Today’s post is from my heart… I know it looks wordy, but it’s worth the read.
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all the words.., because it may stop you making the worst decision of your wedding, like I did.
Nine years ago I married the love of my life, my soul mate. Corny? Maybe… but both of us felt it! This was my second wedding, the first being the all out elaborate affair, the second being small and intimate. I loved both of them but there is one huge, extraordinarily deep regret from my second wedding that I implore you to hear.
On 9th August every year my hubby and I sit on the couch together, legs entwined, a bottle of wine and a Thai Curry and look at our wedding video and then follow it with a very small display of photos. We feel the same pinch of sorrow, and get the same bitter taste in our mouth every year from the one decision that we made, so so wrong.
Make sure you don’t make the same bad decision I did.
Nine years ago we made a bad decision by biting the bullet on our budget with our Photographer, and bitterly regret it to this day, especially when I am now blogging about incredibly talented photographers like Alpine Image Co. Nine years ago, even after checking out our photographer and agreeing that what we both saw in his studio was stunning wedding photos… we chose him, but, and this was a big but… we chose the only package we could afford, which was one of his smallest. And we got his cheapest work!!! Had we bought his top package, we may have ended up with the kinds of photos that we saw, and loved, in his studio.
Out of 200 or so photos, we like 3! It breaks my heart every time I think about it and still while I write this I feel that same burning in my tummy and tension in my body; it so upsets me. Even on our wedding day I had to tell him what to do to try and get some great shots. Would you believe that the three shots we like are all the ones I composed.
This is a life-time investment, spend as much as you can.
I implore you to consider my words, and to discuss it with each other because your wedding day will physically only last for one day but could live an eternity through beautiful, creative, stunning wedding photos that capture you both in the midst of what will be one of the greatest days of your life. Don’t just count on memories or OK photography, because ten years on, it’s hard looking back, trying to remember all the little details.
Imagine not being able to showoff stunning wedding photos of you two around your house or not having that romantic pic of you two beside your bed. Imagine having your photos still in a plastic bag nine years on … that’s where mine are.
This is why I am passionate about bringing you wedding photography inspiration as often as I can. I scour the internet, I scrutinize pictures and I drink a ton of tea before I blog about them but I will work my Sophie Dahl butt off to get them to you, I promise you!
What should your money buy?
So what should you pay for? This is my mission – I want to show you what great wedding photography is so that you get an idea of what yours should be like. Black and white, colour, documentary, traditional, it doesn’t matter what style you choose, that depends on what you like but it jolly-well does depend on quality so don’t just judge their studio shots, or their online gallery. Talk to them, read testimonials and research!
It doesn’t mean you need a mortgage for them, just time, research and an appropriate financial investment.
What is great wedding photography?
Here is one of my favourite recent finds whom I keep stalking! 🙂 What I love about Alpine Image Co is the moodiness they seem to capture in all their wedding photos, no matter who the Bride and Groom or where their pictures are being taken, you feel the subjects, not just see them. Their shots are composed to a degree of perfection and entice you to look further into the photos. And, they’re different! I do like things that are different, I have to admit. They take risks, experiment, look through the lens at their subject and their environment.
So this is what stunning wedding photography looks like. Meet Brie and Leonard. I LOVE Bries black wedding dress!
Great photography + a great photographer that you get on with + the biggest budget you can throw at it = Stunning Wedding Photos that last your life time.
The image above of Brie won an award for Anna of Alpine Image Co, The NZIPP Iris Award which attracts hundreds of entries from around the country and overseas each year.
This image above has captured a really personal moment between the two. I adore it!!!
This image is sultry, sexy and so damn romantic!
Anna, Miles and Jen as a team have won multiple awards internationally and in New Zealand where they are based. As one client of Alpine Image Co said “I am particularly impressed that there is not a bad photo in the bunch.”.
This is what you want to say when you see your wedding images!!!
Brie & Leonard’s wedding
There is a superb story behind Brie and Leonards wedding photos. Brie did not want a bouquet, she wanted something different so Anna from Alpine Image Co sugggested the rams skull which she uses for her photographic students… Brie loved the idea. I think the photo above with the Groom holding the rams skull in front of his face is brilliant!
Brie and Leonard said when they booked Alpine Image Co: ‘The photography is CRUCIAL to us. While we recognise that there are certain moments in every wedding that should be captured, what we really want from our photography is difference. We don’t so much want our photos to capture the day but to be unusual works of art with depth”. That’s what wedding photography should be, composed, un-composed and captured moments.
Brie and Leonards words after they saw their photos: ‘I don’t even have the words… Leonard and I had a perfect day and we owe so much of that to you … Somehow you took what was in my mind and made the reality even better than I could have hoped. Your vision is truly astounding and the fact that you have the talent to make that vision a reality is amazing’.
My passion, my promise.
Some bloggers out there are passionate about Vintage, or passionate about bringing out your rebellious side or helping make your wedding full of all those pretty things; it’s wonderful inspiration for you but one of my promises to you is that I will show you how to not make the same mistake I did and ensure you have many stunning images from your wedding day.
Thanks to my new job as a blogger I am now head buried in submissions from some wonderful people around the world which helps me bring to you a great showcase of talent to help you make your decision when choosing your photographer.
Alpine Image Co. are in my top five. They are also wonderful, beautiful people to deal with and that means a lot. Check out their Mt Cooking wedding photos or the wedding in The New Zealand Alpine Mountains for some more great examples of their work.
I hope all these images inspire you in some way and I hope you choose to spend as much as you can on a photographer and make sure you have stunning imagery to hang on your wall, not a bunch of photos in a plastic bag, buried in a cupboard.
Thank you so much for posting this article. As a wedding photographer, I can not stress enough to use as much of your budget as you can on the photographs. Of course, if I say that it sounds like like I’m biased, but I’m not. At the end of the day, your photos are your memories.
It’s a shame that because you opted for the smallest package, you got worse quality photos. I can assure couples that even if they opt for my cheapest package, I still deliver the same quality and standard as if they’d had my most expensive package.
Thanks Gillian. Yes, it was a shame that we got poor quality and I know a small budget doesn’t necessarily mean poor quality, as yourself and Alpine Image Co have proved. I just wish I had the smarts back then to really investigate and not take just the photos in the studio as the example of what a smaller budget would give me. It is such an important decision, a lot of time, research and effort needs to be taken in investigation of your choices. Thanks again for popping by and commenting 🙂 Zarn x
This article strikes a chord with me too. I had been friends with a photographer for a few years and he very kindly gave us a great deal to shoot our wedding day. Unfortunately, the photos he chose to publish on his website seemed so bad that I didn’t send anyone else the link. I ended up asking him for ALL of his images so that I could choose my own and edit them myself. We did get a great selection of images, but there are some important ones missing from the album, e.g. a decent one of both families together, and I know that we’ll never get that back now. I felt so bad because he is a decent guy, but I really wish we’d gone to more effort and found someone with more experience.
In fact, I wish we’d had Alice in Weddingland back then!!!
Hi Anthea, thanks so much for your comment. I am gutted your photos weren’t what you expected but pleased you did get some good ones. It’s such an important day, the memory is even more important so we can look back, reflect, remember those little details and see things like those images you missed of the joint families…those photos which will be really hard to replicate years down the line.
And, you made my day with your last comment 🙂 Thank you, it’s so wonderful to know you’re out there reading! Zarn x
My husband and I actually went over budget on photography for this very reason and I don’t regret it for a second. Hands down best money we spent on our wedding. We love the pictures so much we’ve displayed them everywhere. And on top of that, our photographers have really become friends. They are the kind of people I’m excited to have capture our other important milestones. You can’t put a pricetag on that.
Hi Ms. Adams, thanks for your comment, it’s a great inspiration for B’s2B. I love the fact that you’ve made friends with them too, I love stories like that. Send us your fav wedding pic if you like and we’ll showcase it on our facebook page. Zarn x
Regret to hear. No matter what package you purchased, the photo’g should have given you their best work. Shame on them!
Oh I absolutely agree, thank you! One day we might just do it all again 🙂 to get some good photos. x
Thanks to Alice in Weddingland for raising this important issue. Its hugely important to make sure you choose the right photographer for your wedding but its terrible to hear that your photographer had a studio full of beautiful images and then delivered an inferior service because you chose his cheapest package! That’s outrageous!! We offer a midweek package for couples who are eloping that is a fraction of the cost of our weekend rates but the quality of the photography and the service we offer is exactly the same as if they chose our most expensive package. The difference in cost is because of what is included rather than the standard of the photography! The weekend weddings tend to be bigger and the couples tend to want more coverage, whereas the eloping weddings are much smaller, we are often only with them for a couple of hours hence the price difference.
One of the most important things to look for in your wedding photographer is someone who will listen to what you want. Just because the photographer has a studio of lovely images, you won’t be happy with your photos if they haven’t listened to what you would like. What I love about Brie and Leonard’s photos is that they wanted something completely different. They booked us because they DIDN’T want wedding photos, even though our studio is full of them! They trusted us to interpret what they wanted from their photos and because we listened, they were over the moon with the results. These photos above wouldn’t suit a couple who wanted more traditional photos! Especially the one with the groom holding the rams skull to his face! Which happens to be my favourite 🙂
Sorry – its us again! But its such an important issue, and there’s something else I feel we should bring up which is that the gorgeous photos in all three posts that you have so kindly written about us lately were from weddings where the couples booked our cheapest package!! This wasn’t because the couples wanted to spend less, but because they were eloping and that’s the package that we recommended for them as it suited them best.
The other thing to be aware of is to make sure you ask your photographer to see a whole wedding or at least a selection of photos from a wedding as there are so many mediocre photographers out there – they may have a few nice photos that they use to sell themselves, but they might be the only good photos they have taken from several weddings. You want to know that you will end up with lovely photos from YOUR wedding.
We show a selection of photos from each wedding on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/alpineimages so our couples can get a feeling for the different styles we shoot for different couples – some couples ask for no posed shots as they want a very documentary feel, some say they would like to be directed and prefer more formal posed shots, for some its all about the people, and for some its all about the landscapes……….Some couples ask us not to show their photos on our website or Facebook page. There can be several reasons for this – they may have sensitive jobs…….they they may be celebrities and want privacy, they may not be celebrities and they want privacy! Sometimes these are our nicest photos but we are happy to honor their requests. Its all about listening to the couples and doing what they want.
I am a bespoke dressmaker, specializing in wedding dresses of a unique nature (i.e. they can be worn again) and I cannot tell you the times the bride has said at her fittings “We are not having a photographer as our friends will take the pictures” Big Mistake……so I always tell them the story of one of my brides who relied upon ‘Their Friends’ to take the pictures and the shambles that appeared a few days later!!! ‘Friends’ are busy enjoying the champagne and chatting to other guests and therefore are NOT focussed on the bride and groom or all the other aspects that make up a beautiful wedding day full of fabulous memories. The bride in question ended up with a sad reflection of her day…..lost heads, blurred images, no focus on special moments. So I always encourage the bride to have a rethink and even if the budget allows for only 1 hour of a specialist photographer’s time to capture a small but beautifull piece of the day it’s well worth it.
A great post, so honest and perfectly put. I feel strongly about this issue as a whole (obviously, as a wedding photographer!) but particularly passionate about some areas… Firstly, most wedding photographers offer tiered packages, be it by number of hours, number of photos, size of album etc – BUT regardless of the package you book, whether it’s the cheapest or the most expensive you should get EXACTLY THE SAME quality of photography. It’s outrageous that yours didn’t live up to what they sold you. Also, this issue of photographers showing work they can’t reproduce, whether it’s taken on a training course, using models, or using equipment they borrowed and won’t be taking to your wedding. Unfortunately, the industry is full of photographers using ‘workshop/model’ images to sell their service. I don’t blame them, I blame the companies that offer courses allowing photographers to build up false portfolios with false brides and grooms, using poses usually set up by the workshop leader. It’s a big can of worms, that’s probably here to stay.
I’d agree wholeheartedly with your advice. Meet your photographer, have a coffee and a chat. Make sure your personalities click. Look at several full weddings – on their blog, in their sample albums. Make sure you research what you want – documentary based, portrait based, fashion style images, a fusion of it all? An album, a photobook, a disc, a selection of beautiful frames? Then choose a photographer that is great at doing what YOU want. Too many people in the wedding industry have an opinion on what’s right or wrong, naff or cool. Be inspired, but don’t be influenced.
I could go on all day… In a nutshell – great post. The day after your wedding what you’re left with is your new husband/wife and your photos. Both are priceless.
@Adam, I totally agree. The ‘wedding photography’ courses you mentioned are great to gain experience shooting models or to test some new kit BUT if these images are then used to sell a service to a client that’s just not on!
I think many people aren’t aware that a portfolio is a collection of the photographer’s best images and it doesn’t necessarily reflect what kind of photos they’re going to get. Even the famed ‘full weddings’ are often heavily edited and it can be a good idea to ask the photographer for access to an unedited online gallery of a recent wedding. Yes, this means you’ll have to trawl through 50 group photos of people you don’t know but you also get a very good idea of your photographer’s style and how they work.
Anyways, Zarn’s article and the comments sum it up perfectly, there’s just a few little things I’d like to add…
Don’t book a photographer and then ask them to shoot in a style that isn’t their own. They are good at what they do and to force them to emulate someone elses’ style means you won’t get their best work.
Don’t choose a photographer primarily because they are cheaper than everyone else. Chances are you’ll get what you paid for. There’s nothing wrong with shopping around but don’t expect stellar quality for little money.
And lastly, it is a good idea to set a photography budget, then research what you want and see if you can find a photographer who does what YOU want for the money you are willing to spend. If you can’t find a good one, rethink what you want included in your photography package. Do you really need 20 prints? Maybe book 6 hours of photography instead of a full day? Don’t compromise on the quality! Compromise on the extras!
Hello,
This is a great post but, I can’t help but wonder why out of 200 photographs you only have 3 that you like?
Surely, any photographer worth booking should give you at least 200 photographs that you are truely happy about – they won’t be award winners because, people love shots of their parents, friends etc (groups) but only three?
Issues I face are people not booking me because I am not cheap – then they bring their photos on CD/DVD for me to somehow fix! It ends up costing them more than if they’d booked a competent photographer in the first place!
Dilip
dkh-photography.com