Photographer: Check!

Friday was a big day. We went ahead and booked out photographer.

Over the last month I have been checking out every photographer from here to Sioux City, IA to northern Minnesota. Everyone I really like is way too expensive and everyone that seems to have ok pictures ends up being affordable.

The photographer we chose is Erin Smith, Life in Picture Photography. She is from Arlington, SD and works part time at Harold’s in the portrait studio and is just starting up her own photography business. I met with her about a month ago as we both really like the pictures she had posted on her blog site, she was also relatively inexpensive, and we soon found out she didn’t have a whole lot of experience. After meeting with her, we still liked her work, but I wanted to look around and see if I could find someone with a few more weddings under their belt.

So, what changed our, or my mind? It seems like since we got engaged, so did ½ the people at the bank. As we started talking dresses, flowers, and pictures, I kept mentioning Erin’s name. Most of the people ended up checking her site and asking for pricing information because, they too liked her work. Well, it occurred to me. I keep telling all of these people about this photographer, why don’t I have her booked? Or what am I going to do when I am finally ready to book her and then she already has a wedding that day? There isn’t anyone else we really like.

I talked to Randy, and he said was ready to book her 2 months ago. So I did. I signed the contract wrote her a check and dropped it in the mail. It feels really good to know that the photographer is booked. We are getting a good price and she is all ours for the ENTIRE day. She comes with me to the salon and will stay as long into the dance as we want her too.

I am excited. Having her booked, lets me cross one more thing off my list. Now, we move onto our DJ…

Photography Take 2

Last Tuesday night I met with another photographer. I will be honest, first thing that drew us in her direction, price.

We are running into the problem of photographers packages limited to hours of coverage. 4 or 6 are pretty popular and by having a 2:00 or 2:30 wedding, that doesn’t give us a whole lot of time for photos before the wedding and pictures after the wedding or having them at the reception for very long.

This lady I could book from whatever time we wanted her in the morning to whatever time we wanted her to leave from the dance. What’s the catch you ask? Why didn’t you book her? Great price, great coverage, what’s the deal?

She is VERY inexperienced. She has only done 4 weddings EVER. I thought about asking for references to talk to those people, but quickly found out that 2 were cousins, and one was a close family friend. Yeah, like they are going to say anything bad.

So, now I understand why I can afford her.

Capturing the memories

One of the most important vendors, possibly the most important, in my opinion, is the photographer. I've been browsing photography websites for quite some time now. I've just always loved looking at professional photos, so when we got engaged, I already had a number of photographers in my head that I knew we would want to check out.Last Friday, we met with one. Wonderfully nice woman, great work, GREAT prices, but not for us. I think I knew it right away, but since she was the first that we met with, we didn't make any decisions immediately. Since then we have been browsing other websites and blogs trying to find someone that has some experience and a knack for photography, but that also falls within our budget. We have a couple places in mind. Recent graduates just starting out seem to be our best bet in being able to get what we want. We are looking to get some meetings set up to view some of their work, so we will see what happens.

This will probably be a really tough decision for us, well maybe me more than Randy... out of all the things we need to buy and pay for, this is the only thing from the wedding that we'll have for the rest of our lives.