Weddingbee

I’ll be completely honest: my hunt for a wedding photographer began a few months before we were even engaged! My best friend/MatOH had gotten married several months earlier, and the wedding bug had bit me a little tiny smidgen of a bit since helping with some of her details. I’m really into photography, so I thought doing a little research before Mr. Cupcake popped the question wasn’t such a bad thing (since we had gone ring shopping once and I knew it was coming… eventually!). No harm done, right? Right??

I did some sleuthing on theknot.com and throughout other wedding resources, compiling a list of some of my favorites. Unfortunately, a lot of those favorites were very high-priced, and although I was only planning my fantasy wedding at this time, I knew that I couldn’t get my heart set on any of these shutterbugs because I’d be setting myself up for disappointment when it was time to plan the real thing.

Then, one day, I happened upon the website of The Wiebners, a husband and wife team based out of Lancaster, PA. Their work can’t be categorized as any one particular style — it is a combination of photojournalistic, artsy, whimsical, and just plain fantastic. I was drawn to their raw, fresh style; not a lot of feathery images, nothing too lovey-dovey or too contrived. Their photos were simply of real people with real emotions, photographed in an incredible way. I was also drawn to the fact that even their posed shots had a somewhat candid quality to them. And, their starting prices didn’t make me gag with disgust. Score!

I sent an email to the Wiebners inquiring about their services and how far in advance they typically book weddings. I explained that I wasn’t exactly engaged yet, but who needs technicalities anyway! Rita emailed me back promptly, and was so incredibly sweet. She said that they do book fairly far in advance, especially for busier wedding months, and she didn’t think I was completely nuts for emailing her before I was even engaged (or, if she did, she didn’t say so ;-)).

Once we did get engaged, and after finding out the dates available for our reception at The Desmond, I emailed Rita to see if they were available for any of our possible dates. Fortunately they were, so I promptly set up a meeting. Mr. Cupcake and I ventured out to Lancaster one Saturday morning to meet with Rita and Joel, and we were immediately sold. Not only was their work incredible (which we already knew), they were also fun and laid back people whom we connected with and could see ourselves hanging out with. This was incredibly important to us, seeing as we’d be spending the most important day of our lives with these people!

We made our decision without meeting any other photographers (which may be crazy, but we were just that sure of their mad skillz!). They were a bit of a splurge, but photography is one thing I can’t bear to scrimp on (and they are still a lot more affordable than other local photographers whose work I don’t even like as much). Plus, we’re getting two amazing photographers, whereas many other photographers charge more for an assistant or second shooter (whose work might not be up to their caliber).

I’ll leave you in a little suspense before I post photos from our engagement session…. To tide you over, here are a few more reasons why we fell in love with the Wiebners….

• Happy Holidays!
• Planning Blog Blurb Book