Weddingbee

… thousands of dollar, apparently!  Like so many other aspects of our wedding, we ended up totally changing our tune about photography.

At first, we said we didn’t want to spend more than $1,000 and I started looking around at the lower priced photography options in our wedding area. I was NOT impressed. I couldn’t see the point of spending even just $500 on pictures that we would probably hate and never want to look at again. Then I talked to my sister who got married a few years ago and her biggest regret was her photography. She only spent $800 on it but her pictures don’t look much better than the non-pro pictures from her wedding. Taking that into consideration, Mr. Radish and I decided to increase our budget on photography.

I started doing a ton of research and talking to some pros that I work with (I work at an art college) about the different options out there, and it sounded like we would be most happy with a wedding photojournalist. Then I found one that I loved! Tim Forbes from Kingston Ontario. Here are some of my favorite shots from his online portfolio:

Tim is a member of the Wedding Photojournalists Association, and I found him off of their website. If you are looking for a wedding photojournalist, this website is an excellent resource and lists all of their members by area. To be part of the WPJA, the photographers have to meet certain criteria and quality.

Mr. Radish hates posed photos anyway so he was very into this idea of having a photojournalist. The candid heartfelt moments from our wedding are probably what we want to remember years from now. Plus if I’m not happy with the lack of “posed” photos, I know a million photographers in Chicago who could do some bridal portraits after the wedding. And I should mention that Tim (as with most wedding photojournalists) does do some traditional, posed pictures. He just doesn’t spend as much time on it as a traditional photographer would.

Anyway, aren’t his pictures beautiful? I’m really excited to work with him. There is a certain tenderness in the way that he captures the emotions of his subjects that is very moving. His pictures also do a great job telling the story of the day. We are getting our engagement pictures done with him in a week, so I’ll be sure to post those as soon as I get them.

Though it’s more than I initially planned to spend, I must say that I feel we are getting a real bargain with Tim considering the talent that he has. Right now, we have the “Silver” package, which includes 8 hours of coverage, 300 prints, and an engagement shoot. I think we are going to upgrade to the “Gold” package for $3,500, which includes unlimited coverage, a disc of all the jpegs, more prints, a coffee table album, and a print credit.

When I start to think about it too much it seems totally insane that we are going to spend that much money on photography, but it’s worth it. The bottom line, I’ve learned, is that you have to pay someone for their talent. Working at an art college and being friends with a lot of professional artists has also helped me to realize that $3,500 is not really a large price to pay for artistic talent. And I think it is actually harder, in some ways, to do a good job capturing the candid moments and that’s what we really want. It really is a skill.

Not to mention, I am pretty sentimental person and I think I will want to look at these pictures for years to come. I always love looking at other people’s old wedding pictures, and I guess I have visions of our grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren looking at them years and years from now, so I really want them to be something special and to reflect who we are and what we feel for each other.

So, yeah, does that justify my tripling the photography budget? I hope so.

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