 90 business days, and most weddings arrive well inside that window — typically around two months, with film, extensive retouching, or a peak-season date able to push a gallery closer to four months.

If a delivery is genuinely at risk of running past the contracted window, that is treated as an individual case and worked with you directly until it is resolved. There is more on contracted delivery windows and what typically affects them.

The starting point is always the same: tell you what is happening and what is being done about it, rather than waiting for you to ask.

What if my photographer becomes unavailable?

If illness, an emergency, or any other unexpected event means your matched photographer cannot photograph your wedding, the regional team manages the replacement. You are matched with another experienced lead whose work is consistent with the style and experience you originally booked, and you are told directly what is happening and why.

This is one of the reasons weddings are staffed through regional teams rather than by a single independent photographer working alone. There is depth behind your booking, so a single person’s unavailability does not put your wedding day at risk.

Responsibility for managing that change sits with The Indi Collective, not with you. You should not be the one calling around trying to solve it.

What if I’m unhappy with my gallery?

If a delivered gallery or film does not feel right to you, your client experience team is the first point of contact, and they work with the post-production team to understand what happened and what can be done. Every case starts with a real conversation about your specific concern.

Because weddings, collections, and concerns vary so widely — a handful of images that need a second look is a different conversation from a broader concern about a whole gallery — the resolution is worked out for your situation rather than pulled from a standard menu. That might mean additional review and re-editing of specific images, or another form of resolution suited to what you are describing.

What stays constant is that someone owns your case until it is resolved, and you hear from them directly.

What is the service recovery process?

When something needs to be made right, it moves through a direct process: you raise the concern, your client experience team gathers the details, the relevant team reviews what happened, and you are given a resolution suited to your specific case. This is standard practice for any concern that reaches us, not an exception.

The review typically involves whoever is closest to the work in question — your photographer, your filmmaker, or the post-production team — so the person making the call understands the context of your wedding, not just a summary of it.

Because outcomes are matched to circumstances rather than to a fixed table, response times and next steps are communicated to you individually as your case moves along.

Who do I escalate to, and how do I reach someone quickly?

Your client experience manager is the first point of contact for any concern, and most are resolved there. If something is urgent, there are faster routes than email — and you do not have to work out which one to use.

How to reach usUse it for
Your client experience managerAnything about planning, timelines, questionnaires, or your delivery date. First stop for a concern.
Emergency ticketTime-critical issues — wedding week, day-of problems, anything that cannot wait for an inbox.
Phone line — call or textWhen you would rather talk to a person, or send a message and get an answer without composing an email.
ChatQuick questions with quick answers, without waiting on a reply.

Escalation exists so a concern never quietly stalls with one person. Asking for it is a normal part of the process, not a last resort — and raising something early is almost always easier to resolve than raising it late.

How are resolutions decided?

Resolutions are decided case by case, based on what happened, rather than drawn from a published formula, percentage, or fixed credit schedule. What is fair for a short delay on a single retouching request is not what is fair for a more significant issue, and the two are not measured against the same scale.

SituationHow it is approached
Gallery running later than expectedDirect communication about status and timing, with the goal of delivering inside the contracted window.
Photographer unavailable before the weddingA replacement lead is matched and coordinated by the regional team; you are informed directly.
Concern about delivered images or filmReviewed by your client experience team with the relevant creative or production team; resolution matched to the specific concern.
Concern not resolved at first contactEscalated within the client experience team for further review.

The common thread is a real review of your specific case, not a lookup table.

What happens if files are lost or damaged?

Protecting your images and footage from the moment they are captured through final delivery is treated as a core part of how a wedding is handled, not an afterthought. Cards are managed carefully on the day, and files move through defined stages from capture to editing to delivery.

If a concern about missing or damaged files ever comes up, it is treated the same way any other concern is: raised with your client experience team, reviewed with the team who had the files, and resolved as its own case.

There is more on how photographs and films move through editing and quality review before they reach you.

Is there a backup of my photos?

Your wedding images and footage are backed up as part of standard production practice, from the day they are captured through post-production and final delivery.

[CONFIRM: specific backup/redundancy practice — e.g. number of copies, on-site vs. off-site or cloud storage, retention period after delivery — to state exactly]

Once your final gallery has been delivered, we recommend downloading and storing your own copies in more than one place, the same way we would recommend for any set of files you want to keep permanently.

How do I raise a concern?

You raise a concern the same way you would raise any other question during your wedding experience: directly with your client experience team. They are your point of contact before, during, and after your wedding, including for anything that needs to be resolved.

Before the wedding, your client experience team handles planning, guides, and timelines. Afterward, our production team manages your gallery and film through editing and delivery, with your client experience team remaining your point of contact if a concern comes up along the way. There is more on what to expect and who you’ll hear from after you book.

You should never have to guess who to contact or wait for someone to ask.

About The Indi Collective

The Indi Collective is a wedding photography and filmmaking company founded in 2016, photographing approximately 275 weddings and sessions each year through regional teams across the West Coast, Midwest, and East Coast, supported by a national network of photographers, filmmakers, editors, and production professionals.

Production standards, including how concerns are reviewed and resolved, are set and overseen at the executive level, so the response you get does not depend on which team member happens to answer first.

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About The Indi Collective

The Indi Collective Wedding Photography and Videography.

@theindicollective

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