I started my photography business in 1999, and I’ve been photographing weddings since 2001. In 2005 I made a huge mistake.
When my fiancé and I got engaged, we were young, broke, and in love. My sister was also engaged at the time, and we ended up making a deal with her fiancé. He would photograph our wedding, and about a month later I would photograph his.
It sounded like a great idea at the time. We both would get what we wanted, and we simply traded services. The only problem was, he was not a professional. He told me that he had taken some wedding photos before, and from the couple of samples, I saw he did have some talent. And of course, he did have a decent camera.
Looking back at it now, I didn’t realize the value of my own work. It was only when it was too late that I realized the value of hiring a professional photographer.
I do have lots of photos of the day, lots of them are either under or overexposed. One of the more memorable points of the reception is the cake cutting. He (and my sister who was helping him) got a few shots of us cutting the cake. Then at the time where we fed it to each other, of course, we made a mess, and there were lots of laughs. The best shot of that moment came from a friend who got it on a disposable camera. (Yes it was 2005 and we had purchased disposable cameras to put on all of the tables) The point is, that shot should have been made by our photographer. Had we actually hired a professional, I have no doubt that they would have captured that moment. There were a few other moments that were not caught on film either.
There are plenty of things that I don’t really remember about our wedding day now. I don’t really remember what our invitations looked like, or what we had for dinner (I do remember that it was good though), or what songs the DJ played.
I do however, have the photos hanging on our walls. And we still look at the albums that we have. We occasionally bring them out to show family or friends, and now to our kids.
If I could go back in time and change one thing about our wedding, it would be to hire a professional photographer.
I think that the biggest reason that we didn’t do it in the first place, was that at the time I didn’t know how important it is to have a professional photographer at your wedding. I thought we could take a shortcut by having our ‘friend with a nice camera’ take the photos. We were basically just being cheap. There have been a number of potential clients who have opted to go with their ‘friend with a nice camera’. After talking to a few of them after their wedding, not one of them has said, “wow I’m glad we saved money by not hiring a professional”!
Now if you don’t want to make the same mistake I did, contact me today and let’s start a conversation!
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