MemberThis sounds like a horrible idea. I found a new photographer (she’s a student but has experience) and she did amazing. I’d never ever trust family to do it. None of my family photos are useable. The memories from them are awesome but they aren’t great quality photos.
MemberI think you woidly be missing out by doing this. How can you be present and have fun dancing with your new husband and guests if your taking pictures? Not to mention trusting others to take good ceremony photos, I certainly wouldn’t want random guests in the aisle, up with us, jumping in front of us for the processional and recessional. That’s what’s going to happen because they will all want to make sure they get a good shot for you and they won’t be able to just enjoy!
Also I got 550 pictures back from my photographer and they are ALL amazing! Maybe you don’t need that many, but you certainly wont get that many from what your considering, and most certainly won’t get 550 usable, beautiful photos.
That doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune, for some people the pictures don’t matter that much, but if your into photography and and amature photographer I would think you have a love of nice photos and would want that for your wedding
MemberI’ll buck the trend! I feel like photography is like this sacred cow with the internet’s obsession with “blogworthy” weddings. Yea, if you don’t hire a pro, you probably won’t get picked up by Martha Stewart or whatever. But if your priority is having a wedding you can afford, I respect you for that.
Also, yes, your guests won’t have pro cameras, but your average point-and-shoot today is probably a higher quality than the cameras used for our parents weddings (I do understand that pros have a better understanding of light and composition) You also have to have resonable expectations, so if you will be crushed if your family portrait turns out wonky after the fact, maybe it’s worth it to get a pro. I would keep your list of must-have pictures very small, like under 10.
If you have any guests that you plan on asking to take pictures, I’d recommend trolling through their facebooks to see if there are any albums of other weddings they have taken pictures of as a guest. Think about if you would be happy with those as the pictures of your wedding.
MemberI could never do this. It’s not about my photos being on the internet. It’s about having beautiful photos that are like artwork of my wedding to look back on in 20, 30, 40 years from now, to share with my children and my children’s children and so on. It’s about looking at my pictures and reliving the moment and remembering and loving it. The biggest part of my budget (outside of food and alcohol) is photography. Screw flowers. Screw an expensive dress (“cheaper” ones are just as beautiful). Screw it all. What I want is my guests to have a great time and my photos to capture the moment in the most perfect way. And I DEFINITELY do NOT want to be stressing about missed moments, messed up pictures and my guests/family members working my wedding.
If you’re asking for opinions, mine is to get a student learning photography before asking your family to do this.
MemberWhen I look back at my own photos/videos I get the memory of what was happening, what I was feeling, what I was seeing! I want that kind of connection with my photos.
Chica, you are not going to have ANY time for taking pictures at your own wedding! Seriously, the whole thing is so crazy…. you’re running around checking on things, talking to every single person you pass because “YOU’RE THE BRIDE CONGRATULATIONS YOU LOOK SOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL OMG HOW IS BEING MARRIED?!?!”, trying to grab a drink or a bite of food here and there, trying to get in a dance with your new husband, spending a little QT with your immediate family, etc etc etc.
I was a super DIY bride in terms of food, drink, decor, setup, teardown, etc etc. Everything that could be down ahead of time or afterwards. But trust me, during the actual wedding, it’ll be hard to do any DIY.
The friends and family idea isn’t bad though. They won’t be the kind of amazing photos you see on blogs or from other people’s weddings, so be prepared for that. But there will be a lot of good candids, I’m sure. (Getting pictures from people is hard though. 4 months later I’m still struggling with that.)
Anyway, those are my many 2 cents 🙂
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MemberI barely had time to eat at our wedding. The idea of going through photos for “redos” sounds SO stressful to me. Your wedding is so different than any other party you’ve ever had- you’ll really want to be experiencing it, not documenting it.
I think the “success” for this idea is going to depend a lot of the size of your wedding. If it’s a 25 person backyard wedding- this could work. Although I’d still try to find a way to cut costs for a professional. But the larger your guest list, the more stress/work this is going to be for you.
Below is the same moment from my wedding- photo #1, Ethan Yang Photography, photo #2, guest shot.
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MemberI could be bias since Im a photographer but I wouldn’t totally skimp on hiring a photographer. Maybe you can take the unexperienced $200 photog and agree you’ll pay him/her based on the number of quality images from the day you like and want high resolution digital copies (Maybe $5/images). Do this in conjuction with having your family/friends snapping away. It’s better to have too many photogs than not enough.
MemberI still think it’s going to be a lot of extra, unnecessary stress for you on your wedding day. If pictures are as important to you as they sound like they are, I would find the money to hire a professional. $200 is super low for wedding photography (packages in my area start at 2k), and while you may not be getting an award-winning photographer, you’d at least have a contract, have someone who knows something about what they’re doing, and could be your insurance policy that you’d at least get a few nice-looking pictures out of it. Your wedding is 10 months away — if you can save $20 bucks a month, you can hire that $200 photographer. $200 is worth it for some peace of mind.
Weddings are stressful enough — you want to minimize stress where you can. Let yourself relax a little bit on your wedding day, let your wedding guests relax and enjoy being guests — most of them will probably be snapping pictures anyway, so you’ll be able to ask them for copies.
MemberCan you find a professional who would be willing to do one or two hours of work? You really don’t need tons of professional photos, in an hour you could get enough that would be print-worthy (like professional pictures of you two, formal family/bridal party photos). Then use your method for all the other stuff.
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MemberMaybe this is a ridiculous idea and no photographer in their right mind would take this offer, but I could see how it could benefit them. This would give them a chance to say they’ve shot a wedding and have pictures to prove it and you would get some additional pictures and if you hate them all then at least you are only out the vendor dinner.
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