Comments on: How To: DIY Wedding Photography

By: Can we rid ourselves of our photography addiction? | Frugal Wedding

Can we rid ourselves of our photography addiction? | Frugal Wedding — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:45:55 +0000

[...] what bring in the money. There was one time, now lost in the mists of history (2009 people!), where cheap photography was discussed, but barely a peep since [...]

By: Liv

Liv — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:03:34 +0000

Love the idea of having kids do it!

By: Weekly Wrap « A Lotta Lettuce

Weekly Wrap « A Lotta Lettuce — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 05:15:33 +0000

[...] Meg at A Practical Wedding brought us part 2 of How to DIY Your Wedding Photography. For those who missed part 1, you can find it here. [...]

By: E

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:34:34 +0000

I know I’m late to the APW party…all the posts are wonderful and thought-provoking, but the photography issue is something I’m struggling with now, and thought I’d chime in. Here is how my thought process has gone the past couple of weeks:

Week 1: I absolutely LOVE photography. LOVE, love, love. It IS an art, and, although I was never a woman focused on weddings, I did always assume that if I got married, I would have crazy-good photos.

Week 2: My fiance, who has expressed minimal interest in planning the wedding so far (as in, “you decide, honey”), said he doesn’t want to hire a pro, but instead, pay a friend of his a little money to do the job.

Week 3: I lament, because why has my fiance chosen to come down hard on not paying big bucks for photos? What about all those fabulous wedding photographer websites? Do I not even get a chance to choose?

Week 4: I think I actually am starting to feel like some other commenters do…that although photography is art and photographers deserve a paycheck, maybe a wedding shouldn’t have to be art – maybe it should just be a day with love and end it at that.

I think in the end, I’d rather have succeeded at making a compromise and valuing my fiance’s input than succeeded at getting the photographer of my dreams. Or maybe this photographer WILL turn out to be the photographer of my dreams, and I just don’t know it, yet.

By: CoolNanny

CoolNanny — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:59:51 +0000

first wedding I had was pro but too flirty got good shots but made some people uncomfortable………..but pics came out great …………second wedding my auntie took pictures she did a awesome job and some stranger wasn’t in everyone’s faces….it was the best choice for us…… of all I like the ones my auntie took better less posy more fun

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:18:37 +0000

We’re going to friend route, too. My FI and I are both well versed in Photoshop and know how to process our own photos. We have two friends who are amateur photographers and are acting as main photographer and assistant. We’re asking them to shoot in RAW, provide us with the files and we’ll take it from there.

We did a lot of research about this before we decided to go this route and determined two things:

1. we are going to pay them (not nearly as much as a pro) because that adds to the needed professional nature of the relationship. If you pay/or are paid for something you tend to take it more seriously.
2. we are giving them a very defined shot list

#2 is essential even when working with a pro but even more so with friends to ensure those memories you most want to capture are indeed recorded on film.

By: Heather & Carlos

Heather & Carlos — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:35:57 +0000

The thing is, it doesn't matter that I think having a wedding photographer is essential. I do think it's an art. It would be wonderful. But you can't get blood from a turnip, and we just can not afford it. Seriously, can't spare $100. And we promised one another if we couldn't pay for something in cash, we wouldn't get it, because we didn't want to start our life together in debt.

So here's what I hear when other friends who are recently married or are getting married around the same time I am tell me I'm making a big mistake for not getting a wedding photographer: Because you cannot afford this thing, your wedding will not be good.

It makes me feel defeated, and sad. Like maybe I just shouldn't have a wedding at all, then. Because after all, if we don't have a great photographer, we'll just regret it!!

And I don't know if I'm being practical or just consoling myself, but I do believe it's OK to just use friends. I think it will be just fine.

But I don't want to be sour grapes about it. I'm not going to say, Wedding photographers are a waste of money. If you've got several thousand dollars you can spend on photos, good for you. But for some of us, it's just not an option.

By: Meg

Meg — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:29:57 +0000

Anon-
The point is it's a personal choice. And you should feel good about whatever choice seems right for you. Period.

Meg

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:43:30 +0000

How is it that there can be horror stories about wedding photographers, that is, where how the hired photographer's shots came out poorly and he missed this or that moment, whereas guests who are "handy with a camera" amateurs it's assumed they'll be just fine?

There's no concern that they don't have the knowledge of how to photograph under all sorts of different situations that are encountered at weddings nor the experience to know what to do to get the shots nailed down right when the moments happen? I mean, every great pro photographer had a learning curve.

By: kaitlin

kaitlin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:37:27 +0000

I adore the infinite monkey theorem. We're having a friend/acquaintance shoot professional shots before the wedding, for a very reasonable rate, and then we have lots of monkeys with fancy cameras who can do their work after the ceremony!