So you have decided to get married, congratulations! before you finish your glass of champers you already have ideas for dresses, colour themes, flowers, bridesmaids, venues!! these sorts of choices have probably been in your mind for years since you were a wee girl walking around using your mums white underslip on your head as a veil, meanwhile your groom to be is possibly trying to think how he can persuade you to hire a Ferrari as your wedding car :) . Then comes the boring stuff to organize such as seating plans, who to invite that isn't going to upset such and such family member and who to take your photos. while the latter might not seem to be a very important part of your day especially if you hate having your photo taken i can assure you it really is something to take your time over and Rachel of
Rachel Gosling Photography has some excellent tips to share here.
Everyone has different priorities when it comes to choosing things for their weddings some want it to be a very up to date affair others want a more traditional wedding, for some cost is everything and there must be no corners cut for others cost is important and they want to do things within a budget. There is no right or wrong with either way and for a large percentage the budget way is the most common. i understand this completely as i have been there myself. My own wedding for example was very 'budget' we didn't even have a photographer because at the time being all loved up with MrG we didn't think these things mattered we would have been happy getting married in bin bags with just us and 2 witnesses present thankfully for the 2 witnesses we didn't do things that budget. but it was true that we didn't have a photographer and i genuinely do regret that and i will tell you why. At the time we relied on family members which were happily snapping away being told we would get copies of any photos which we never did, then my own mother bless her ended up losing her camera in a taxi so again wedding photos of ours were in limbo somewhere never to reach our eyes. in the end i think we had a total of 4-5 wedding photos that were what they were...side views of us from a really unflattering angle taken by random guest not what you want to look back on as the happiest day of your life and show your children. I married 14 years ago (and still happily married MrG will be glad to hear) luckily with today's technology these things are easier to share after all who doesn't have a digital camera in some form or other these days? your guest list will be littered with people with camera phones, ipads and digital cameras all snapping away on the day and of course with social networking as it is you will no doubt see these within hours of your wedding taking place. but the results of what you see will be the same today as it was 14 years ago for me photographs that just make sad in years to come. you might not think you will be bothered for looking back at your wedding day photos but believe me in the years to come you will want to remember how you looked and your children will too! so take your time to hire a professional even though it might seem complicated and the market is saturated with photographers all with different packages and prices.
so what can you do about this? well here is my advice:
1. Price- The saying does stand in that you get what you pay for. Friend of Tom Dick and Harry who has a good camera and is willing to do the job for £50 might sound like a great offer but what you get really is a glorified guest with bog standard results. That said you could pay £2000+ and still get bog standard results if you haven't done your homework on your chosen photographer. Checking out local colleges for students who are looking for experience for free or very little is also great and while i prefer this to the friend of a friend photographer you still have to consider things such as do you want your wedding photos used in a students portfolio and as they have no experience will they be up to the task on the day? wedding photography is hard work, also think about insurance, do they have insurance? if something goes wrong on the day or they don't turn up where will that leave you?. by all means give a student a chance or even a friend of a friend if you can spare the guest space but hire a proper photographer too someone with experience and insurance who can get you the results you deserve, but tell them that you have a student or a friend on the background trying to get some reportage style shots of your day as some photographers don't like having second shooters on a job.
2. How much to pay- . i know some fantastic photographers throughout the UK they range from bargain few £100's to expensive few £1000's all are very good but each have there own ways of doing things and even within each price bracket there are huge differences to what you get for your money so always look and compare. Don't let price fool you, a man or woman with an expensive camera does not equal a fantastic 'tog' don't forget you are hiring the photographer not the camera so check out their work, not their equipment. i have heard horror stories of expensive photographers with masses of expensive equipment who refused to let couples have more than 20 photos no matter how many he took, refused to help with posing or take family members photos and point blank refused to edit on any photos so the couple got floating arms of excited children that got in the way of the shot and not a single shot of them they liked due to peculiar angles and 'arty' shots. i have had to edit many photos at more cost to couples just so they have something even remotely usable from their wedding day something i don't always like to do because as a photographer i value my own work for it not to be tampered with by someone but it's impossible to say no when you have a bride upset because the photographer they paid a fortune for refuses to fix the photos for them and they genuinely are poor photos. on the other end of the scale i have had people get a budget photographer and they have gone above and beyond all that was expected of them and the couples have been very happy. some of my most favorite wedding photographers are what i call mid range photographers some of the best guys work with just them one camera (and a back up camera for emergencies) and no flash something i strive for myself as i am a natural light photographer at heart. When approaching a photographer don't try and haggle packages often photographers packages are worked out to the minutest detail and most believe me are hardly raking it in financially from their packages. i have had many inquiries over the years as do a lot of photographers asking for really good deals and even recently had a couple trying to play me and another local photographer off against each other over price by saying that so and so will do it for this much with album included which for the price they were asking for would mean me pretty much doing their wedding for free as you can imagine i wished them well and suggested they take up the other person's offer and i believe they did the same leaving the couple looking further afield and to what ended up being more expensive companies. i believe that was another case of someone seeing the price of wedding photography and assuming that you pay for the couple of hours the ceremony lasts for and doesn't even consider all the planning work and after work it takes to get those glossy magazine style wedding shots they expect if only life as a photographer was that easy to turn up take a few shots of people you have never met in a venue you have never seen and get vogue style shots instantly for £250 an hour. sadly it isn't like that and photographers have families to feed and the average wedding takes a good 2-3 weeks of planning and after work sometimes with months of contact to and fro with the happy couple for a pretty much average wage at the end of the day. If a photographer can offer you things like this for peanuts then you have to stop and think what effort will be put into your wedding day by that person. I think we can all say we would prefer a photographer who takes the time to plan the best shots for your wedding as appose to one who just turns up on the day and takes 500 photos in the hope they get 20 that turn out ok no matter how cheap or expensive they cost to hire.
3.Finding a photographer - Well this again is totally up to you as a couple you might have a photographer in mind whether they are award winning or published or come as recommended by another bride, a friend on a social networking site or you might have met them at a wedding fayre, or just heard from them from word of mouth the choice is totally yours but personally i think word of mouth can be very powerful so don't dismiss it. what i will say is always look at their work are they willing to cover everything or are they exclusively reportage in which case you won't get any posed family shots which although isn't my favorite part of shooting weddings is very important to most couples, look at their packages do packages include an album or are you able to print photos yourself. while i prefer to see my images printed out in the best quality i do offer couples copyright to print their own, check with your photographer because some refuse to have their images printed out by anyone other than their own recommended print company and if you want more photos in future it can cost a lot more than you realized. More recently couples have preferred to receive their album on one of my USB memory sticks rather than disc because of the increased use of tablets these days. if you cannot compromise a package on price you might be able to do a deal on stuff you want bespoke packages can be very much worth looking into if you find a package not suitable and often the bespoke packages can be cheaper too!
4. Communication - regardless of if you know exactly what you want from your photographer in terms of style and general who to capture on the day or if you haven't a clue and the photos are the bit you are dreading on the day communication is vital between yourself and your photographer. a good photographer will take time out to get to know you and what you want for your wedding day. every couple is special to me and i love everything about their day right down to the tiniest details even trying to work my photography around their style for their wedding. communication to me is very important between myself and a couple because as a photographer you are such a big part of a couples day obviously we work in the background and blend in as best as we can but we are always there through some pretty intimate moments so it is important to have a good working relationship with each other and establish boundaries. i couldn't begin to imagine how awkward it would be to have a complete stranger turn up on my wedding day and be there in the background constantly taking photos. life planning a wedding is hectic but please take time out to get to know your photographer, if you are wanting to get to know them but they don't do pre wedding consultations for free then you need to get looking for another photographer.
