Now that I’m finally all set with the wedding gown of my dreams, I must say I’m much more excited about the “getting ready” phase of the day.
Closing my eyes, I can picture the moment. I’m stepping into the dress… My mom and sister are zipping me up and fluffing the train… It’s all perfect except for one little thing.
I won’t have any professional photos to document it!
Let me first explain that our photography package includes eight hours of pictures, and that in the beginning, we thought that would be more than enough time to get all the shots we want. But now, since we plan to do a “first look” at the Gardens of the World botanical site, the hour we would have allotted for “getting ready” shots is instead being devoted to that photo session. The logistics are also understandably complicated by the fact that the house where I’ll be getting ready, the hotel where Stephen will get ready, the “first look” site, the church, and the golf course reception site, though all fairly close to each other, are obviously not in the exact same place.
Plus, now that I’ve received my hair and makeup timeline, I’m wondering whether an extra hour would even be enough time anyway. You see, as of right now, my stylist plans to start doing my hair during the morning hours, and my makeup application mid-morning, so that there will still be plenty of time should I request any last-minute changes.
I suppose I could ask our photographer what it would cost to add extra hours to our package, but with the cost of my new gown and our planned catering upgrade, the wedding budget is just about maxed out. So, the only solution I can realistically foresee at this point is to ask our friends and family members to handle these shots, both as I’m getting ready and as the groom is getting ready across town.
Has anyone else faced this problem? Do you think our friends can handle these photos OK, or is it worth the money to look into having a professional onsite? How are you handling the pre-wedding shots?
(Graphic Credit: Google Images)
That is a toughy. I think it would depend on two things, personally.
1. Will there be folks there that you would trust to get the pics to you after and do they have any talent at all for capturing decent pics?
2. Do you have, or would you consider buying a photo editing program to “dude up” the pics once they are given to you in digital format?
I find that a good editing program can take a so-so pic and make it something really special. The one I have was less than $200 and I swear by it. You wouldn’t really look at that as wedding budget money either, because it will be something you use forever. You can totally DIY those moments… and likely get some great shots just due to the fact that folks will be more comfortable with the people taking the pics. But you want to do it in a logical way so that you don’t regret it later.
Good luck!
We are really lucky and our photographer is a flat rate for the entire day so we are going to get every pennies worth out of him!
But I started thinking about pictures for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. I’m a huge picture person and I am normally the one snapping away but I knew that I wouldn’t have the ability to be the photographer for that night so I started to look into other options. I knew that hiring my wedding photographer was way out of budget so I started asking around. One of our groomsmen has a family friend who is trying to get into the photography biz so her rates are soooo low. She is only going to charge us $200 to come out for 4-5 hours of shooting and a few hours of processing time.
I would suggest talking to your photographer and letting them know your situation. They might work with you and give you a break on the extra hour or so, especially since they most likely won’t be working on anything else that day so whatever you agree on is more money in their pocket. But if their rates are just too high I would reach out to friends and family. See if they know of any aspiring photographers. Even check Craigs List. You can still enlist your friends and family to take pictures while you are getting ready but if you can find someone who might not be quite as good as your “real” photographer but is there for the soul purpose of documenting your morning I would say you would be ahead of the game. These pics will be so special to you and you will want to have them later on so I think if its in the cards to spend a **bit** more on them its totally worth it
If you can trust someone to take good pictures for you, I would recommend finding examples of creative photos that you may want so you don’t end up with the same boring ones b/c most people don’t think of creative shots.
Family and friends could do a good job getting these images for you. You will be relaxed because they are people you know, and with digital technology they can shoot a ton of images at no cost.
You can’t really direct anyone about what kind of photos you want, unless you offer to pay them.
If you only get 2 or 3 good images, you made out OK. That’s about how many of these kind of images you find in a typical album anyway. If you photographer is doing an album for you, ask if they would mind including these with the ones that they did.
Good luck!
We are in a similar situation and had an idea that I absolutely love. There will be 4 digital cameras that are floating around.. 1 with the girls, 1 with the guys, 1 with the parents of the groom, and 1 with my parents. All are required to take as many “getting ready” pics as they can. I love this for 2 reasons. The first, the more pictures you have, the better the chances that a few will be FABULOUS. We also like being able to capture these moments that are happening at the same time with different people. Sure, you can get the photographer to come in for another hour to take pictures of you, but what about the groom getting ready, or your father getting ready. These are all precious moments.
BEST OF LUCK!
I dealt with this very same problem, and actually just wrote a draft of a blog post for the blog I write for on it. Full ll disclosure, my hubby is a photographer, even so, I wasn’t going to have my photographer there for getting ready shots, but he made the decision for me and said he should be there. I was really glad. Some of those photos were my favorite and ended up in our album. The trouble with friends shooting, is that they don’t know what they’re doing and aren’t 100% focused on you. Between my four bridesmaids, only one of them was taking pictures, maybe 10 total, when we were getting ready (maybe because the photographer was there, I’m not sure)
If you don’t want them there for all of the hair and makeup, which isn’t entirely necessary, I would make sure your photographer is there when you put on your dress. It’s a great moment and there are tons of emotions and fun things that happen. I have a great shot of my mom putting on my veil (which was really really important to her) and it’s one of my favorites to look at.
So, my two cents, see how much it would cost to have your photographer there for an extra hour or two while you’re putting on your dress. I know wedding money is tight, but I was so glad I ended up with photos from the whole day.
trust me. you are going to want those photos.
And you are not going to want them on some dinky disposible camera. If I could give one and only ONE piece of advice to a bride from my own experience. If there is one thing you do NOT want to go cheap on, its your photographer AND videographer.
My ‘getting ready’ pictures are some of my favorite shots – very candid and natural and calm and you are not going to want to put them up on your wall if they are the quaity of a disposible.
Your wedding day is going to go by SO FAST you have no idea. At the end of the day – all you have left are the pictures and the video and TRUST ME you are going to want those two things perfect. Take the splurge on these two additions to the wedding – have full day photographer and a videographer.