Weddingbee Blog

There’s no place better to air your confessions than the internet—that’s what I think. And I have a confession to make today…I suffer from Newyorkcentricitis. This is a disease that runs rampant in New York, particularly those of us who are born and raised. I’ve tried to control it, but unfortunately, the only way to cure Newyorkcentricitis is to move OUT of New York, but the main symptom of this disease is complete resistance to living anywhere but New York.

There’s a reason I’m telling you this, and I’m getting there, I promise.

When I started planning this wedding long distance, first thing on the list was to find a photographer. This was priority #1 and before I even started looking, the big skeptic in me was raring to go, just waiting to be tagged in. I hit up the Weddingbee vendor reviews, pretty doubtful that I’d find anyone that would meet my standards—after all, I’ve been ogling wedding blogs that feature amazing photography for longer than was normalsauce. There were a few companies with really awful websites—sites that looked like they were updated in the ’90s. I was feeling pretty smug.

But it wasn’t long until I realized it was time to serve me up some…

source: izzymom.com

Yes, that slice was mine.

I was shocked that despite all the scary, there were also a bunch of fantastic photographers that had amazing sites, blogs that were updated regularly, and all the info we needed. Some even included pricing packages. Our wedding was only seven months away and I was so nervous that they would all be booked on our date so I immediately emailed them. I tried to keep an open mind because I didn’t want to be disappointed if our first choice was booked, but there was one company that was the clear frontrunner for me out of the whole group.

Photographed by Phindy Studios / Event by A Delightful Day / Florals by Brocade Designs / Lighting by Nashville Event Lighting

Their photos stood out to me because not only were they able to do portraits and detail shots well, they were also great at capturing more intimate moments—the ones that go by in a flash and if you’re not there with a camera, you totally miss it. Sometimes it’s an expression in a bride’s face at the end of the day or a great dance move by an excited guest. As I looked on their blog, I got more and more excited. How soft and pretty is this next photo??

Photographed by Phindy Studios / Location: Kuttawa Harbor House

So I shot them an email, telling them briefly about Mr. Crepe and me and held my breath until they got back to me at the end of the day.

Photographed by Phindy Studios / Location: Scarritt Bennett

Photographed by Phindy Studios

They were available!!! We scheduled a 3 way video chat with Phil and Mindy, since Mr. Crepe and I are in different states. I had prepped a list of questions to ask for that initial meeting but I didn’t even really need to reference them because they answered almost all of them unprompted. You ever meet people and feel like you just click? I was so nervous that we wouldn’t because you want to be able to trust and get along with the people you’re entrusting with your memories, but we totally did! They were so easy going and at the same time completely professional.

As soon as we got off the three-way video chat, I asked Mr. Crepe what he thought and he said, “Let’s do it.” We had decided to set aside about a third of our little budget for photography and they fell within that range. There were specifics about the package, like an extra payment for a CD of hi-res images that we would have to pay extra for and I wasn’t sure was necessarily the best deal we could get, but I felt that the quality of shots made it worth it. We could always pay for those extras in the future but we wouldn’t be able to retake the photos of that day.

I started out my photographer search thinking that because of our budget and location, we would have to settle for someone local that wasn’t up to our standards, but we ended up with a photography team that I would have been happy to fly out if we weren’t having our wedding in Nashville.

Did you book your photographer quickly or did you go through an extensive interview process? How long did it take you to find your perfect photographer?

(P.S. These photos are from their blog but you’ve GOT to see their main website: Phindystudios.com. Beyond the photography skills, there are loads of drool-inducing, inspirational details from the weddings they’ve shot.)