Photographers!

kriss_boy

Got engaged last weekend- that was the easy bit!

Where do you guys stand on photographers- I mean how necessary are they? I understand they cost in the region of £1500 which is quite frankly outrageous!

We are thinking about asking a friend to do the photos as a present. We have a really good camera so we were thinking it will give the wedding a more natural, modern feel.

Im just wondered if anyone else has done this but perhaps regretted it.

RainbowDrops

It all depends how important the photos are to you.
If you're not fussed, then yes, £1,500 seems rediculous.

However, bear in mind that this cost covers more than just a day of snapping.
You're likely to get a pre-wedding shoot to familiarise yourself with they type of photos you want.
You're getting the photographers time before the event going through your plans, and lots of hours of work after the big day sorting through the photos, making any edits etc.
On the day, you're covering the costs of their travel, and you're getting their expertise, which turns a "snap" into a professionally taken photo.
You're getting professionally developed photos, often presented in a nice book.

MrsDrink

How much importance do you place on photos in general? When you go on holiday do you take many photos? What sort of photos are they?

The reason I ask is because photos are important to me in terms of stirring up old memories, but I don't necessarily need 100% perfect photos to do that. When we go on holiday it is very rare that either myself or MrD are actually in the photos - I tend to snap 100s of photos but of the places we've been. I don't need to see me in the photo to know I was there if that makes sense. The same is going to be true for our wedding day. I don't need the typical 'staring into each others eyes' to know how great we look(ed) and how much in love we are. But I will need random photos of everything to help stir these memories.

Our wedding 'day' is slightly different to the norm in that we're having the registry ceremony followed by drinks on one day, and a party on another day. So really I'd have to pay a professional twice. Instead I'm going to take a few photos in the run up to the big day, like a photo of our shoes together. I've asked my mum to take a few photos of the registry office/ceremony. Then for everything else, MrD and I will go around with our camera getting photos of everyone and I am going to send everyone a SAE and a writable CD-Rom with our thank you cards asking them to burn any photos they took of us on the day/night.

Whilst I may not get any 'wedding glossy mag' photos. I am confident we'll capture the essence of our relaxed and informal day. Besides I'm not the type who would like a photo of themselves on their mantelpiece

kaya

the price is rediculous, friends got married and paid £1500 for photo's, to charge £100 per hour plus a few hundred on top for expenses is profiteering, i could understand the added costs before digital formats were in common use but nowdays they can take a thousand photos and pick the best few

RainbowDrops

kaya wrote: »

to charge £100 per hour plus a few hundred on top for expenses is profiteering, ....
nowdays they can take a thousand photos and pick the best few

But it's not realy £100 per hour, as the are more hours spent working on the photos after the big day.
Yes, they can take a thousand photos, but imagine how long it takes to go through 1,000 photos to pick the best (and it's not just a case of flicking through, they need to be scruitinsed & ensure that none of the requested photos get omitted from the final cut.)

I'm not saying that £1,500 is cheap, but there is some justification in the cost.

MrsDrink

FWIW although I'm not having a photographer I agree with Rainbow Drops, - if I was I would make sure I didn't scrimp. You only have to read the threads on here to see where people have gone for the cheap option to have been met with unprofessional/crap photographers. Unfortunately you do get what you pay for. (Although obviously there will always be exceptions to this rule). I think if I was going to go for a photographer I'd want to be paying around £750-900 for it. Looking at threads on here that is very doable and you get a good service.

ellay864

You can get some lovely photographs for a lot less than the £1500 mark. The photographer we're using starts at £600 - we actually got him cheaper as we saw him just before he put his prices up and he honoured the price we enquired at. We're getting him for the day and early part of evening up to first dance, we get a DVD of the photos with copyright licence so we can print, email etc and we're also having the photobook (which is a bit extra). Depending whereabouts you are I'm sure somebody on here could point you towards a decent photographer at a more sensible price

Bride2be24

If you dont want to do that i can recommend my photographer Adrian @ http://www.willheyweddingphotography.com/ he is fabulous. I got mine for £250 + £30 travel for him to be with us from morning till late evening because of the offer he had on at the time. Here are his offers atm http://www.willheyweddingphotography.com/?page_id=717 maybe you could give him a call to sort something out?? also he gave us a free engagement photoshoot aswel. Maybe worth having a look? x

Tiara_2

As others have said, it depends how important photos are to you. Just bear in mind they are one of the only lasting memories of your day. They were the one area neither of us wanted to scrimp on- we want to be able to look back on our photos in the years to come and remember every little detail of our wedding day.
You do get what you pay for with photographers- yes it seems very expensive, but you are paying for their liability insurance, their very expensive equipment, their years of experience and skills, and hours of their time doing post production to edit your photos.

There are ways of cutting costs with photographers- having a disc-only package and then making up your own album can save several hundred pounds. Another option is to have the photographer there for just a few hours rather than the whole day. I got quotes from a lot of photographers, most of which were around the £700-£1200 mark. I would be very wary of going with anyone cheaper than this, as the two cheaper photographers we met with were technically very poor with very disappointing portfolios.

Ask to see lots of complete wedding albums- not just portfolios containing the best few shots from each wedding.

Good luck with whatever you decide

cherry76

Paid my photographer £500 for 2 hours in London. Small registry wedding. No pre consultation. I just wanted some good photos. He covered only the ceremony and took some photos in Regent's park. It took about 300 photos and gave me a cd & I have to choose the oneI want to print. Did not use his website as the print starts at £9.99. He did take some good photos but again some of my guests took some amazing ones as well.

Sammy85_2

I personally couldnt go without the professional photos. I would want a few "perfect" snaps along with all the lovely photos by friends and family. If i couldnt stretch to a full day package it would probably get someone in just for the ceremony.

My first photographer was a really amazing package for £700. All the bells and whistles. They went bust 4 months before our wedding and hadnt bothered to let us know, (and apparently didnt tell other brides/grooms that were getting married within weeks of them going out of business).

We've since found another photographer who is doing the same package, but slightly dearer at £950, but they are knocking £100 off which is the deposit we lost from the first. I think their photos only on a disk package is £500 for the full day.

It doesnt necessarily have to cost £1500 for a photographer, there are plenty out there doing cheaper packages, just be wary and go and meet them and check out their work.