To Photograph or Not To Photograph?
August 14th, 2006 @ 9:22 am by Mrs. Bluebell
While we obviously care a great deal about having a million fabulous pictures of our wedding, we are currently weighing the pros and cons of hiring a professional photographer. We have several friends who are very good amateur photographers, and one cousin of my mother’s is definitely professional-quality (although he focuses on travel photography, not weddings or people).
Is it really worth the extra X thousand dollars for someone else to take pictures in addition to everyone we already have? We were thinking of offering to pay for film and development for the people who are really fantastic (& use real film), and asking the digital users to consider themselves to be “our photographers” and maybe asking that this service be their gift to us, or even paying them a bit.
I think we’d end up with a ton of amazing pictures if we did this. But then I see some professional pictures (like all of Mrs. Firefly’s, swoon) and wonder if this is really an area we should be stingy on. I want to have all those gorgeous pictures too!!!
I guess the question is: Is this an area where you would ever consider going the DIY route? I don’t care about formal portraits really, but I care a lot about having beautiful pictures. I’m also very picky and don’t like the majority of the cheaper photographers out there, so we can’t really compromise by getting a cheap photographer.
Is it worth several thousand dollars to be extra sure we have artistic gorgeous photos, or should we just stick with our friends and cousin who we would take great if not absolutely perfect photos?
Please also comment with any thoughts you have about how you chose what to do, and advice you might have for us! Thanks!
What are you doing for a photographer?
- Nothing - I figure everyone will take pictures, so we can just get those from people. We might get disposables to put on tables to encourage people, but there will be no designated photographer.
- Something like what you described above - there will be several people who we specifically ask to take extra pictures. We may or may not offer them some sort of financial incentive to do this, but we won’t be “hiring” them officially.
- We will be “hiring” one friend/family member and putting him/her in charge, although he/she is not a professional.
- We will be “hiring” one friend/family member who is a professional and/or in art school or the like.
- We will be hiring the cheapest professional we can find who is decent. The most important thing is to have a record of the event, so the level of artistic quality is not as important as being sure that everything is captured.
- We care a lot about having artistic photographs that match our sensibilities and are choosing our professional photographer based on the quality of his/her photographs. If this means upping our photography budget more than we wanted to originally, so be it - having beautiful pictures is a top priority for us.
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37 Responses to “To Photograph or Not To Photograph?”
Originally, we were going to book this guy who’s amazing down in the outerbanks, nc. I thought he would be only available for a couple hours (less $), so I had also asked my good friend and amateur photographer to take some pictures. She was so flattered, but later I found out that the photographer may have already been booked….
You can find someone who can do pros for a few hours, and then ask your friends to fill in for the rest. Definitely save money. I feel ya; I’m really really picky on pictures too.
We’re dealing with the photography issue too. For us, the pictures are probably the most important part of the wedding (besides actually being married by the end of the day!) and so we don’t want to compromise on it. We don’t have unlimited money though so we’re just going to interview different ones until we find one we like and who can work with our budget. Good luck!
#6 - We’ve choosen a pro photographer who I totally love. Heck, we picked our wedding date around her availablity. For me, pictures are the only thing that I’ll actually take away from the wedding, so I wasn’t going to skimp on this vendor. I wanted the best! 
i’m #6, for sure.
even if our friends and family are amazing photographers (a couple somehow are!) i really want them to enjoy the wedding. also, i wonder how great friends/family would be about capturing lovely moments in the ceremony a) while remaining unobtrusive (a particular skill found in many high-end pros) and b) while getting to really share/be in the moment.
indeed, during wedding planning, i always said that photos are the one thing i would splurge on since they are the second of about two things that you actually get to keep and enjoy after the wedding (the marriage itself being the first), but that’s not true exactly. the reason? because i pretty much said that “if i could only splurge on one thing…” line about, oh say, fifteen wedding-related things. but i *meant* it most when i said it about hiring a photographer. really!
my friend is a professional photographer, so i guess i am lucky! i think pictures are important. I think if you may want to ask the cousin travel photographer to take some engagement photos and see if he can photograph people in a photojournalistic way. he may only do travel photos, but if he’s a professional, he probably has a good eye. taking engagement photos would be a good preview to your wedding photos.
Poor Mr. Bluebell…I’ve been leaning more towards getting a professional lately but he thinks it’s just one more expense when all these other photos we could get for free would still be amazing. So I linked him to these comments and I’m bullying him now.
another #6-er
After all is said and done, all you have are your memories and your photos. An so, we hired a photographer that we are confident could capture our day perfectly. If I had a friend/family member who was a great photographer, I might have considered asking them… but I would also want them to enjoy the day and not be “put to work”.
The only thing I would caution you about if you hire a professional AND have friends who are amateur photographers is that sometimes your amateur friends get photographed in the professional pictures. That happened to a couple I know - I was looking through their wedding album and there would be a gorgeous shot of the couple at the altar, but then in the background, you see their amateur photographer/friend taking a picture of the couple, too. Things like that just ruin an otherwise perfect picture.
My advice if your friends are taking pictures: stay out of the professional photographer’s way!
Another vote for #6 , photos (and video!) were very very important to me. My sister’s husband has a cousin who used to be a wedding photographer. She took some amazing shots at their wedding, but these pictures supplemented the pro pics rather than replacing them. I also wouldn’t friends to feel like they had to “work” at the wedding. I agree with Turtle — perhaps you can have a photographer for a few hours and then ask your friends to fill in the rest of the time .
Your 6 choices are highly directed. The only “hiring a professional” are finding the cheapest one and saying to-hell w/the budget, we want what we want. I think what most people do is find the best artistically-matching photographer with a budget-reasonable cost. So somewhere between 5 and 6.
This is the one area aside from the honeymoon that is really for US, so I wanted to make sure we got a good photographer.
The ceremony, the location, the reception, etc., etc., is all being done for our family. We’ve gone out of our way to accommodate everyone’s wishes. The pictures are ours to remember the day forever.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to compromise too much between cost and quality. We chose a fantastic studio and selected the apprentice photographer, who was at least a thousand dollars less than the head photographer, but has a similar style and the same quality packages.
Out of our budget we spent the most money (aside from the venue) on our photographer IMO photos are something that will last forever & they completely capture the moment. Our photographer was an EXTREMELY important decision - but everyone is different..
We’re hiring a friend who goes to school for photography. I think she’s an awesome photographer and would love to see what she can do with our wedding.
We almost did do the “have everyone take nice photos with good cameras and such”, but then I also see those fantastic pictures people have and I’d be afraid I wouldn’t get anything like that for just our friends taking the shots.
a - Sorry you felt that way. I guess what I was trying to get at was if you had to choose one or the other, is the budget more important or the quality of the photos. I assumed everyone would interpret the “decent” a little differently, but the implication was that you would still find a photographer you were happy with even if it wasn’t your dream photographer. So given those options, would you (or future voters!) choose the best photographer for your budget, or refuse to compromise on your photographer even if that meant going over budget?
We are doing none of the above. My FI is a Web designer, so he did a trade with a friend of his who owns a photography business. Free Web site design in exchange for free wedding pics!
D - that’s a good idea! But since we’re getting married in the middle of nowhere (going to have to pay travel fees even for the closest vendors) we have pretty limited options…. I feel like if we were getting married in a city this would be a much easier decision because we would probably be able to find a photographer we liked for a reasonable amount! But so far I’ve only found three photographers out of the…7 in the area that I like. And the cheapest of those 3 is still a lot more than we were hoping to spend… (Well, Mr. Bluebell was hoping to spend $0, so anything is more than that! 
)
That all depends on you… how important your wedding photos are to you. Here are some warnings that I can think of on the top of my head for having your friends photograph your wedding:
- too many friends taking pictures can create chaos. i love taking pictures at weddings, but i have to step aside if the pro photographer is close by. you should set one friend as the “main” photographer and make sure everybody knows. your friends may compete for the spot or if they’re too nice and let each other take turns, they may miss out on a lot of important moments while they’re saying “go ahead, i’ll go next.” etc.
- just like what JG said, some people tend to not notice other people who are taking pictures and sometimes end up in the picture they’re not supposed to be in.
- wedding photography is very different. if your friends never shoot a wedding, it may be difficult.
If you prefer your wedding photos more the “posed” style than the photojournalistic one, the first two warnings won’t really apply.
I would just like to say, I dislike the conflation of price and quality that is so common in weddingland. We’re all brainwashed to believe the more we’re paying, the better the quality and this belief helps the industry and rips off brides. The famous fabulous fotogs with blogs all started out at lower prices. Plus half their appeal comes from fancying up their pix with photoshop tricks.
We hired a pro wedding photographer just because we knew we could rely on him to get the shots that brides want. However, if you think you can get what you want hiring a friend, go for it!! How special to have someone you know and love documenting your day.
And I would also suggest talking to the photogs in the area about your budget. Tell them what’s up and see if they can meet your needs. For most vendors, a sale at a lower price pt is preferable to no sale. Good luck
i think pro photog is the way to go. consider that if you have multiple guest taking pics, it might become a bit of a push and shove competition to “get the shot”.
sometimes guests capture beautiful candid shots from a spectator angle but unless you designate 1-2 main guest photogs, it may become chaotic.
good luck~!
Next to the actual reception, our photography budget is the second biggest moreso than a videographer even. I think it’s very important to have photos, and I’d rather have the comfort of hiring a pro photographer to document this day rather than a friend. I’m sure that friend or family member would much rather enjoy their time there as a guest rather than working. You can always have that friend take your engagements and bridals instead of the pro photog to save money.
landscape, portrait, etc. photography is very different from wedding photography. wedding photographers when and where to capture each moment.
i might skimp on other areas like flowers, favors, even alcohol… but not on photography. it’s what’s left after all is said and done. good luck miss bluebell!
I think I’m somewhere between option 5 and 6. We hired a professional who had really great prices because she hadn’t been in the wedding photography area before. Because we were looking for a more artistic approach to our photography, the skills she had in other photography areas carry over well into her wedding work. Our friend who is a graphic artist and took our engagement photos is also going to shoot at the wedding, and we will pay her for the cost of film and development.
#6… photography was the MOST important vendor to me… it’s what you have left once the wedding is all over (that and videography that is)…
it’s one thing to have friends takes pictures… but it’s another thing to hire a pro. photographer…
as a wedding photographer… i can tell you that a lot of brides & grooms say… we just want candids… we provide both traditional & candid (photojournalist) shots… in the end… the couple are always happy cuz it’s a nice mixture of both… to have traditional shots are great (esp. for the long run)…
i don’t think wedding photographers often get the credit they deserve…. most of the time we are also the wedding coordinators conducting the time of the events so that the day will run smoothly…
also… pro. photo. have experience in posing the couple as well as posing family members… i would def. find a WEDDING photographer who is experienced to capture your wedding…
Update: Looking for photographers now! It’s not 100% decided, but I had thought of most of the points everyone is bringing up before, and just hearing everyone say them all again so emphatically (plus a few new points!) is making me reeeallly think we need to find a way to do this! Mr. Bluebell isn’t totally convinced yet, but I think we’re at about 90% hiring a pro at this point! Thanks for all your thoughts and advice, everyone!
Definitely #6! We hired a photographer who’s very very talented, but didn’t charge as much when we first booked him because he was still fairly new in the game. I’m sure that you can find a great photographer for less than $2000! And it’s totally worth it to have all those blessed moments captured.
There wasn’t a “Don’t even want to think of it right now” number to vote on! Everything is getting really stressful right now, and I honestly don’t think I could even think about it yet! We still have 15 months until the wedding, so I think I’m good, so far.
I’ve talked to way to many brides who wished that they had spent more money on their wedding photographer, so for me…that’s an area that I didn’t want to scrounge on at all, so I hope our photographer is amazing!
Well, I know my fiance really doesn’t give a hoot about pictures. He thinks he’s not photogenic, and hates any and all photos of him…and at the moment, I’m the same. One the time comes, I’ll have lost over 150 pounds…(hopefully…lol, lost 75 already), and I think by that time, I’m going to want to show off my new bod, and (hopefully) how good I look in that dress! So it’ll definately be a priority.
My fiance & I have just upped our budget for photography. Good photos matter a lot to us and my fiance actually said he’s more willing to spend more $$ on a good photographer than flowers (”Photos last a lifetime while flowers die” he said haaa haa). Plus, I see it as one of the very very few occasions where I want professional picture taken (besides family portraits and during pregnancy ). So it’s rare and special. But everyone is different, if professional photography is not that important to you, then spend the $$$ on something else that you care more for (maybe food, music, etc?) Oh, and if you do go w/a professional photographer, MAKE SURE you check out their portfolios, references, etc! My best friend just got her pix back, and we were sooo disappointed with them! The “professional” photographer did a horrible job when it costed her about $3500! Now day too many people think they can call themselves “professionals” when the pix they take are no different from someone who just grabs a camera and does a point and shoot. The pictures my friend’s FRIEND took turned out a lot BETTER than the $3500 ones. Good luck!
Oh in case you’re wondering, I (Commenter #31) didn’t post two comments to your question. There is actually another reader named J too. So I don’t have amnesia about having already answered your survey. Haaaa haaa 
I would definitely choose option 6.
At my cousin’s wedding, my dad ended up being the videographer because they didn’t want to spend money on a professional one. He spent at least an hour before the ceremony setting up, and a lot of time during the reception walking around taking video. While this was a great, cheap option for the couple, my dad was stuck doing “work” the whole time and didn’t really get to enjoy himself because he always had to look out for a “great shot.” He and my mom love to dance, but I didn’t see them out on the balcony much because he always had his video camera in tow…
photography is more important to us than the venue… so we’re actually spending approximately 35% of our entire budget on the best photographer we could possibly find that fits our style and is available on our date.
Like everyone is saying the photos are one of the lasting things we can take from the wedding itself. The posed family and bride/groom shots are also very important to our families.
When its time to book our photographer, we will only be booking for the ceremony and posed shots. For the reception we will be going with friends and cameras on all the reception tables.
For us, we felt this was the best of all worlds…pro pics, family and friends feeling involved, classic moments, the unexpected shots, and the cost savings.
Good luck!
[...] important parts of your wedding day. I’m not just saying that as a photographer, either. Many brides have expressed regret over not spending more of their budget on the photography, or cut corners to get a cheaper photographer. Remember, you get what you pay for, especially in [...]
[...] important parts of your wedding day. I’m not just saying that as a photographer, either. Many brides have expressed regret over not spending more of their budget on the photography, or cut corners to get a cheaper photographer. Remember, you get what you pay for, especially in [...]
Mrs. Bluebell, New York
Age and Occupation in 07: 26, Finance Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Playing with the cat and/or Consulting
Engagement Date: December 25, 2005
Wedding Date: June 2007
Venue: Bride's family summer home in the Adirondacks
About Me: Trying to find the perfect balance between family tradition (marrying at the house everyone else in my family gets married at), making our's modern, interesting and different from everyone else in my family's, and incorporating some Chinese tradition for my Chinese fiance. I really have no idea what it's going to end up looking like!
Also, I picked Miss Bluebell for my name because I have blue eyes and I'm a loser like that.
I think that everyone is probably quite different in what they want with regards to photos. For us, having a pro there whose style we love is really important. But I’m sure if you know people with good photo skills you can go that route too. You probably just need more people doing it if they are friends so they can have fun and not always be snapping away…
Good luck!!!