My sister is having a wedding destination in either July 2013 or December 2013/January 2014 in Los Cabos, Mexico (if not, Cancun) AND she and her fiance are house hunting so they’re in a bit of a budget. She is aware that hiring a photographer for a local wedding vary from $1000-5000 depending on preference and of course, photographer but I am having a tough time trying to persuade her that it’s worth it. Her main issue is, “well, we can probably just find someone else to do it,” meaning a non-professional’ish person so she and her fiance woudln’t have to pay as much. I am aware the whole, ‘you get what you paid for’ scenario but for some reason, she’s not completely getting it. Not only that, it is a wedding destination in Mexico and we’re not quite sure how to pay for the photographer–or what’s fair. Is offering to pay for their flight and all-inclusive for four days and three nights fa ir enough? By the way,
But the main question is, do you have any further tips for me to persuade my sister (and potentially her fiance) that hiring a photographer for her wedding (and one that she loves) is worth it in the long run? Her big issue is, we’re planning a destination wedding (with 25-40 attending the wedding at their own expense) AND buying a house. We’re already (planning on) spending so much as it is do we really need to hire a wedding photographer? (sigh)

Please any word of advise for my sister and her fiancé?

Thank you,

- April

Answer:

Hello April,

This is a great question, one which we get asked frequently in various forms from  many of our readers.

See Their Personal Style: Really take a hard look at their work. Do YOU love their work? Don’t just go off an event planner or venue’s list. Often they have good people to recommend but those are not your only choices. Make sure you have seen their work and that YOU like their style.

Meet on Skype or In Person: People lead such busy lives and traffic is so insane that sometimes it’s hard to meet in person. Ask your photographer for a Skype session. This will allow you to see their personal appearance, mannerisms and sometimes physical space. You will have a lot of photographers to see and this will help narrow down the choices. 

Find them on popular wedding blogs: There are many great online resources and wedding blogs to find great photographers. A few of them include Style Unveiled, Style Me Pretty, The Knot , Wedding Channel and Grace Ormonde’s Wedding Style. Look at the wedding publications that match your budget. Grace Ormonde’s Wedding Style website features luxury Weddings.  You can look here for great inspiration. When choosing a vendor  listed in Grace Ormonde’s Wedding Style know that your looking at the best of the best in the wedding industry.

Read the photographers blog and search out what people say about them: It will give you a great sense of who they are as a person, an artist, a family man, a mom, etc. This insight into their personality is crucial to determining if they are a good fit for you.

Interview Them: We will be doing another post full of questions to ask your photographer, but for now, just know that whether by phone, Skype or in person, you need to interview your prospective wedding photographer.

To read more about choosing a wedding photographer, read The Art of Investing in a Wedding Photographer 

The Real 411: Event planners, venues, little black books and especially magazines ALL have a reason for recommending someone. Sometimes it’s just because they are good, but it can also be because they are an advertiser, getting a kick back, getting referrals, etc. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, it just means that you need to understand that and make sure that above all…you truly like the photographer’s work. 

**Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together have over 40 years of combined experience photographing weddings and have photographed some of the most well known peoples weddings throughout the world!

Welcome to WeddingPhotography411.com! We created this site to educate future brides and grooms about the most important part of any wedding day, their wedding photographs. As wedding photographers, nothing is more heart breaking than to hear a couples horror story about how they hated their wedding pictures or even worse, that not one picture turned out! This usually happens due to lack of knowledge of how to find and hire a great wedding photographer. We created this blog to help you understand everything there is to know about getting great wedding photography. If we can keep a bad or disappointing wedding photography experience from happening then this expression of our passion will be a success.

With over forty years of combined experience photographing weddings Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together with their team, we have spent countless hours putting together the most comprehensive guide for new couples to navigate their way through the ins and outs of wedding photography. We will cover everything from choosing the right photographer, dissecting their packages and creating the perfect timeline.  We will add tips from some of the most well known and respected event planners in the industry. Each week the site will be updated with new tips for getting the most out of your wedding photography. For more about Ryan and Robert you can read their individual bios under the About heading in the top right navigation bar.

This post will always live in the top left hand corner of our site. We want you to check back often as we will be posting new articles and tips each week but this will be here to remind you of the best way to use this site. We have created a variety of post categories which can be accessed using the drop down menu on the top right. I will explain each below but the most important category is the “Must Read Posts.” If you read nothing else, these posts will arm you with what you really need to know about wedding photography. We hope you get mountains of help from this site and that your wedding goes smashingly with amazing pictures to show for it. To learn more about our site head on over to the About Section in the top right.

The Real 411: 

The Real 411 is Robert and Ryan’s insider tips from over 20+ years of experience photographing weddings. They are things that most people won’t tell you and things that will transform your day of wedding pictures into something spectacular. They will also help you avoid pitfalls that can derail your whole day.

Beauty Tips:

Here you will find easy to implement tips that will help you pose better, look your best and wind up with the pictures you dreamed of. We will also be posting secrets and tips from some of the top make-up artists in the country!

Must Read Posts:

As if the title wasn’t enough…YOU MUST READ THESE! If you read nothing else, these articles will help you with things you couldn’t imagine. We want to help you have amazing wedding images. This is what you need to know!

Photo Jargon:

This is our version of tech talk. We will dissect all manner of technical info to help you understand what the hell your photographer is talking about. It might be simple phrases or in-depth articles on the challenges of having your wedding in full sun.

Selecting Your Photographer:

We will show you what to look for in a portfolio and how to hire the right photographer for YOU. We will cover pricing, contracts, terms and conditions and dissect what they really mean. We’ll show you what is important and what isn’t.

The Business Side:

As much as photographers love their job and you love being shot…this is still a business transaction. This section helps both sides of the aisle (photographers and brides) understand what to expect in the year leading up to and after the wedding. 

Tips From Coordinators:

We work with some of the top event planners in the country. We will leverage our relationships with them to bring you their best tips for successful pictures.

Timelines:

This is also a must read section. Timelines are CRUCIAL to the quality of your final images. Make sure you thoroughly review the timeline with your Photographer.

Quick Tips:

We will post lots of quick tips throughout the week and some will be new variations on previous tips.
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If you have any questions please write to us at Hello@WeddingPhotography411.com and we will do our best to answer them.

**Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together have over 40 years of combined experience photographing weddings and have photographed some of the most well known peoples weddings throughout the world!

There usually isn’t a problem when guests take pictures but when they get in the way of the professionals you hired it becomes a conflict. You hire a professional photographer because they have experience photographing weddings, this is their job. Hopefully your photographer has spent years honing their craft and have photographed many weddings. What makes matters worse is when the over eager guest with a camera starts asking questions about how to use their cameras while we are  trying to work. Even a guest with a high end camera, in most cases will still fail to get the same shot as your professional wedding photographer . Knowing how to finesse the wedding day, how to frame, when to shoot, the correct camera settings, how to be invisible, and the hours of post production that go into to making your wedding images amazing. Even with a $5000 camera guests with no experience photographing weddings are just taking snapshots, a professional photographer will give you beautiful images that will last a lifetime.

Your guests might you give you a bunch of images a day after the wedding, then after you look over them you might feel like there we not to many good ones and then you might second guess your professional photographer. Then your eager friend posts their amateur snaps to Facebook and tags you in them and your friends think that that you hired a subpar photographer and that maybe your wedding wasn’t all that great judging by the pictures. A month later that might be rectified by posting the pictures from your wedding photographer, however the damage is already done. If your friends have already seen some mediocre wedding images they might have lost interest. Remember we only get one chance to make a first impression.

In addition, we now have to contend with 50-60 cell phones, even iPads being whipped out while you walk down the aisle and they are all in the shot. People lean in or even step into the aisle to get a “better shot” for themselves and often step right in front of our line of sight to you walking down the aisle. Think about this for a second. Do you want to see a bunch of cell phones in front of the faces of your friends in the background of your wedding  pictures or just the faces of your friends taking in the special moments.

So what can you do to avoid the wedding guest flockarazzi from invading your wedding.  Well, there is no easy answer. For starters I would tell any known “shutterbugs” attending your wedding, to be respectful of the  professional photographers. When you send out email updates or if you have your own wedding site, make an announcement stating that you hired a professional wedding photographer and to please be mindful of your professional.  Lastly, if you see one of your guests or family members in the way on wedding day, kindly ask them to refrain from being too obtrusive. They might hear you louder than they do us.  Sometimes we say something to them directly and sometimes we just try to work around them but your pictures will suffer for it if they continue to get in the way. You might even add a card to your invitations addressing the subject of photography.

So you can see the other side of the aisle from a professional photographers perspective, here are the top three times during the wedding day we see guests ruining wedding photographs or moments.

1. The Ceremony: guests will step in the aisle or stick cell phones out into the aisle to photograph you during your trip up the aisle and back down after your married. Many times stepping right in front of us. The result is a photograph of a bunch of cell phones hiding the reaction of your guests faces or even worse your guests in the foreground blocking your walk down the aisle for our lens.

Also during the ceremony guests taking their own pictures and ending up in the background of your emotional moments  The shot of your husband crying might have been amazing if Uncle Harry’s camera and big noggin were not in the background during your vows.

Today if you have hired video as well there can sometimes be four people with cameras covering a ceremony. In most cases as professionals we all do our best to not be in each others shots. Add guests with cameras to this picture and you just might have more cameras than bridal party. Extreme I know but just trying to get the point across.

2. While your photographer is taking formal or group pictures: Guests stand around shooting snapshots while the photographer shooting. This is a distraction not only for the photographer but when you get your pictures back chances are you will see people in your photographs not looking into the photographers lens but someone else’s. You want everyones full attention on the person you are paying, or your pictures will have people looking in another direction.

3. During the Reception: Guests sometimes feel the need to cover all the formal events at the reception, IE. first dance, father daughter, toasts, and cake cutting. Again the biggest problem here is to many chefs. You end up with cameras, cell phones, ipads, and unwanted people in the background. The simpler the background the more impact an image will have. The less distractions the eye has while viewing an image the more pleasing the photograph. All your guests in the background holding cell phones and cameras looks bad.

Below is a sample of how you might word an email or a card sent in your invitations about guest taking pictures at your wedding.

“Dear family and friends our wedding photography is very important to us, so important that we spent many hours finding an amazing professional photographer who we trust and  have invested in to capture all our wedding day memories. He/she has given us several tips on how we can get the best images from our wedding. One of the tips they offered is to ask you, our family and friends to refrain from taking pictures with your camera and cell phone during the most important parts of our wedding day. Since the ceremony is one of the most important parts to us we ask that you do not take pictures at all during the ceremony. Please engage and share in the moment with us and allow our photographer to capture the ceremony. You are free to take pictures during the reception just make sure to not be in the background of the photographers shots during the events such as first dance, father daughter, toasts and cake cutting. Thank you so much for respecting our wishes and we look forward to sharing our wedding day with all of you”.

The above is there to give you a start and of course you may change the wording to meet your comfort level. This may seem like a harsh request or even taboo but if you do not take action for the sake of your wedding pictures I guarantee at least one of the above mentioned wedding day “photo pas” will take place at your wedding.

Remember we here at WeddingPhotography411.com are here to help. We know we cannot photograph everyone’s wedding, (mainly because our feet would really hurt)  but we can help educate future bride and grooms and help you get the best wedding images possible. If we don’t tell you who else will.

The same day I published I came across this blog post discussing the same sumbect. http://blog.coastsidecouture.com/2012/10/please-turn-off-your-cell-phones.html

RE & RP

**Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together have over 40 years of combined experience photographing weddings and have photographed some of the most well known peoples weddings throughout the world!

You may have heard in the past of a term in wedding photography called a Trash The Dress.  If not, this is when a bride puts her dress back on after the wedding has taken place and models for some “non-traditional” pictures. These images are usually intended to evoke some  sense of shock, a lot of the time involving a bride in water, getting her dress dirty, or destroying the wedding gown in some capacity. This trend still has some popularity today, although it was more trashnable in the early 2000s.

As this trashy trend fades away, re-fashioning the dress seems to be taking over.  This is not actually destroying the dress but putting it back on and doing more of a fashion or styled shoot, keeping the integrity of the gown.  This photo session is done, however, without the overwhelming concern for cleanliness like takes place on the wedding day.  Let your hair down, throw caution to the wind, and get creative.

There are a myriad of ways one might conjure up ideas for a second showing in the gown.  Collaboration with your photographer is definitely the first, and probably most productive thing to do.  (This photographer may or not be the person that photographed the wedding.  It certainly doesn’t have to be.)

Regardless of the bride’s choice for the shoot, the goal is to create something different and fun.  A bride may now let her personality shine, really having fun and not worrying about having an audience or guests to attend to. The idea is for her to get outside of her comfort zone and become the fashion model she may have always wanted to be.  If there is no other time in her life it happens, post-wedding is the time to pull the trigger.  Most brides are in some of the best shapes of their lives at wedding time.  She should do it now!  Do it for her kids!  Whatever her reason, she should just do it.  She will never regret it.  No pressure – just time to play in front of a camera.

A few summers back I cautiously and optimistically took this concept and pushed it to a new limit by attempting to photograph a bride and groom in front of a tornado.  My crew and I headed to the mid-west to Tornado Alley in mid-May, the beginning of tornado season.  We enlisted the help of a professional storm chaser, and I ran a contest to find a bride and groom who were crazy enough to embark on this adventure with us.  Our adventure took us through Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska.  Along the way we encountered all different sorts of weather.  We ran into rain, wind, snow, hail, thunder, lightning and even stumbled upon an incredible rainbow.  Some of our fun roadside locations included an oasis, abandoned houses, ditches, snowdrifts, and even sand dunes. (see slide show below)  Did we accomplish our goal?  Let’s just say this, we didn’t go home disappointed.  I will say, I would love to do it again on an even bigger scale.

(We filmed the whole adventure, so if you are curious and want to catch a few glimpses our fun, check out the trailer.  http://www.romancingthestorm.com/)

My point in sharing my story is to convey that the sky is the limit with these shoots.  We photographers love to take pictures and love to be creative, so brides, put your head together with your favorite photographer and get out there and create some art!  You don’t have to go to great lengths to refashion your dress you just need the desire to create something great. And don’t forget the groom!  He is welcome too and opens the door to even greater possibilities.

You will create and capture some really great memories that you will have to enjoy for the rest of your lives together.  To maximize your enjoyment select your favorite image from the your shoot, enlarge it, frame it, and hang it on a wall in your home.  Too many of our pictures today never leave our cold, sterile hard drives.  When a great photograph hangs on the wall we can enjoy it every day.  A great photograph, just like a great painting, will warm your house and make it a home, not to mention your “Refashion The Dress” image will be a great conversation piece.  How fun it could be to share the stories of your adventure with all those who will walk through your door in the years to come.

Talk to your coordinator or lighting person and make sure that during the first dance, parent dances and toasts that there will be no colored lights on the subjects. Even during your guest dancing shots it’s rough but it’s tolerable since it is supposed to have a club like atmosphere anyway. Don’t ruin important moments like first dance and speeches.

*Another tip while we are at it is talk to the DJ about where the toasts will take place, you don’t want the DJ, speakers, wires, doors or exit signs in the back of your photos. Pick a good spot to do the toasts and make sure they have a wireless mic set-up that can reach.

**Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together have over 40 years of combined experience photographing weddings and have photographed some of the most well known peoples weddings throughout the world!

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**Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together have over 40 years of combined experience photographing weddings and have photographed some of the most well known peoples weddings throughout the world!

This is the perfect time to try out hair and make-up. Not only do you get to see it yourself, but you see how it looks on camera. Their are tons of myths about more make-up is better, the camera adds weight, etc, etc. Honestly it’s more about the shooter, the lens choice and the lighting that will effect those things. So again, this is the perfect opportunity to find out what you will really look like on camera.

A very common question I get asked from my brides is how much make-up to wear on the weeding day for photographs. Of course this is going to vary from bride to bride however my reply is always just a little more than you normally wear. Especially if you are a girl who wears little or no make-up, you do not want to look at your pictures and not love your pictures because you are wearing too much make-up.

I have heard many times from future brides that they were told they should wear more make-up for their photographs. This may be true in some photography such a fashion or in a studio setting with controlled lighting, however with  most wedding photography natural light and some flash is used.  A softer natural look is more conducive to available light, which usually works better with a softer look or less make-up. When used correctly make-up should enhance or highlight your natural beauty.

I have had many of bride use the engagement shoot for just this purpose and make slight adjustment to their make-up after doing their trial. Doing a trial with your hair and make is always a wise decision, however getting to see what it will look like in photographs before the wedding is key.

-RE

**Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together have over 40 years of combined experience photographing weddings and have photographed some of the most well known peoples weddings throughout the world!

My personal tips:

• Use  a cloth tie instead of the shiny silky ones.
• Watch out so you don’t get the dimple under the tie knot, be gentle with the whole process.
• For added style get a bitchin tie clip like Burberry, Boss or the always fashionable and classic Ralph Lauren Engine Turn tie bar

Videos and Diagrams:

Video: Art of Manliness

Video: Tie A Tie.net 

Some guys will just learn better from a blonde in a pink tank top:

Diagram: Brooks Brothers : Step by Step

Diagram: Half Windsor 

**Robert Evans and Ryan Phillips together have over 40 years of combined experience photographing weddings and have photographed some of the most well known peoples weddings throughout the world!