Photography woes

I feel your woes, we are in the same boat. Our wedding is 7 months away. We are meeting with a photographer next week, but thinking we may ask my FHs niece to do our photos (amateur photographer) and pay her a nice fee.


I say just go with your instinct, that’s what my FH says all the time. Make a decision, trust it, it will work out.
I’ll let you know how our meeting goes, but so far this last “professional” has provided the best rates.

It can be a challenge, but when you do talk to someone, let them know up front what your concerns are and see how they address them. If it is a money concern, ask about payment plans and paying after the wedding (you might not get all the photos until the payment is complete, but it is an option)

Make sure they have the experience you need and be mindful of getting cheap just to save money....make sure you get a contract in writing and that the person is experienced and insured...good luck

I did my research on and i looked into recommendations. For photographers that did not respond back i moved on to the next. the photographers that responded back i met with them and took it from there. the one that i felt more comfortable with, who answered my questions and show me their work is the one i went with. also, the photographer who wanted my business is the one that i book for my wedding. he also had great present about him. he offered help if i needed any others services such as a makeup artist if I needed on. Go with the one who offered the most for your budget good luck

My FH is a professional photographer and videographer so his insight on what to expect and what the price tag is and what all that entails helped me to calm my anxiety down about that.

We have narrowed down our photographer choice to someone who lives within two hours of our destination wedding venue and some of the things I looked for to justify her price points and some things he definitely looked to justify her price points were these:

* Equipment. Equipment is very expensive for a professional photographer and usually the more expensive it is, the more diverse the editing software to use it with is, and therefore, the higher quality of the finished work can be. With my FH being a photographer, he could tell just by looking at her work on her website the type of lens she uses, how she utilizes natural light versus light boxes, etc.

* Second shooter part of the package. This was super important for me because I want photos of both my groom and I behind the scenes. Usually the primary photographer is with the bride while the second shooter is with the groom, capturing all those all-important in between moments.

* Website & Reviews. I believe in reviews and I believe in having a website that fully translates the vendor's work. A plus to that is how the website is organized, worded...does it engage me as a potential customer?

* Time. Our particular chosen photographer has packages based on locations and time. We're going for her local 8hour package which means she'll be with us pretty much the whole day with one break. She breaks down in the package what all she'll do, etc. I really liked that.

* Price. Absolutely paying $2K is scary! Our chosen package is sitting at $4300. It includes some unique perks though that, again, according to my professional photographer FH balances it out. He was very impressed with her layout and how she fully explained her options.

* Accessiblity of Finished Photos and Delivery. Her turnaround time to get all photos back to us is standard and it's all digital.

Now, when my mother remarried a few years ago, she knew someone who was just starting out in the photography business and they didn't charge her nearly as much as what we're about to pay for our wedding in May 2021. And, the young lady's work even though she was a newbie pro, was beautiful. If you're not comfortable with such a huge price tag, you may want to see if anyone can recommend a photographer looking to start their business. You can ask if you can see their work and pretty much interview them. And then again, you have other options...you can ask your guests to take candid photos and use that as a unique way to remember your big day.

Good luck! :-)

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for your insight!

The price tag is definitely makes the decision harder. Someone I go to church with that recently got married said that the photographer is one of the most important things. They capture the memories you keep forever. With that being said, I was not afraid to pay $2200 for a photographer that also includes video. I just had my engagement pictures with them this Saturday and I've never felt so comfortable with strangers in my life. If you would like, I can post a picture of our engagement pictures when we receive them. I know planning is hard, but you got this.

Photography is super important to me so its one of the first vendors I confirmed after we had our venue and date set (our venue is also catering).

In my area, most quality wedding photography packages start at $3,000. I reached out to 15 different photographers for quotes and availability and settled on the one that felt like the best fit for what we were looking for - we felt really comfortable with her, I loved her style, her price was reasonable, and she was fairly local to our venue so it would be easy for her to scout out and increase the chances of her being connected with other area photographers in the event of a last minute emergency coming up.

I got a lot of quotes and read reviews on here for all of them. I’d tell you to go with your gut. That’s what we did ultimately.


Our person came in with the lowest quote for the amount of time we wanted and what we wanted overall. We met with her and just knew the fit was right for us.
Trust me, you will know if it’s right for you and you’ll spend what you want / budgeted for.

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I picked one that lived where my wedding going to be. Photography was most important to me so I decided I was going to bite the bullet. Its $3000 where I live. I did find some cheaper alternatives but with research I found out you get what you pay for. I'd rather cut out other things and have what means the most to me. I reached out to many and looked at weddings they did to decide which to go with. Cannot repeat the day so I think it is worth the money.

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Agreed completely!

I did a LOT of photo research, and am super picky, and I'm so happy/excited/confident in the person we picked out. I cannot imagine stressing over this on my wedding day or being disappointed with the photos we got back - it would crush me!

One thing I noticed with photographers over every other vendor I've talked to is that they are much more likely to be flexible with price. Every photographer we spoke to was willing to drop it a bit. That may not hold true for you, but you can definitely pick your favorite and then ask if they're willing to drop the fee a bit. They knocked off $300 for us and it was perfect! Kept us in budget and we booked our first choice.

I knew photography was going to be important to me, but I didn't know what to look for. I saw lots of pretty portfolios, and so I assumed that I just needed to choose one. And then I came across the photographer that we ended up hiring, and I couldn't stop smiling. Wedding planning had been a chore, a series of decisions, until I saw her style and I was excited to get married again. I guess it's like the brides who start crying when they find their wedding dress, I was that way when I booked my photographer. I can't vouch for them yet because my wedding day is still a few month away, but perhaps look at a few more portfolios, and when you find the right one, you'll know.

Photography was high on our list of priorities. Pictures are really all you have to look back on, so we didn’t commit to a photographer until we found one we absolutely loved! Took a few months, but we actually found our dream photographers via Instagram, and we had them fly out to Florida to shoot our wedding from Puerto Rico. We didn’t need everything in the packages they offered (like the engagement photo session), so we were able to negotiate the price down. They were amazing and worth every single penny! We actually ended up doing an additional shoot with them the night before because we loved them and their work so much.


Best of luck! Maybe cut down your budget elsewhere to make more room for photography.