101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding – Part 11: Photography and Videography
January 10, 2009 by BellaB
101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding – Part 11
With the cost of weddings spiraling upwards of $27,000 (depending on where you plan to have your wedding), and the unstable economy, many engaged couples are looking for ways to save money on their wedding. We, at Completely Weddings, have listed 101 ways to cut your wedding cost and thereby saving you money to use somewhere else such as your honeyn or savings for your first home.
Photography/Videography
Saving Money on Photography
77. Hire a student photographer – Many people will urge you not to skimp on your photos. While this is true, hiring a student photographer or even a talented family or friend isn’t a bad idea if you look at samples of their work first and know that they are good at what they do. Students often do better work because they are anxious to build up an impressive portfolio and impress instructors and future employers.
78. Get pictures from your guests – Encourage your guests, especially close friends and family, to take lots of pictures and send you copies or burn them to a CD. Oftentimes, it’s these people who get the best candid shots. Look through their pictures before you purchase everything from the photographer.
79. Use disposable cameras – Don’t hire a photographer for the reception and instead set out disposable cameras on all of the tables. Your guests will have a great time capturing your special moments. You can also enlist one special friend or family member with a digital camera to catch specific moments that are important to you.
80. Purchase the negatives – Negotiate a deal with your photographer where you can purchase the negatives. This way you can make as many prints as you want in a variety of sizes.
81. Get a picture CD – Purchase a CD from your photographer with all of your pictures on it. You can edit the pictures on your own computer, or take the CD to a drug store and use their software. This way you can print the pictures at your convenience and get reprints at any time. Wait for your CVS or Walgreens to run a special and take advantage of their great deals.
82. Enlist friends and family – For video of the wedding and especially the reception, compiling several videos from guests can often be more fun and personal than paying someone else to do it.
Read All Previous Parts:
101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding – Part 1: Planning
More to Come:
101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding - Part 12: Wedding Decorations
101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding - Part 13: Wedding Favors
101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding - Part 14: Wedding Attendants
101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding - Part 15: Wedding Ceremony
101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding - Part 16: This and That
I once attended a wedding where the couple didn’t hire a photographer nor a videographer. For the church ceremony, they had a friend take photos. He wasn’t a professional photographer or anything. He just happened to have one of those high-tech digital SLR cameras. Then for the reception, they gave out those disposable cameras you mentioned and had the guests take pictures. I heard they got some really beautiful albeit off-focus shots.
Henry’s last blog post..The Bridal Veil: A Very Important Part of a Chinese Wedding
Weddings are unlike any other event. If you care about your pictures at all, hire a professional with experience–not a student photographer, not a wannabe with a high tech digital camera, not your neighbor’s kid or Uncle Bob.
Your photographer should know lighting, posing, and how to handle blinkers (someone who blinks everytime the camera shutter clicks). They should have professional backup equipment (pro camera bodies, a few pro lenses that make a variety of shots possible, and pro flash units). They should have an assistant to help them with carrying equipment, holding lights, helping to organize group pictures, fetching things from the car, and most importantly, watching the cameras while the photographer is on meal break to make sure they aren’t stolen (hiring a pro wont do you any good if the film or memory card goes missing).
Your photographer should know the how weddings and receptions flow so that they know where to be to get the best shots at the right time without missing anything, should know all the do’s and don’ts and rules and regulations of your venue and ceremony officiant, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, they should know how to compensate when something goes wrong.
Remember that no matter how much has gone into the planning, something ALWAYS goes wrong.
And I’m sorry, but depending on your guests to take your reception photos with disposable cameras is ridiculous. They’re your GUESTS. They should be invited to be a part of your day – to eat drink, relax, to visit with you, and to enjoy themselves. They are not there to work or to anticipate when, where or what you may want pictures of. And unless your guests actually know how to take a proper picture (and most don’t, that’s why there are professionals), those disposable table cameras can be quite ineffective and unreliable — dark, blurry images due to flash misfire, improperly exposed pictures (bright subjects with pitch black backgrounds), washed out skin, red eye in every shot, heads cut off, feet cut off, just plain bad composition, an entire camera full of pictures of the guest’s child making a mess with their cake, pictures of the floor, the ceiling, Aunt Sally’s behind, etc…
Also, disposables can be mistaken as favors for the guest to take home so that you don’t even get them back, they can end up not being used because the guest isn’t really into taking photos, the cameras can be defective, and they can also be quite expensive to develope. If you have a lot of tables, you could end up spending $1000 on disposable cameras when all is said and done. Why not save yourself the headache (and the risk) by putting that money towards hiring a professional? Even if you can’t afford all the bells and whistles that professionals offer today (like coffee table wedding albums or large format prints), at least make room in your budget for professional pictures-only coverage with archival quality prints. Depending on where you live, this could cost you $1000 to $3000 or more depending on the experience and talent of your photographer, and will ideally fall somewhere within 10-20% of your total budget.
Your wedding photography should be a priority, right up there with your venue, because it’s what you’ll have 20, 30, 40 years and more from now.
Thank you, Rachel, for your insightful comment regarding saving money on wedding photography and videography. However, I do not agree that all student photographers are way inferior than “professional” photographers. There are a lot of so called “professional” photographers that are outperformed by student photographers. The key is to make sure, whether the photographer is a student or professional, to look at samples of their work and to hire someone with a personality that fits with yours (the bride), someone who loves her/his job and committed to helping you realize your wedding vision.
Regarding asking your guests to send you pictures that they took in your wedding, I am not at all offended by that and I know a lot of people who feel the same way I do. Maybe because I have Asian roots and taking pictures in happy events like weddings is considered appropriate.
When using disposable camera, they usually come with a note informing the guests what they are for – to take pictures during the reception and to leave the camera on the table when they leave for home. It is a good idea, though, to assign a friend or one of the bridal entourage to collect the camera before the guests leave.
The 101 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding is not written on stone. Some brides will choose some, some most, some none at all. It is meant to help/inspire couples on where they can cut costs.
Lastly, I am an advocate of hiring a professional, if one can afford it, as exemplified in at least two of my older posts about photography and photographers: Wedding Tips – Choosing A Wedding Photographer and Finding the Right Wedding Photographer.