Park City Wedding Photographer |TGIF
I always tell myself not to ‘do research’ before I get ready for bed. It just gets my head swimming, and I can’t turn it off, and next thing I know it’s 1am and though I have a 6.30am shoot I’m sitting in the dark rolling through websites on my laptop. Gah. This happens more than I care to admit.
Last night, during ‘wedding photographer research,’ I came across an editorial on Life Hacker (not sure how I ended up there — probably due to the title of the piece: 10 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Was Planning My Wedding), and I found myself hope hope hoping that one of author’s points was to hire a professional photographer (it was). Not because it’s my business but because people really don’t understand the gravity of having a professional document one of the most important days of their life.
This is the thing: I get that people feel as though the wedding industry is one big rip-off. I understand that people feel as though they’re entering into indentured servitude when they commit to planning a wedding, and that photography is a huge part of people’s frustration because of the costs associated, specifically, with wedding photographers. I was glancing through wedding photographers’ sites the other day, and came across one that states his clients are people that value photography and will end up spending 20-40% of their wedding budget on photography alone. To prospective clients — couples getting married & their families that are helping them pay — that might sound not only scary but just-plain-greedy.
Hear me out, though, cuz I’m one of those photographers. And, again, not because it’s my business but because I cherish (like, at the core of my soul) meaningful experiences. Long after the dress has a wine or grass stain, the cake has been cut, the makeup has been washed off, the plates have been scraped into the garbage, and the tent has been taken down, I’m holding in my CF cards the only remnants of your Day. Don’t misunderstand: I don’t put a price on the fact that I’m the only one holding your memories (I’m not negotiating a ransom or hijacking your wedding!). Instead, though, I’m putting a value on my ability, intuition, skill, and honed talent for telling the story of the beginning of your marriage in an intimate, fun, cherishable way. These are the tangible floods of emotion you will share with your parents as they grow older and your children when they eventually want to know more about Mommy & Daddy. As for me… my memories are all I have at the end of the day, at the end of my year, at the end of my experiences; and they mean everything to me. So I’m not just spouting wedding-photographer-babble at you but actually walking my talk. See, my prized possessions are two things: my photos and my journals. A good wedding (or event, family, or portrait) photographer supplies you with a combination of both, a photojournalist memoir of the story of your life.
You can learn a little more about my take on weddings here — or go back to the Life Hacker editorial I mentioned above and read the hundreds of comments following the article that — sometimes in all caps — emphasize the importance of hiring a professional photographer for your Day. I’ll take it a step further and request that you find a shooter whose perspective means something to you. Yes, it’ll often cost you your hard-earned money but I’m not sure I can think of a better way to invest your wedding budget.
