1. Memories Fade
The reality of your wedding day is that it’s only one day. this might make you think, “Why Should I spend thousands of dollars on something that’s only one day?” Because, it’s essential to have a photographer there who can capture the memories so you can re-live them. When the day is over, the details will be all but forgotten, but the photos will live on.
Additionally, there is so much more that goes into hiring a professional photographer than the photos you get. As photographers, we also recommend a schedule that aligns with your vision of your day, keep you calm and focused on what matters, and generally just be someone fun to hang out with – we do spend a lot of time together on your wedding day after all.
2. You only do this once
Aside from sporting events, weddings are one of the only events where you don’t get a re-do. There’s no setting up the shot again. That “first kiss” isn’t the first kiss if it’s staged. If these photos are going to live on the walls of your home for years, your best best is to hire a professional. Chances are you’re spending a lot of money on your wedding day – more than you’ll spend on any one single day in your entire life. This warrants hiring a photographer who has been there, who knows the ins & outs of the wedding industry, and can anticipate things before they happen.
3. Pros are pros for a reason
You can hire a friend with a DSLR or someone who has a popular Instagram following to be your wedding photographer, but chances are you’re making a mistake. We’ve seen it happen too many times. A bride or groom thinking they can save money by hiring their cousin or best friend who “takes good pictures”. It could work out, but it probably won’t.
It’s great to look for deals on your wedding day, and do things DIY, but photography is not one of them. There is so much that goes into one single shot, let alone a whole day, you want a pro on your side.
4. It really is an investment
Wedding photography is an investment in your memories, and when you look at it this way, the cost is really secondary. And in case you’re not convinced, let’s take a look at some numbers:
Let’s say you pay $5000 for your wedding and engagement photography – which is a high number. Most people will probably spend more like $2,000-$4000. But, for this, let’s assume $5,000.
If you average that cost out over 50 years, it’s $100/year, or $8.33 per month, or $0.25 per day. And that’s only for one person. If you assume both the bride and groom are contributing to the cost, it’s $0.12 per day per person. Basically, if you ask someone for a quarter every day for the rest of your life, you can pay for your wedding photos. It’s just a matter of priorities. And if photos aren’t a priority for you, that’s totally cool. But, if they are, treat them that way.
View the infographic on Pinterest
Now, a Story About our Search for a Wedding Photographer and How It All Ties Into This “Investment” Thing
We got engaged in May 0f 2014 and obviously one of the first questions people asked besides the wedding date, was, “Who is your photographer going to be?”
We sort of had a leg up on the photographer search because we spent a pretty good amount of time browsing photographer’s websites and following them on social media when we were first starting out in this business. Problem is, through all of that searching, we hadn’t really settled on anyone we were absolutely sure about. There are a lot of great photographers out there, many of whose work we admire, but through the search we found the work and style of photography was really only 1/3 of the equation. There were two other factors that were extremely important:
- Communication
- Value of photography package
Communication – We started our search by looking for photographers who fit the style we were looking for – documentary, a bit on the moody side, and minimal. There were many. We reached out to a few of them and this is the crucial part. No matter how much we liked their work, we were immediately turned off by any sort of auto response. If it didn’t feel like they took a second to get to know us or what we were about, the search moved on.
Value – If we did like the communication (which we were surprised by how often we didn’t), we looked at the value of the packages next. This does include cost, but it was more about what we were getting for that cost, aka value. We had many different types of packages thrown our way, and one of the biggest turn offs was when we felt a photographer was charging a high rate ($4,000+) and not offering a substantial amount of their time in return.
We pride ourselves on being affordable and giving you essentially no time limit. That doesn’t mean we will hang out until 1am, but often times we’ll start photographing a wedding around 8am when the girls are getting ready, and not pack up our gear until 9pm or later. We understand that this is your ONLY wedding, and while we will photograph hundreds more, this is yours – and it needs to be treated that way.
What we learned
To recap, we learned just how important communication is in a search for a photographer. We always take special care in responding to e-mails and learning as much as possible about a prospective client before we discuss anything like price with them.
Price was important and we’re not advocating overextending yourself, but for us, price was secondary – and here’s why.
We plan to use our registry to help pay for photography
With the help of technology, we plan to set up a wedding website that will help use what would be a traditional registry, to have our friends and family help pay for our wedding photos.
To be honest, we don’t want or need many things. We’ve already furnished our house. Hailee has clothes on top of clothes. I have a few white v-necks and that’s good for me.
But seriously, we would prefer to have anyone donate toward our wedding photography and videography in lieu of physical gifts.
We think it’s a win win because everyone who comes to the wedding will benefit from the photos and video, whereas that $300 decanter from Bed, Bath & Beyond, well that would come out like once a year, if that.
It’s a bit of an experiment and we’re not sure how it will all work out, but this decision aligns with our values and when you’re making value aligning decisions, life is good.
Pingback : Wedding Day Spending - Where To Spend Money on Your Big Day