I thought this week I would write about the comparison between booking a professional wedding photographer to capture your special day, to just leaving it to your wedding guests to hopefully get some nice and in focus images.
As a professional wedding photographer for six years now, I have seen and heard of some couples that didn’t have a professional wedding photographer. Couples would cut down the costs by not booking in with a professional and just have guests to take their images of their special day. Now I’m all for cutting costs for some things as I know just how much weddings can cost, but when it comes to your photographs from your wedding day – a day that you only tend to do once and once only the one thing I would want to be done right would be my pictures. I have been wanting to do a blog to show the comparison between booking a professional wedding photographer like myself to guests photos for so long but never had the chance until now.
I photographed Nicola and Adam’s wedding in April this year, they got married at Hugglescote Church, Coalville, Leicestershire. After the church, their reception was at Quorn Country Hotel. The day was amazing! Of course, I can’t wait to get home and start on the images of the couple as soon as possible. A few weeks after the wedding Nicola texts me to ask when her images would be done because …. wait for it … she doesn’t have any nice ones that her guests took. Her words were ‘my photos I got sent from people are a bit naff, I either have my eyes closed or they are blurry’. When Nicola sent me this message, I smiled and immediately thought to ask her if I could use her images taken from myself and guests for a blog … and here we are now 🙂
Your wedding day is so precious, just like having a baby, those first moments and first weeks when they’re super tiny you can never get back. I know weddings cost a lot of money because I know what my brides spend on their special day. There is always going to be someone out there that can do a job cheaper for you, always! But you then have the saying ‘you get what you pay for’. I agree you do get what you pay for. I’ve always said that you should never pay less than £800/£900 for your wedding photographer. It does depend on what is included in the package for the cost but I would say the average cost of a wedding photographer is from £1200-£1500. I have been trained by some professional photographers that charge double/triple that price. I totally get it looks a lot of money to spend on ”photos” but are they just photos? Definitely NOT! These are memories. Memories that are printed to treasure forever, to show off to family and friends, to keep in the family so generations can look back on them in years to come to remember you when unfortunately you’re no longer here, or to laugh at how much fashion has changed but most definitely to see how much love there was between the two of you that day and forever more.
I’ve said it many of times before, the photographer is one of the most important people there on your wedding day, you can’t see everything that happens on the day or remember some of the things such as the details or table decorations. That’s why I photograph weddings, not only do I love them but so you can remember everything that happened on your special day when you look back on your wedding album. Once the day is over the wedding dress goes in the attic, the wedding was eaten, the food on the day is gone, the table decorations etc have gone back to the supplier, suits have been taken back to the shop and the flowers have probably died if you haven’t got them pressed or anything. So what’s left? Your wonderful wedding photo’s that the professional photographer has taken 🙂
Some people think it’s just taking photos, it’s just pressing a button. Well, that’s far from it. Pressing the button is the easiest part, but it’s all the decisions made by the professional before pressing that button that makes it. I get to know my brides generally over a year from when they first book me, we have consultations, we have a pre-wedding session, we set timetable for the day, they let me know of specific group shots they’d love, I know how my bride and grooms like to be photographed and how they don’t before their wedding day. I plan each couple’s photos to suit them and who they are, pressing the button is almost the end part of the process. Each image is then edited so I can deliver the very best to my clients. I then design my client’s wedding album, order their prints etc, so as you can see far from just pressing a button.
So if you’re planning your wedding day, are they now just photos?
I have added the images taken by guests at Nicola and Adam’s Wedding below, after those I have added my images so you can see the difference.
Images taken by guests
The images taken by myself as a professional wedding photographer
After reading this and seeing these images now, would you book a professional wedding photographer or would you let your guests do them in hope of one or two nice ones? Remember its one day, you can’t get it back and do it again. Please leave your comments below 🙂
Thank you for reading 🙂 see you soon.
Leave a Reply