I’ve recently encountered a couple things I wanted to blog about, which sadly is becoming more and more regular. No matter what your economic status is, you, me and everyone else is on a budget. Budgets don’t always mean spending less, they mean spending what is appropriate based on what is important to you. My advice (for the past 12 years of shooting weddings) for brides and grooms is to set a realistic budget for yourself and don’t go too far past it, but invest in the things that are important to you and the things that you would have regretted not doing later.
There is nothing worse than starting off your marriage deep in debt, and I speak from experience. But too often we think in the short term, when your marriage and your life is long term. We try to cram as much as we possibly can in and lose sight of the things that can truly matter Getting engaged is exciting, everyone wants to run out and start trying on dresses and tasting cake. I encourage everyone to fall head over heels in love with your wedding, and squeeze every last bit out of it because (ask any bride this) before you know it, it’s over, the dress is in a box and the cake is all gone. You may first want to sit down with your betrothed and talk about what is important to you and to them, before you get caught up. I see too many times the little inconsequential costs building and the things that really matter suffer. Even worse people paying a lot of money for things not because they want them but just because they think that that is what you are supposed to do or because someone else did it at their wedding
Everyone values something different be it photography, the dinner, the location, the ring etc. When planning your budget take those things that are important to you and figure out how to get them to the top of the list. You may even need to trim that list down so that you don’t water everything down just to fit more in. I’ve seen backyard weddings with a killer caterer that are amazing. Be cautious however of cutting corners, ask any wedding vendor, that has been doing this for a while, about the warning bells that go off when they hear “My cousin is going to shoot the photography.” or “I have a friend going to be the DJ”or ”Uncle Harry is baking the cake” There is a reason why professionals charge what they do, like everything in life something too good to be true often is or comes with a risk. It is heart breaking to see a wedding fall apart because one cog in the wheel slipped due to a less than professional vendor.
Recently I have had the heartbreaking task of telling a bride that there was not much I could do for the out of focus and poorly exposed pictures she got from a “shoot and burn photographer” (a photographer that shoots the wedding and hands you a disk of all the pictures leaving you to make prints and albums, typically they are cheaper as a result).
Ok now my pitch for photography, hey I am a photographer right? In all seriousness, there were many jobs in this world that I could have done for a living. I chose photography because of it’s lasting nature. It’s ability to be a catalyst for so much raw information we keep in our head that we just need a kick start to get out. A wedding is an event that is larger than life and I love that 10,20, 30+ years down the road people will be looking at my work. Remembering what the feel of the dress was, what the cake tasted like or how you felt when you locked eyes with your husband for the first time down the aisle. Photography in an album or on the wall also serves a a daily reminder of the people we are, where an want to be.
If you don’t believe me, find someone who is a parent. The next time they get mad and frustrated with their teen, ask them to look at a baby picture and see how fast that anger softens. The same holds true for any relationship.
Bad photography get and collects dust, great photography get treasured. It is tough to weight the cost of photography that only gets looked at for a year vs photography that you keep with you long enough to show your grand children.
And to my customers that have put their faith in me to capture your precious day thank you. I am honored
-Mike
Update: Here are a couple quick links that you may be interested in
The International Society of Wedding Professional’s “3 mistakes to avoid when hiring a wedding professional”
An article by Seattle Bride’s Semi Pro/Amateur Photographer Cody Ellerd that talks about his experience trying his hand at wedding photography
PS thank you to Houston Photographer Christine Tremoulet who brought the clip from Kodak into my thought process and ISPWP for the links.
by Mike
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