Wedding Savings, Photography
Photography is very important to me. Photos help to capture a moment. I love looking through my own photographs and reminisce from time to time.
As far as wedding photographers go, there is a wide range of skill and prices. I don’t know a lot about the concepts of photography but I do know how to spot talent. I wouldn’t be able to define what makes a good photograph versus a poor one but I know the difference when I see it.
After looking at a few photographers that work in our area, we found that a talented photographer comes with a higher fee. Usually a very good one runs north of $3,000 while a mediocre photographer would cost $500 to $1,000. This is to be expected, but still, we are on a budget and would like to get the best value we can. We looked over the available photographers over the course of several nights. It was an agonizing process. We knew that we could not afford a $3,000 fee just for photos. But we did not want to have bad photos either. We have two friends who got married recently and it is very obvious to me who paid more for their photos.
We eventually saw a local photographer who we loved. His work was unique and different and showed his natural talent for the art. Out of every photographer we saw, he was the one we liked the most hands down. However, his fee was up in the higher range of prices. We lamented for a while and then got bold. What if we just ask him if he can do it for $1,000? The worst that would happen was for him to say no, and we would understand completely.
So thats what we did. We layered on some genuine flattery and waited patiently for a response.
He said yes.
Simple as that. We took a chance and it paid off. We will have an absolutely amazing photographer at our wedding and we will have paid a fraction of the cost for his talent.
I have to admit that there may very well be other factors at work here. We are planning our wedding on comparatively short notice. Most weddings are planned a year in advance. We are also having our wedding on a less popular day, Sunday. If a photographer has not filled up a particular day by this time before wedding season, I should think that there is little chance that he could. Unless that is, a short planning couple arrives with an offer. Filling up that Sunday afternoon may very well be gravy for his income.
I am very happy to have such a great photographer at our wedding. It shows how frugality can happen in different and unique ways.