Although you may need to save money on your wedding, there are some elements that you should spend more on. One of these is your wedding photographs. Don’t be cheap when it comes to wedding photos, hire a professional wedding photographer. Here’s why.
Wedding photos are your lasting keepsake of the day and along with a video (should you choose to have one) are some of the few things you will drag out time and time again to show family and friends or to just reminisce over together. With this in mind you want them to be utterly gorgeous and a true reflection of the wonderful day you had. A professional wedding photographer knows which photos to shoot and knows how to take them and make them magical, it really is the little things that make a difference and only a true professional photographer can do that.
The internet is littered with bad wedding photographs and of course most of you will be all too familiar with embarrassing wedding videos courtesy of YouTube! So unless you want the same ignominy of becoming an internet hit because of your bad wedding photographs, it is wise to allocate a larger portion of your budget to hiring a professional wedding photographer.
Chicago wedding photographers, Essence Photo and Video, say there are four things you need to look for in a wedding photographer –
- reliability
- trust
- talent
- creativity
These four things are essential when it comes to producing a wedding album that captures all the best bits of your wedding. These skills may not come cheap but when you compare what an experienced photographer can offer compared to a novice, you will notice the difference.
It can be tempting to ask your uncle to take the photographs simply because he owns a nice camera, and this in itself is fine if he knows how to use it and has experience at taking wedding shots. However, many who go down the DIY route to save money live to regret it – remember your wedding is a once only occasion, you cannot go back and have your photographs done again if you do not like them!
If you do need to save money though, don’t panic because you can still factor a professional photographer into your day without breaking the bank. Sit down together and think about the kind of photographs you would like and the style. Traditional posed pictures are often cheaper because they are easier to take; reportage or fly-on-the-wall photography will require a photographer to be around all day and more often than not there are actually two photographers to ensure all those precious moments are caught on camera.
Most wedding photographers can be hired on a per hour basis so you can hire them to take pictures over a couple of hours during the day. The most popular option here is to hire a photographer to take shots of you and your maids getting ready including some detail images of your shoes, bouquet and dress and then some formal, posed shots after your ceremony. You can then ask your guests to take photographs throughout the reception and evening party and share them with you. Disposable cameras are an option, however most people will have a camera of some kind with them and sending photographs directly to your wedding website is quick and more importantly cheap!
Knowing where to splurge and where to save on your wedding budget is one of the keys to successful wedding planning. Your photographs need to be the first thing you allocate to the ‘splurge’ list especially if you want beautiful and timeless images.
What do you think? Share your experiences.
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