Newborn photo "gift" wwyd?

A relative kindly offered to get us a newborn/family photo shoot after dc 2 is born. It's a friend of the relatives but they do nice work and we are greatful for the "gift". The relative emailed today that she was in touch with the photographer, gave her our due date etc and that we will touch base in may to figure things out. Then the relative proceeds to write that she's covering the sitting fee, but the images are an additional cost that we have to pay.

We looked into newborn photography with dd 1 but couldn't justify the expense - some photographers charge $250+ for the digital images.

We can't really say no to this gift. Should we email the photographer now to see what her costs are so we can budget? Or just play it by ear and see when the time comes? My concern is that I'm going on unpaid maternity leave and the month before I'm due we are moving into a new house and getting a new car...so we have a ton of expenses that depending on the price of the images it could be an issue.

Newborn photo

I see that the person is trying to be thoughtful but in all honesty what is the point of the gift if you hafta pay a large portion of it. I would def. find out the cost now and if it is too much I'd politely decline.

Message edited 1/5/2014 8:13:37 PM.

Re: Newborn photo "gift" wwyd?

Newborn photo

I would tell the family member that you really appreciate the gift but with the house, new baby and new car you are not looking to spend money on pictures at this point

Re: Newborn photo "gift" wwyd?

I'd email the photog and let them know you are getting a gift cert and see what the cost of the files are. If it's something you can't afford, ask the photog if you can use it towards a mini session or something. Or if you can just purchase prints or just a few of the digitals to make prints and announcements.

This is why I won't sell just a session fee as a gift cert. It leaves the recipient to pay out of pocket and just doesn't' seem fair.

Newborn photo

ITA w/ above. Gift certs are just not good unless it pays for the entire thing.

Re: Newborn photo "gift" wwyd?

I would email the photographer. When I got my DS pictures, we only paid a small amount with the images on the disk. Who we used put them on a secure site and we could order from there. I just ordered the CD and it only cost about $20 for all of my pics. We then could do what we wanted with them. Good Luck!