Skipping on professional photography?

Personally I love taking photos (i'm not a pro!) and so I also love looking at photos, whether they're my own or someone else's. I would not bother to look at non-pro pics (ok, that sounds super snobby!), but I'm just saying that I really appreciate the art of photography. It's one of my "splurge" items.

I grew up with a darkroom in the basement, and took photography in school. I take an average of **** photos per vacation, and take a camera nearly everywhere I go... so for me, photography is super, super important - but maybe not the way you're thinking. For me, it's the photos of the family that I want most. Yes, I want some photos of me and FH, but what I *really* want are photos of all our family members together, and of our joint families.

I'm 41, and my parents are almost 70 and not in good health. FH's parents in are a decade younger, but live cross-country from us and we see them maybe once per year. Our sibs are spread out and all our aunts and uncles are in the 60-year old range... in short, time is not on our side that we will see our entire families often in the future, and we don't know what will happen tomorrow.

With that in mind, i was willing to scrimp a LOT on other areas to get an outstanding photographer, because we will be doing the reception as a casual event, family-reunion-style, and as such I'm planning on having a TON of family photos, and we'll have a whole roast pig, and a "lounge" area with haybales, and the guys will have cigars and wisky and football .... so our photog is coming prepared for an 'active' reception LOL!

Nope...couldn't do it. I get where she is coming from but I just couldnt...If I truly couldn't afford one then I'd ask all of my friends and family to take as many as they could since we didn't have one and I would also ask a good friend to take some posed pictures.

I think the person that wrote that was having a $1,500 wedding, and I'm not. I want to remember my $??K day (whatever it ends up costing us!). And yes, many people got married before cameras were invented, but they are around now so why not use them? Many people got sick before antibiotics, that doesn't mean the next time I need medicine I'm going to decline.

LAUDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HI SAMMYYYY!!!! YOU ARE ALMOST MARRIED!

LadyMonk: I agree! I am a fan of non pro candid photos. It really shows the whole day for me. That's why I'm such an instagram junkie lol.

Rebecca: That is a good point, to have good awesome family photos. I feel that way too, and another important thing to me is getting a video camera for our day to film everybody being together. I want to hear everybody's voices, and capture everything. And your reception sounds like a ton of fun!!

Laudie: That's a great idea! I can't imagine a wedding without photos, so that's a good idea to get plenty of pictures. Once again, I am a fan of the candid photos and true to the day kind of pictures. The fact that they are taken by a pro is a huge perk, but if you can't afford it than you have to do what you got to do.

I was thinking about scrimping on the photographer in the initial stages of planning, but then I spoke to someone else who was planning his wedding. He reminded me that in the end, the photographs are all you have left. I doubled my photography budget right then and there.

I am!!!!!!! OMG 26 days!!!!!!! I can't believe it!!!!!!! And you're almost going to have your first anniversary!! How exciting!!

Memories are easily forgotten (especially the small ones), but photographs last a lifetime (barring some freak accidents/natural disasters)

OMG I know! I've popped in and out of WW lately because all the people I liked are getting married now and I want to see their BAMs lol. I seriously can't believe it's been a year almost!

I hate photos and was going to skip the pro but I decided I would like done nice images of all the people I may not get the chance to interact with and all of the details I am bound to miss. Our planner negotiated a deal with a well known and awesome photographer. Otherwise, I don't think I would have spent as much. Photos were not high on my priority list but really, to each their own

There are also very cheap photographers on Craigslist. They might not be the best quality but I bet they are better than iPhone photos haha

Awwwww, nice!!!! Well come back on either the 13th or the 23rd for mine! Are you guys doing anything fun for your one year?

Wedding photography is the most expensive thing in my budget.... it is like 25% more than even my food budget...

I definitely will :-)

We don't have a lot of money so we are just going to go to Sonoma on that Saturday and pick up our cake from the same baker, then go to our venue and get a nice bottle of wine and eat lunch or something and enjoy the winery. We might get lunch at the restaurant of our caterer too. We will definitely get a nice dinner and then on our actual anniversary we are going to go to Alcatraz.

Oh that sounds great!!! I lived in Cali for years and never made it to Alcatraz! FH and I said that would be our first married vacation after the honeymoon!

Haha I've lived here my whole life and never been! I'm excited to go!

Photography was the only thing I was willing to splurge on. After your wedding the ONLY thing you're gonna keep (or have any use for) after the wedding is your photos - aside from your incredible spouse of course.

Photographs are a MUST for us - just from the friends and family perspective. I never know when we'll have all of those nearest and dearest to us all together again. I love looking at old photo albums and do it whenever I can. :-)