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I didn't vote because I'm torn also right now. I can get a really great price with so-so pictures or pay about 1/2 again as much ($750) for a photographer who's work I enjoy quite a bit more. I guess I'll know better after next Tuesday when I meet with the latter of the two.
Quality above all else. Too many of my friends have regrets and I'm kinda sick of hearing them lament about their lackluster images and then have me do them over. ;-)
But, I'm also a photographer myself so I'm also really picky. I also hate situations like yours when I get hired to 'redo' what's been done wrongly in the past.
So, for my own wedding, Quality was above all else.
@KLP2010 my husband is an aspiring photographer so to us, our photographer for this renewal is going to have to be unbelievable. lol
the first guy was cool when we met him and MIL was the one paying for it so the price was right for her...not even really cheap. We paid 2500...but here we are a YEAR after our wedding and we still do not have our wedding album. NO JOKE! also i have NO pictures of DH and i looking at the camera together! don't get me wrong, i love candid's but when i was getting images printed to hang on the walls, i had close to nothing which made me really sad.
basically my point is, i know a lot of people are on a budget, we were too but if i could go back, i would definitely let people know how important their pictures are. i mean, having to redo them really is a pain in the you know what! 
Photography is one of our only splurges (venue was the other big one) so we're springing for quality over price. Of course, we still have a budget, but we're choosing a photographer who takes photos we adore.
I'm a photographer (on the side)- I do mostly engagement photos, but also a few weddings. From experience, I've found the best pictures come from couples who are comfortable in front of the camera. I hate being in front of a camera so I don't take very good photos :)
Sometimes what you pay a high price for is a photographers editing skills and a little creativity. For my own wedding, our photographer was pretty medicore. Her photography skills were decent (she lacked a little back bone so her direction lacked when it came to group shots), but her editing skills in photoshop (or whatever she used) was at an intermediate level. Luckily we were given all the unedited digital files and I was able to edit them myself.
I'm all for splurging on a good photog, but sometimes you can find middle of the road priced photogs who really know what they're doing. I spend my evenings surfing blogs looking for inspiration and take editing courses. It's not a full time job, and I only take a few clients but I really love what I do and it gives me a break from my "real job."
Try to find both :)
We went with quality. The pictures were only going to be taken once so we wanted them to be amazing. Most of the other stuff wasn't very expensive since we had a small intimate wedding so we didn't have to worry about feeding a ton of people.
We went for the best quality for money that we could find, that also met all of our needs.
Pictures are good, considering our low budget, but the price was what won us to our photographer over the others in her talent range, because we got an AWESOME package with her. :)
I fell in love with my phototog's work and couldn't get it out of my mind after I saw her blog. I decided I had to have her and that we would adjust our budget to accommodate her fee (whatever it was). Honestly, when we got her fee schedule, I had some trouble breathing as it was well over twice what we had budgeted. Yet, we still made the decision to use her because we thought capturing our day on film was one of THE most important things to us (and I think it's a personal choice). But her photos are beautiful (I think so and hope others think so as well) and make us look amazing (I am the epitome of unphotogenic). We did miss some important photos of details of our day (DIY items) but because I neglected to make a list or point any of them out to her, there was no way she could know what we did and what was part of the venue (or not obvious) as everything really worked seamlessly together.
We liked her so much we did an engagement session about 6 months before the wedding - I can't recommend it ENOUGH! It gave us the chance to get comfortable with her and especially in front of the camera which is SO important in getting good, natural photos. We also did a "day after" session with her at 7am the morning after the wedding (yeah, ouch) but soooo glad we did.
Ours was both. We were obsessed with this one photographer...and found out they were $6K...wayyyy beyond our budget.
So we started digging and luckily found a photographer with amazing pictures AND in our price range!
I want to say Both! However - before we found our photographer, I found one that I liked, but the price was just too high for the short amount of time. I think we would have eventually caved on price if we just didn't find anyone we liked, but it would have meant that something else would have gone. We were very thankful to find ours - great photography and an arrangement that worked for both parties.
we lucked out. we were looking at a bunch of photographers and fell in love with the cheapest. i would have paid more for better quality, but we didn't have to.
We had a really hard time finding a photographer. We ended up interviewing 10.
Our requirements:
- We had to love their pictures
- We liked them and wouldn't mind them following us around all day
- Their packages and prices fit what we were looking for and what we could pay
- They actually wanted to do wedding photos (it wasn't a side job to fund their passion for something else)
- We felt they were professional and responsible and would deliver the proofs and albums in a reasonable time.
We finally found someone that knocked it out of the park and met all of expectations and then some!
I fell in love with the pictures, but in the interest of price I agreed to work with an associate photographer for almost a 50% discount. Worth it though, because her work is inspired and I guarantee by this time next year she'll be charging twice as much.
**Edited to add** I want to give you the pricing because I feel like that always helps me to more clearly understand what I'm looking at and to start setting a precedent to make wedding pricing less of a secret.
The original package was $5500 which included 2 photographers with all day coverage (no time limit), digital negatives, an online gallery, and a 10x10 photo album with 30 pages of photos. We got the package for $3000 by choosing the associate photographer. We live in Northern New Jersey and our photographers are based in NYC.
@mkendrick, i noticed that you were married in Vegas as well. Who was your photographer? I want to check her out since you made her sound so awesome. 
thanks for everyone's input. i really think this is going to take a lot of thought but i definitely know that it will be all about the pictures this time since DH and i will be the one handing over the check this time around.
Ours was based on quality. We went into our meetings looking a few aspects to their work/packages:
1. They have a second shooter
2. They give a DVD of your photos, in addition to the proofs
3. That they have great work and bring examples & samples to the meeting
4. That their price is somewhat comparable to what else is in the area
5. That we got along with them - their personalities
Their work above all was most important to us and before we chose them, we spent a lot of time on their website and blog, combing through pictures.
We ended up going about double over our photography budget, but at least I'll go into it trusting them and their work.
I voted for pictures being amazing, but honestly, I kind of had to consider both. My budget was somewhat limited so I went with the best possible photographer that I could within a certain budget. I was able to go for a slightly better photographer by getting the smallest possible package that she offered (it includes a CD of images, so I can do reprints down the road when I can afford it.)
I'd say both! I love'd the intimate shots my photographer had on her website. For 2 photographers, a 'photo booth', prints, a engagement session and the whole day was only about $2000
Lily Stein Photography.com!
And she's super nice.
value was important to us, so money and the quality...they had to be equally great!
We went for experience and quality of pictures. Our photographer has done over 400 weddings. He was a little pricey but I feel better knowing that he has experience and it's his full-time job. I love his pictures and blogs, too.
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My husband and I are considering renewing our vows next year in a destination wedding since we got married last year when the economy was at it's WORST! So many people were unable to make it and we, me especially, am looking forward to planning another wedding!
The thing is, for our first wedding, the photog was just so-so. Hiring him had something to do with the price more than the actual work so now that I am wanting to do this renewal, I am trying to ignore the price a little more and just go with the best work. I am curious how other bees made or are making this decision for their photographer.