Supplied image resolution?

[RastaManBob]

Hello!

I've selected a wedding photographer (thanks to those that advised on some questions to ask on here!) and the images are to be supplied on a USB flash drive (option to purchase albums later). I've asked the photographer whether the images provided will be high enough resolution to print and was told the supplied images would be 15 x 20 inches @ 300dpi (4500 x 6000 px). There is an option however to have the images supplied at 20 x 30 inches @ 300dpi (6000 x 9000 px) if we need to print larger images.

I cannot imagine I'll need to print anything larger than 15 x 20 however I cannot see the disadvantage in going for the highest resolution available, knowing that with information lost going for the smaller size I'll never be able to scale up if necessary and that I can always scale down from the higher resolution option should I want to (something I'll have to do, anyway, if I want to upload images).

Would you advise I'm correct in going for the highest resolution images available? Is there any disadvantage I've not considered? I don't want to select something thinking I know better than the photographer (and when it comes to photography I most certainly don't!) so I'd love some advice before I proceed one way or the other. After all, if it were so simple why wouldn't the photographer always supply the highest resolution available as standard?

Thanks!

 

[RastaManBob]

Thanks for all of the feedback, it's been really useful. To clear up; the photographer has not asked for any extra money (or at least not yet!) for the high resolution shots and this was mainly the reason I wanted to question it here... After all if more pixels is always better and they're happy to supply more (at no cost) then why would they not just always do this? After all, I'll have to resize for internet use so I may as well start with the best image size and resize as necessary for the intended application.

You have, however, answered my question - It may be that the higher resolution is simply interpolated... And if I'm only going to end up scaling back down then I might well end up worse off overall. From the feedback given I'll just ask (as well as the photographers advice!) for the native resolution and I can always up/down scale as necessary for the intended image size.

Thanks again!