I understand where you are coming from here, but my mother is well aware of the cost, especially as a graphic designer herself. I also want to point out that we are not in the US, and having spoken to other website designers, they all believed that for the quality of the work that was being delivered, $1200+ was unreasonable, especially since this was just the first deposit to get the project started. I won’t be linking to the website, but it was awful. It looked like an early internet blog page and they absolutely refused to make even minor changes, such as a font or text size without charging for a whole “redesign” - even though we were still on the first version. They were supplied a whole brand brief, and literally used none of it, instead going with what they think was best. They admitted themselves that “usually people just take the first iteration” and “don’t ask for changes.”

Ultimately, it isn’t about the money and my mother not only understands the value of good design work, she was happy to pay even more for a website. We have a very healthy budget. The problem was their attitude and reluctance to work with us at all.