A Note to Brides:
Ok, so I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to talk about this on here…but after talking about this with one of my closest friends after a disastrous photo-tastrophe happened, I have decided to let it all out.
I know planning your wedding is stressful. I know, believe me, I’ve been there – done that. It sucks. I’d rather have a root canal than plan my wedding again. You have everybody telling you how you should do things, who you should use, and what you should have at YOUR wedding. It’s annoying to say the least.
One of the biggest decisions you have to make is who your wedding photographer is going to be. This is a huge decision for a number of reasons. If you’re like me, I don’t remember anything unless I have a photo to remind me of it. Go to your closet and pull out a shoe box of photos from 10 years ago. Do you remember any of those events actually happening? Probably not until you actually looked at those photos. Photos trigger memories. This places a huge importance on photography. You’re only going to remember what you have photos of.
Here are the reasons I hear for why someone chose a friend or a relative (or a friend of a friend, of a stepmom’s 2nd cousin twice removed) to shoot their wedding:
- “They have a really nice camera and filters.”
- “Good opportunity for them to build their portfolio.”
- “They took some photography classes.”
- “They won some awards at the county fair.”
- “I feel comfortable with them.”
- “They always have a camera in their hand.”
- “I trust them to show up.”
- “They were inexpensive.”
- “It’s their wedding gift to me.”
- “They know how to make a photo black and white and make one color pop out.”
- “They promised to get the images back to me fast.”
Now, we all start out some place. I am by no means knocking people who are breaking into the business, I’m just trying to make sure you get fabulous wedding photos. You getting fabulous wedding photos is, at the end of the day, my main concern. I really just want everyone to understand that there is a huge difference between someone who shoots weddings for fun versus someone who does this professionally.
Here are some things to think about if you are hiring a friend/relative to shoot your wedding. You just need to make sure that whoever you hire can handle the following situations:
- What if their nice camera breaks? Do they have a backup camera?
- Do they have quality wide angle lenses to make sure your whole family is actually in the photo and not warped at the edges?
- Do they have quality lenses that can be used in low light situations such as churches and reception halls so that a flash is not needed every click of the camera?
- Do they have a telephoto lens that can be used so that they are not disruptive during main events of the ceremony and reception, but can still produce close up images?
- Do they have professional flashes and backup flashes?
- Do they have extra memory cards, in case their memory cards reformat halfway through the shoot or fill up?
- Do they have extra camera batteries, since camera batteries have a battery life of only so long?
- What if they are sick, who will cover for them?
- What if you pay them, they mess up your images, and don’t have the money to pay you back? Do they have liability insurance?
Life may not be like Real Housewives, but there always is drama. If you’re using someone you know personally, think about how things change everyday in your life. For example, your Mother’s in law’s sister’s daughter is shooting your wedding, but the mom and the sister got in a fight and now there’s a feud and you don’t know if she’ll show up.
Photography isn’t cheap for a reason. If there’s one day in your entire life that needs to be documented, it’s your wedding. This is the start of your new life. Everything starts here. This is why it’s crucial that you pick the right photographer. It’s not just about a nice camera and some photography classes. A lot of what photographers do actually is done after the wedding.
Even my own parents will say, “I don’t know how people pay you that much to take wedding pictures…” Well…it’s not just the wedding pictures that you’re paying me for. 😉
Here’s what you pay us for:
This is an example of one of my standard wedding workflows, including an engagement session:
- New Contact Email
- Respond To New Contact Email
- Go back and forth 5 or 6 times before booking
- Send Booking Contract
- Send Follow Up Emails/Scheduling Emails/Wedding Tip Emails
- Schedule Engagement Session
- Send Engagement Session Tips/Locations
- Finalize Engagement Session
- Prepare Equipment for Engagement Session (charge batteries, clean lenses, reformat memory card, etc.)
- Travel time to and from the Engagement Session
- Shoot Engagement Session
- Back up Engagement Session to online server
- Edit Engagement Session (1 business day)
- Burn Engagement Session to CD then upload it to an online gallery and mail it out (pay for shipping)
- Schedule Pre-event Consult
- Pre-event Consult – 30 minutes to an hour (via phone). This can be longer if done in person.
- Email correspondence for scheduling assistants/associates for wedding day
- Pay assistants/associates for wedding day coverage
- Prepare Equipment for Wedding Day (charge batteries, clean lenses, reformat memory card, etc)
- Shoot Wedding Day (Normally 7-12 hours)
- Back up wedding images to online server
- Edit Wedding Images (3-14 business days)
- Burn Wedding Images to CD/Upload to online gallery/Mail out disc (pay for shipping)
- Email Confirmations
- Send Album How To Guides & Print Order Guides
- Pull photos for album
- Design Albums (1-7 business days per album, could be up to 3 albums per client)
- Email album proof
- Order album
- Mail out album
- Pick out images for blog
- Put images on blog
- Write blog post
- Put images on social networking sites/Tag clients.
Wowza! That’s just one wedding workflow and to think one year we had 76 weddings! DAAAAAANG. As you can see, to properly do this job, it takes a LOT of time and commitment. This is why you pay us the mulah. When you pay a professional photographer you pay them that amount to know that if something does happen, they have the insurance in case the unexpected happens… they have a network of photographers in case yours is unable to cover it. Unfortunately, if you go with a friend of a friend of a friend, you don’t have that reassurance.
Just remember, these are the most important photos of your entire life.
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