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Being Cost Conscious
I feel fortunate to have my fiancé give me free-reign to plan the wedding as I see fit. I love this about him but I also want to be budget conscious. For me, having a lavish affair would be OK if we had the money for it, but it is not nearly as important as having all of our loved ones with us to share the day. We still want the day to be about our union but cost is a huge consideration.We have fixed expenses from years of living together, student debt, and children.
Thus, the decision to get married in our backyard has been vetoed! We’ve decided instead to get married at our city hall and hold the reception at our home. I was absolutely looking forward to picking out my dream wedding dress but I really feel this is the best decision for us. It will save on officiant/ceremony costs, flowers, and the wedding dress. I know, I know, sounds boring eh? But I promise it won’t be! We still have to decide on the menu, arrange seating for the reception, pick out invites, and many, many more details! Why the decision now? Well, I looked at the option of renting a dress, but the selection was pretty bad. I even tried to minimize costs in other areas, but I didn’t want things to be done cheaply or to spend my free time decorating or cooking. Help from others has been volunteered but I want all of our guests to enjoy the day as much as we plan on enjoying it. Besides, I can purchase a nice party dress which can be worn in the future!
A question for all of you: Knowing that professional photography is rather costly, what alternatives would you suggest? This is definitely one area that I don’t want to cheap out on but it does take up a big chunk of our wedding budget. Our official wedding portraits won’t feature me in a wedding gown or anything but I still want nice pictures from this special day.
Here are some options:
a) Hire a photography student or less experienced photography (but I risk having the pictures turn our poorly)
b) Have our guests send us photographs from their digital cameras
c) Have a Sunday wedding (I am pretty sure most photographers charge less for non-Saturday weddings)
I don’t have any wedding-related photographs this week so here’s a pic of my cute six-month old Nicolas. Enjoy!
Tags: blogger search, budget, city hall, intimate wedding, photography
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9 Responses to “Being Cost Conscious”
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As I was reading your blog and the comments that went with it I thought I would give you a photographers perspective on the situation :)
Lets start with yes I would suggest a friday or sunday wedding as a high priced photographer may not have anything schedulaed on that day and will be willing to come shoot you for a reduced rate. The reduced rate would obviously come with reduced hours and by the sounds of things that is exactly what you are looking for.
As for choosing a photographer you definitely want someone whos photos you love first. Once youve scanned through many and many websites (and definitely check out blogs if they have one so you can see recent work and see what they are up to on a regular basis) then your next step is to set up consultations. I would suggest emailling the photogs that you like and let them know the situation…
…you love their photos and would love to meet them. You want to be completely honest on your budget and expectations right off the bat. Explain that you orignally planned to have a saturday wedding but your budget is very small and the one thing you want to spend it on is the photography. SO youve decided on having a sunday or friday in the hopes that you can pay a reduced rate ( and give you budget $) for only pictures of the ceremony and an hour after. Always meet the photographers in order of who you think is best. An important thing is to also mesh with your photog, so if you love their work, the next step is liking them. If you get along great at the consultation, write that check to secure it on the spot. Alot of photographers are willing to help your budget that little more if you sign on the spot. If you don’t mesh then you go to your second favorite. This way you don’t waste yours or the photogs time if you would prefer someone else and are just waiting to meet with them.
Always ask ahead of time if you can see a slideshow or an album of a full wedding day that they’ve photographed. That way you don’t fall into the category of: ” their port was nice but I my photos didnt come back like that ” Yes there are photogs who only photoshop a couple photos and pop them on their website, but alot don’t. That why going to the blogs and looking through albums and slideshows will show you that they are capable of doing all day photos not just one or two great photos in the day.
Post processing is a huge thing and any photographer that shoots and burns their raw files are either amazingily good and will charge you 20000, doesn;t know their own value or is just not very good. SO be weary. Its not an easy thing to capture every moment and the great thing about the digital world is that you can retouch photos after the fact. So understanding that that price your paying includes the hours of post production on the photos to make them perfect is well weorth it. Do not go with a shoot and burn package if you dont know how to use photoshop or you will end up being unhappy with your photos. Some photogs however do show you the raw files at first and then will only go and touch up and artistically edit the ones you actually want to save you and them time of waiting for your photos/albums etc.
Photos are an investment that lasts forever so its a big decision, but well worth it.
I hope this helps with finding a wonderful photographer for your special day. If you have any other questions feel free to email me!!!
Good luck
agreed. don’t cheap out on your photos.
The worst thing, at least for me as a photographer, is when a bride e-mails me after her wedding and says “We wished we booked you for our wedding, our photos didn’t turn out at all, we would like to book you for a day after session so we can have something to put in an album”. This has happened more times than I would like to count. Either they figured their Uncle could take the photos, or somebody who just picked up a camera and offered them a great rate.
Your photos are the one thing that will last. Flowers wilt, the music stops, the food is eaten. Photos last forever, with all the details that are put into weddings, do you really want to jeapordize not having images you enjoy to remember it all by?
Like you, we are on a tight budget, and photographers are expensive, so I applied my business saavy to this task. Talk to photographers about their willingness to offer hourly service rather than a package deal. Also, many photographers have junior associates that will work for a lesser rate. You know you’ll get quality as their reputation is on the line even if it’s someone else taking the pictures. Also, check blogs and ask around. Sometimes a more expensive photographer will recommend someone for you.
Good luck!
Nicolas is such a cute baby!
It does get very real all too quickly when you start to really think about the costs. Regardless of where you get married and how, it’ll be a very happy day for everyone and if you saved money in the end, even better!
I agree with Carrie. Art students are something to consider. Having everyone email you their digital photos is also a great idea.
As for your dress: maybe a nice white dress purchased at the mall could be a great option for you. It’s affordable and you can wear it again. You can always play up your look with nice jewelry (something borrowed from a relative?) or even DIY accessories.
Best of luck in your search!
Hey! I totally admire you for prioritizing. I would agree that it’s more important to have money for a marriage than for a wedding. I think you’re reception will still be beautiful and your guests will have a great time!
I know some art students that are starting to get into photography and they take amazing pictures! Plus they’re often willing to do it for cost or minimal payment in order to build their portfolio. Sunday wedding would definetly make it cheaper too, if you still want to go with a professional.
Goodluck!
It looks like you started to pay attention to what people have noticed in your last few posts about coming across a bit bridezilla. Of course cost is a huge consideration for every couple especially in this economy, and not sure what the picture of your son has to do with this post on saving costs. Is your fiance really giving you free reign, don’t you want his input? I’d rather plan it together with my husband than be all excited (“they knew once I was sold, then he would have no choice but to bite. It’s great being a woman!”) about having the only say. Have you been reading other contestants posts? They seem to be taking the time to cmoment on yours. Many of them have already posted things about how they are saving costs – having the courtesy to read theirs like they are yours might give youa few suggestions.
If you want a dress you can wear again why don’t you get a plain simple white dress from a department store or something. Or if you are getting married in the summer check out all the places that are selling grad and prom dresses. There might be some discounts. For photos if its more important not to spend money then put the word out maybe on your wedding web site that yuo want guests to email you the pictures. Or provide them disposables. Or designate a few guests who are handy with a camera to capture as much as they can on the day. If you’re ok with having a sunday wedding you can always see if you can get something cheaper then but it would be the same amount of work for a photographer no matter what day it is so I don’t know how well that would work.
Honestly, photos was on top of my list. My biggest budget was spent on the reception and second in line was photography. But now looking at my pictures and seeing my friend’s pictures (we both paid a pretty penny for our pictures) I’d suggest you go with the student photographer. I saw the raw pictures without the photoshop retouch and they are not very impressive. In the age of DSLR everyone think they can do wedding photography, so be careful.
You may get lucky and find a really great photographer or if you are willing to pay like 5k, you are better off getting a student. I’ve spoken to a lot of just-married woman and I haven’t met anyone who is 100% happy with her photos. My photographer claimed he has 10 years of experience in wedding photography and in the end, I felt he was just going through the motions and missed a lot of details and photo ops that my amateur friends with the DSLR photographed. In the end, the sales pitch was great, the service was bad and the after service was rotten. It has been 6 months since my wedding and I still haven’t gotten my photo album yet. It’s been such a hassle that I have given up harassing the guy to get my album. I have the digital images and am retouching them myself. So if you are on a budget, just get a student photographer or two who are enthusiastic about doing your wedding. Get the digital copies of the photos and have a graphic artist touch-up those you really like.
In conclusion, what you see on porfolio have had major retouches and cropping. A good photographer does not require much manipulation to have great photos. I wish I knew this before. Most married woman will tell you do not penny pinch on your photos because they got disappointed, my advise is; don’t go cheap by having your friends do it (unless they know what they are doing), but don’t break the bank by paying “professionals”, don’t get dazzled by their portfolios. Ask to see untouched photos and judge from those picture if you want to hire the photographer or not.
A very good friend of mine got married a couple of years ago and they had a small, intimate wedding of about 30 people. She said the one thing she regretted was not having good photos of the day, and we were so excited for the pics to come back… and they just didn’t capture anything at all. She looked radiant, but the emotion and joy was just lost because they’d hired a friend of the family as opposed to a professional photographer.
I like the latter idea about having the wedding on a Sunday – I’ve known quite a few ladies who’ve had Sunday/weekday weddings because of financial reasons, having young children etc. and it made lots more sense – everyone was home in time for the kids to go to bed and it was LOTS cheaper! I would also scour the net for students – maybe enquire at a local photography college and ask to see their portfolio, or see if you can work out a deal with a professional photographer not only for having it on a Sunday, but maybe just to have photos of the ceremony and a few traditional “posed” shots afterwards, and just not have any of the getting ready/reception. That’s what’s cutting the cost down for us! And how about having a few of those little disposable cameras around the reception with a little printup asking the guests to snap pics and leave the cameras – that way you’ll be sure to get a tonne of “natural” photos as well :)