Scenario: You’re getting married, the budget is tight and you are trying to save a few quid. Your pal is or knows an avid photographer who will do your wedding photography for free/next to nothing for the experience/for their portfolio etc….
STOP!!!!
Unless you are absolutely, 100% sure that your pal or their pal is the next Annie Liebovitz your wedding day is not the day to give somebody ‘the experience’. Whether you hate having your photo taken and dread the thoughts of all those pictures, you will want them when the dress has been put away and the honeymoon is over. Trust me!
My husband and I made this mistake and it is the one thing about our wedding that I would definitely change. A family member was an amateur photographer. He took a nice photo and had the equipment so we asked him to do our wedding photography. We agreed a reduced fee and went off with ourselves delighted at having got a bargain. Neither of us fancied the idea of loads of staged photos. We thought we were leaving it in good hands and that we would get some natural, off the cuff photos.
Unfortunately taking a nice photo does not a wedding photographer make….
Long story short, our wedding photos, while ok, are not great. While he did his best we do not have one amazing photo. The quality is not good enough to get any of them put on canvas, and there are certain photos that
we do not have. Had we booked a professional photographer, I think we would have.
On the day of the wedding you are so caught up in everything that you might not remember you want a photo with your grandparents or with the girls or the boys. This is one of the reasons why wedding photographers are worth their fee! They are the ones who will make sure you get that precious photo with an elderly grandparent. They are the ones that will catch the off-the-cuff moments, and these are the photos you will want to see in your album.
We took photos from friends and family and made our album along with the ones we paid for. But I still look through our album with some regret. I thought I was someone who was not bothered about the photos, that it was the memories that mattered. But the photos are the memories (especially when the memory goes!) and you want them to be good ones.
As much as we all like a bargain, do not forget you get what you pay for. There are things in life where this really stands true. Wedding photography is one of those things. Therefore, shop around, look out for special offers but be cautious about accepting an offer from an amateur. You do not want to end up looking through your album with sadness at the photos you do not have…..
Yvonne Cassidy Weddings
May 2017
