WHAT YOU PAY FOR WHEN YOU BOOK A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

What you pay for for when you book a wedding photographer

On a wedding day the list of things you are spending money for is endless. There are so many things to consider that you never evend heard of before you started planning your wedding. On that long list the photographer is just one of many things that you have to budget for. You have to decide how much to spend on every point on that list. How much for shoes, dress, jewelry, limousine service, hotel, bouquet, flowers, food, drinks, dessert or candy bar, decoration, veil, gifts, guestbook,

You probably have to safe money on some items to be able to spend a bit more on other. Maybe you have to scratch some points off the list completely. Everyone has to chose what is more important and what is less important. What can you live without and what do you need to be the best option available? The budget for photography is set very differently from wedding to wedding. Most magazines and blogs tell you how important wedding photography is. For most brides and grooms it is one of the more important items on their list that they have to spend a certain percentage of their budget on.   In my case I have photographed big luxurious weddings where I have been maybe 1% of the wedding budget and I also have photographed small, intimate weddings where I have been about 30% of the entire budget. Sometimes it is how you set your priorities.

When budgeting for photography you have to take into account what you actually pay for when you book a wedding photographer. 

You don’t book me to be at you wedding. You’d rather have your privacy if it was not for the photos. But you don’t even pay me for the photos either. It is what those photos stand for.

It is memories that you actually want. Because lets be honest: your memories, even of the best day of your life, will fade over time. You don’t forget all the things that happened but just remember less and less clearly. The photos will help you to keep your memories alive. Little moments that will ignite your memories years and decades after your wedding. You also want to share those memories. You can tell stories of your wedding to your friends who could not come or to you grandma who had to stay home or a few years later to your kids. But if you have photos of those moments you can really share those memories. There is a difference to tell someone about the moment you saw each other for the first time that day and what you felt or to show them your happy faces. A photo is worth a 1000 words as a saying goes.

It is emotions that you actually want. A good wedding photographer can capture emotions. That is maybe the hardest part of wedding photography and my biggest challenge. But I want to give you photos that resonate with you, that make you lough out loud or make you cry even when you are 70 years old, looking at your wedding photos with your grand children. And finally your wedding photos will become a piece of family history. A visual patrimony not just documenting your wedding day and your personal story but also showing all your closest family members. If you don’t take family photos that regularly those photos may be the only or the latest photos you will have of a loved one.

So of all things you have to spend money for at your wedding only your photos will increase their value constantly over time and for some people some day they may become one of the most precious things they have. When you are old and open your wedding album you see that you lived to the fullest, that you loved and that you were loved

Considering all that puts things a different perspective and it seems strange to have wedding photography on the same list as flowers or dessert competing with them for budget. Almost everything is an investment for one day and serves just for one day and then it is gone or has no longer a purpose. Only the photos are an investment for life.

When we go to photograph a wedding that is how we shoot. Knowing the potential value of the photos we create. We want to document, to freeze authentic moments, little slices of real life so that the photos can ignite your memories. We want to capture raw emotions that sometimes are only visible to the camera through the tiniest motion of your lips or eyebrows or through context that needs to be included in the photo. We want to tell a story, your story, seen through our eyes. We don’t like fakes or things that happen only for the camera even if they result in a beautiful photo. We try not to cross the line between improving reality and lying in our photos.