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I was blessed because I never had to do any hunting for our photographers...we knew who we wanted right away (at least I did, and informed FI). And because they're friendors and have never shot a wedidng--(though they have an up and coming, busy little photography business)--they're shooting our wedding as a gift!
Once I was plugged into Weddingbee, I realized how much wedding photography really costs! I know I am so blessed to have found *affordable photography (*we plan to pay our friendors an honorary gift of thanks...so it's not completely free)
How much did you budget for photography initially? Did you spend more than you thought you would for the perfect photographer, or did you find a photographer to fit in your budget?
We set up our budget first and then only looked at photographers within that range. We didn't want to get tempted by really pricey photographers we couldn't afford! Our pictures ended up looking great so we're happy that we didn't spend more than we could afford. Although we are a bit atypical because photography wasn't a huge priority for us, so I was okay with great pictures and not super-fantabulous-supermodel-magazine-like pictures.
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My fiance and I are trying to host our wedding for under $6,000. THat being said photography was probably my hardest find! I'm a photographer just starting out, so while good photography is extremely important to me, I can't afford it either!!
Most of the photographers I LOVED were half, if not our entire budget! I finally found our photographer after seeing photos she shot on another wedding blog and I emailed her immediately. We set up a meeting and I booked her on the spot. We were able to book her for $1350 and I know she'll be great! If I hadnt found her, I probably would be doing the photography myself with a few friends helping.
We set a $2000 budget for photography, and only slightly exceeded that ($2250). We won a free engagement shoot at a bridal fair, and after meeting with that photographer, I couldn't imgaine having anyone else do it! Luckily, he was willing to come down quite a bit to fit into our price range.
My mom was really set on our photographer (who did my sister's wedding). He is awesome. He's pricey (6K) but it comes with engagment pics, two shooters, 7 hours of photography, our album, online hosting, and some other pictures printed out.
Total package for my photographer was $5,600. He was completely worth it! We got him from the time I started at my salon and they were the last to leave the reception with my husband and I. Along with my photographer, a second photographer met my husband at the hotel and stayed for the entire day. I got my digital negatives and a 60 image Queensbury album along with a coffee table book of our proofs. We had over 700 images to pick from as well as a $400 print credit included in our package. After everything was said and done, we got a bargain!
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Actually, my FI and I are very blessed to have my grandparents paying for our photography. 
Originally I wanted to go the Friendor route too, but just couldn't do it b/c the friend in question tends to be a flake. We're paying about $300 more for someone we'll have a written contract with so it's worth it to us.
Wowza! Photography is soooo expensive! We're actually going to come in under $700 and that gets us a lot and is about half of what I had expected to pay. Found her through my hairstylist and she's just starting out so we're getting a good deal.
We paid about $2300 on photography. Lucky for us, she was referred to us by some friends and we got a referral discount! With that we got: 2 shooters from 1 hour getting ready to 4 hours into the reception, our negatives, a 40 page album and some prints. She did an amazing job!
We're paying $1800 for 2 shooters, unlimited locations, the entire day, unlimited pics, proof books, and all our images on CDs with the copyright so we can do whatever we want with them. And we will also get online hosting for I think 6 months after the wedding. Its still more than i wanted to pay, but for what we get you can't beat it. We got a $300 discount from meeting them at a bridal fair, and we really clicked with the guy who owns the company so we're going for it
the photography is my "wedding splurge" but i know that it will be worth every dollar!
The photog is where me and my FI decided to splurge. We want works of art for our pictures.
We're paying A LOT for him, but are super excited to have him shoot our wedding. His portfolio is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
We decided to nix the videographer and transfered that budget to the photographer. I can see myself pulling out the photo album a lot more often than I will pop a DVD into the player.
We paid 3k for a photographer originally from France. He does amazing work and has won a ton of awards. I was sold when I looked at his portfolio.
He was a bit more than expected to pay, but we get two albums, 200 prints, and 2 archival dvd of all the pictures that we own all of the rights too! I am super stoked about that!
He was incredible to work with and went above his photography duties, even helping with some of the reception coordination things! If you are in the Central Florida area his name is Djamel Ramoul, he's first class all the way!
I can't wait to see the pictures and share them with everyone!!
Oh photographers are amazing. for just under 2k we are getting an engagement shoot, 2 photographers, all the digital negatives, A magazine style album, and big enlargement, and an unlimited amount of time. They are coming at 8am and will be staying till probably 6 or 7pm. the recption ends at 4pm and they want to take pictures of me and Michael at the mission in afterwards with just me and him. They will probably be with me on Saturday for 10 hours at least.
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This was my top spending part of the wedding. I knew I wanted great photography so we're spending more than most but I know it will make me so happy to see those shots after all is said and done!
We are paying more for photogs that we originally thought but it including unlimited day of, epics, 30 page album and a parent album (his parents don't want one). So we are getting more than we thought so it all works out.
Like many brides, photography is incredibly important to me. I dapple in photography, and its my very most favorite form of art. That said, we are on a budget, while I wasn't willing to compromise quality. I always told myself I would rather hand out cameras to all of our guests and use their photos than hire a photographer I wasn't in love with.
Upon looking around, my top picks are in the $4-6,000 range. That was a number I just couldn't swallow.
I ended up contacting a photographer across the country (just for kicks) and we negotiated a great deal: an engagement shoot (while they are shooting another wedding on the east coast in October), 8 hours of wedding coverage, 2 shooters, an online slide show, all photos on a dvd, edited and color corrected, and travel and accommodations for $3500, less than most great NYC photographers. Not only that , but they seem really awesome, get rave reviews, and were even used by one of our bloggers, Ms. Hydrangea. I am psyched.
Our photographer is a friendor who is just starting out from art school. She is only charging us $200. While i initially wanted to splurge on photography, someone over $1k even was unpractical with our $5k all encompassing budget. I'm happy with the decision. If we had a bigger budget, we may have gone with someone more in the "average" price range, but you work with what you have!
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A friend is doing ours for $250 (she's just starting out as a photographer). That covers two shooters (her and one of her photography friends) and a DVD of all the photos.
Photography was a priority for me, but to go the professional route was way out of our budget. It was also important to me that we have rights to all our pictures, so this is actually pretty ideal for us.
My dream photog began at $3000, which just isn't in the budget, but we found a great alternate choice who was only $1600! This worked much better for us, and we know we'll have some really beautiful shots.
I picked the photographer I loved and left off the album so we could afford them! My dad said I could get the album but my parents are being so generous (in every aspect of my life right now) I don't want them to spend $1,000 on an album. For $2,400 we got 2 shooters, unlimited hours, a cd with all edited prints with rights, an engagement session and a guest sign in book made with our engagement pics!
Our orignial photographer cost $3300, it was a friendor and it didn't work out. We cancled and lost the $300 deposit. My new photographer is only $1050. Much better photographer and fits into our budget better.
My fiance's sister is an amateur photographer. For years she told us that when we finally get married, she has dibs on doing the photos. When we got engaged she asked us again if she could do the photos before we could even formally ask her. We are excited to save the money, and I know that she will do a great job.
We paid $5,000 for our photographer, but we both agreed that this was one thing we were going to splurge on, and we cut back on everything else. I fell in love with our photographer while planning an event a few years ago, and always kept her in mind since she specializes in weddings. About a week after we got engaged and created a budget, we booked her after a phone interview. We constantly look at her blog updates and are always 100 percent confident in our choice, which really eases some of the other planning tensions :)
I'm hoping to tap it at $5000 thought our lady is flying in from Cali (to Mich) so it'll be difficult. Shes wonderful though :)
We can't afford a photographer. So we are going to ask our guests to pass our camera around and take pictures. Our pictures mean the world to me, because they're capturing our once in a lifetime moments and I really want them to be fantastic! You can't re-do your wedding you only get one chance to capture the moments. So for our "proffesional" looking pictures, we are going to dress the day after the wedding, go out with a friend and have him/her take our pics. I can photoshop them myself.
I think in the end ours was $2,600, e-pics included. We paid $1,000 down and then are paying monthly $100-something. That's 2 shooters, emergency kit, 8 hours, e-pics, photo rights... amazing.
PS I just self-edited and realized I first wrote 26,000.... could you imagine?!
we paid 1800 for 2 photographers and our photographer's prices just went up. we found him when he was just starting out and we feel so lucky
Yes, photography really does cost some money. I put an ad out on Craigslist though and was about to find quite a few in the $1500-$1800 range with e-pics and bridal session.
Ours is 2,800 and that includes an engagement session, two shooters + an assistant, ALL day coverage, 100+ photoshopped images, album with all photoshopped images, 12x12 Kiss Book with our favorite pictures, flash drive with all pictures on it, alternative shoot location on the wedding day and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting!
They're Ellsworth Photography and take care of San Diego, Riverside and LA Counties! See epblog.net for more! <3 them!
We are doing $2500 - 5 hours, album, CD, web gallery, some prints. We wanted a particular album style ( magazine style ) and found them to be really expensive. This is Bay Area CA and we looked a long time before booking . http://bayarea-wedding-photography.com/rates-san-francisco-wedding-photography.php
We have 5k budgeted for a photographer and videographer. And in the case where we save money elsewhere it will be redistributed towards photography. Afterall pictures last long after the music and dancing has ended.
Photography was the second most important thing for us. (First being the church)
The photographer we chose is AMAZING and after meeting with them, we couldn't have possibly found anyone who compared!
Our original budget was $3,500 being that we pay the photographer and buy albums and extra time if needed... We met our budget of $3,500 but that includes more than we expected.
We are getting 2 shooters, 1 is the photographer, one is the videographer. They are with us for 10hrs, it includes the engagement session, high resolution disc w/all of our pictures fully edited and an online album. They are a quirky, fun, young couple who fit our personality to a t! They are top notch! Very professional and have the latest equipment. (Albums are still extra but they recommended a cheaper way that doesn't benefit them at all so that was really nice and thoughtful)
If we had to pay for a videographer on top of that, we were looking at no less than $1,000 and that was completely un-edited raw footage.
I am so glad I found these guys!!!! Worth every penny! 
Oh yeah, I almost forgot --
During the reception, our photographers will set up shop by the bar and have a "photobooth" session at no extra charge. So we will have a lot of candid fun photos of the reception instead of just people dancing and eating. How cool is that?!
Can't wait!!!!
We picked our photographer because of her beautiful work and set a ceiling of $3000 for our budget, its a lot given our budget, but well worth going over budget for ... we will be around $2500-2800 depending on the package we choose ..
OMG...our photographer is a lot, were paying for a package and travel. But it was the most important thing to us, were going cheap on everything else.
We are super lucky. I am a photographer myself, so of course it's important to me. We were able to hire a friend and she is turning over the raw files to me so I can work the Photoshop magic myself. Saving lots of time and money that way, yay! (plus I get a little more control, which always makes me a happy camper!)
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