A wedding is one of the most important events in your life, and capturing the moment is important. Sure, it means allocating a portion of time during your big day for the official photos of your family and friends together, but it’s worthwhile taking the time to get the photos right. You might also want to slope off for a couple’s photo shoot where you’ll get those more personal shots but do you really need a professional photographer or videographer? Here’s how you can cut the cost of your wedding by only paying for what you need in terms of photography…
1. PRESERVE MEMORIES
Your wedding day will whizz by and you might not be able to remember everything that happened during the big day – let alone recall all your guests in years to come. If you want to capture a snapshot of who was there at your wedding, a photo booth can be a cost-effective way to get a photo of each of your guests. Simply search ‘photo booth hire in Hertfordshire‘ or wherever you live to find a local company as this will save on travel expenses associated with having a photo booth at your wedding.
Similarly, if you hire a video booth, your guests can create HD video messages for you to giggle at when you get back from honeymoon. Ask them to share their favourite moment from the wedding so that you can experience your big day through the eyes of your guests.
If you’re the bride or the groom, you won’t actually see everything that happens during your wedding, but a wedding photographer will capture every moment for you to enjoy when you get back from your honeymoon. You’ll want to look back fondly at those photos in the future so quality photographs by a pro are important, rather than those shaky camera phone snaps your family will take!
2. PHOTOGRAPHY TELLS A STORY
A photographer can document the story of your whole wedding day, from morning to evening; from getting ready and travelling to the ceremony, to cutting the cake and dancing the night away. The chronological nature of the photos will help to prompt your memory when you go through your wedding album in the future and can help you tell the story of your wedding day to future generations of your family.
3. THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO
Let’s face it, your wedding is one event that you won’t be doing again, so you want to get beautiful photographs of the day. A professional photographer will be able to advice you on which places at the venue would make a lovely backdrop, and can even advise you on the best poses to use. The photographer will know how to organise a crowd of people and encourage them to lively to achieve happy, relaxed photos where everyone is looking in the right direction.
4. QUALITY IMAGES MAKE GREAT GIFTS
If you’ve hired a professional wedding photographer this will guarantee you get the very best quality of images possible. You can therefore use those photos to create a high quality album to give to your parents as a ‘thank you’ for supporting you through your big day. And on the topic of ‘thank yous’, pick one fun photo and turn the image into postcards that you send out to all your guests to thank them for coming and for their gifts. A high resolution image will be good enough equality to print at a larger size, making it ideal as a framed print or canvas that you can gift to your other half on your anniversary.
HOW MANY PHOTOS DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED?
The number of wedding photos you may need will depend on a number of factors so here are some of the things you might want to consider when booking your photographer, including:
THE COST
This will determine the number of photos you’ll get of your wedding. Normally photographers offer a range of packages, and every package will have a specified minimum number of photographs. You might be able to save money on photography by only hiring a pro to take photos of the ceremony and formal family shots afterwards, and rely on friends to send you their snaps of the evening reception.
THE ALBUM
The photo album itself may also determine the number of photos you will need the photographer to take. I mean, why pay for more photos than the photo album you’ve chosen can hold? A standard album will carry around 80 to 120 photos so you can then ask your photographer to take more than enough photos to cover that range, but you won’t need thousands of photos. That may make hiring a photographer cheaper and you won’t need to trawl through so hundreds of photos to find the ones you want to print.
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS
If you have a larger family, you might need to split them into groups in order to take nice photos of everyone, so you’ll probably have to ask your photographer to spend more time on the formal shots to make sure everyone is included. After you wedding you might want to send personalised ‘thank you’ cards to your best friends and family members, so it would be nice to include a photo of them with the card. On the other hand, if you’re having a smaller wedding with fewer friends and family invited, the photographer will be able to capture the formal photos quickly.
So what do you think? Is a photographer essential or can you do without the expense? Of course, there’s no limit to how many photos your friends and family can take of your wedding, and they can send over the photos to you to enjoy after the event. However, if you can cut costs by only paying for what you need, the quality photos you’ll get from a professional might be worth the investment. And if you’re already married, let me know your experiences of wedding photography in the comments below and whether you thought it was a good idea to book a pro? 🙂
