Wedding photography - Stories please!

[Ironmaidan]

I'm starting up working for myself doing wedding photography and I'm looking for advice from those of you who have hired a photographer and what you thought, good or bad. I'd like to know what worked for you and what didn't, any nightmares or any dreams-come-true?

We used a local photographer who was recommended. Nicest thing we did was go to a local park between leaving the Church and arriving at the Reception, just us and photographer, so we got some nice pictures together and felt more relaxed. It also provided a breather from the hectic day. We tried to keep group photos brief and specific so that there was as little waiting around as possible fro those attending. We went to another friend's wedding a few years later and it seemed to take all afternoon at the Reception venue by which time everyone had had a fair bit to drink !

We made a vow that our photos would take a maximum of 15 minutes! We'd been to so many weddings where you stand around for hours outside the church waiting for the photos to finish! We didn't have any photos outside the church because it was dark when we were leaving! When we got to the reception, we made sure everyone had a drink in their hand and then dh and I snuck away with our parents, siblings, the bridesmaids and best man and had our photos done. We were back before anyone realised we'd left!

what worked for us:
Taking time to choose a photographer whose ideas / style matched ours
Excellent website so we could gauge their ideas / style
Pre-booking meeting to see samples of work - whole weddings not just best shots from several, with well-lit, well-composed pics
Photographer who: listened to what we wanted
was very professional at every stage
Scoped out venue beforehand (without us) to assess ligthing, backdrops etc
Turned up on time
Unobtrusive when taking reportage
Polite but firm and, above all, quick when taking group shots
Quick turnround of printing
Digital versions of all pics
Copyright of all pics

Photographers we avoided:
had poor websites, or none
took poorly lit and/or poorly composed pics
seemed to take the same shots at every wedding
took too many posed line-ups (appreciate couples may demand these)
took cheesey set up shots eg horizontal bride, bride sprawling on car, soppy portraits
missed little sponatenous moments eg grandma crying, small child smearing face with cake
did 'set menu' print packages
tried to sell us over-priced albums
tried to jolly us along

Actually I think we did better by not using a specific wedding photographer - he was a commercial photographer whose work we saw at an art fair who does a few weddings a year for fun, so didn't have a set wedding menu or expect them all to be the same.

Hope this helps a bit!

MrsBadger, thank you, very helpful!
You've described to a T my own wedding photographer in "Photographers we avoided"!!!
I made a big mistake with mine, don't want to risk the same for my clients.

Anyone else got stories??? This is great!

Bumping for evening crowd.

We weren't going to bother (dad is V good) but then decided we'd get someone for some 'professional shots'. We took great lenghts to explain what we wanted - informal, not too posed & natural and also explained in advance that DHs parents were divorced so as not to cause blushes on the day.
On the day - he was dreadful. Horridly posed & worst, before we got there he had set up & taken a dreadful cheesy pic of PILs together as a 'couple' - they were too polite to kick up a fuss.
In the end we didn't go for any of the pics but kept the polaroids. Luckily my dad took some great photos

Agree with Mrs B 100%
We had a disaster with our photographer - my mum recommended him (should have seen danger signs then!), we paid deposit, he offered to take free 'engagement' photo (?). We agreed, arrived, posed and he asked me not to smile because it made my face look so fat
Photos arrived - dreadful dreadful, terrible quality. Told him we didn't want him at the wedding and got a friend to do it instead. Then the night before the wedding, dreadful photographer phoned me up and said if he didn't get to do the job the next day, he'd sue me Told him where to go but arrived back from honeymoon to find solicitor's letter on the doormat...
BUT friend's photos were FAB. He waited till everyone was a bit merry and then got them to stand in informal groups in front of a big sheet of white paper. Brilliant black and white shots of all our friends and rellies looking really relaxed and happy and unstuffed parrot-y. Very chuffed.

We didn't want your traditional posed photos (memories of me having to look whistfully up the road as a bridesmaid filled me with horror), nor did I want them to take too much time or take us away from everyone. In the end we had someone who was a sports photographer and he said when he did weddings he did the group shots in 10 minutes, which he did. He then stayed throughout the wedding taking reportage style shots (as he had done through the ceremony as we didn't want a video but had some great action shots during the service) - mind you, he got his fill of the free bar and apparently fell over and passed out at the end. The photos were great though !

juliab!!!

juliab did he go thru with suing you? Unbelievable!

I know - still makes me quiver nearly ten years later!
Luckily, though, I was working full-time then and part of my job was to liaise with a lawyer in one of London's top libel firms. So I got him to write me a stinker of a letter to the photographer blasting all his claims out of the water. It ended "if you continue to pester my client in this manner, we reserve the right to counter-sue."
Didn't hear a peep after that!

My photographer was brilliant. He was really unobtrusive and took loads of natural shots, when people were unaware of him. He took a few shots that were with the parents and some group photos but the real good ones where the ones when people didn't know about them, especially the little bridesmaids. I went to a wedding a few weeks before mine and the photos went on for about 2 hours, so rigid and boring. Our photographer came to mums house in the morning when we were getting ready and took the last drunken shots at the end of the evening.
It is my wedding anniversary today and dh is away, so I might well go and have a look at them later.

Our photos are fantastic (and so they should be as they were pricey).

However, I have one massive regret about them, which is that I have no photos of me and my Mum on our own together. She died 4 months after the wedding and it still bothers me.

I think what happened was the photographer asked us what shots we wanted, and we just "brainstormed" ideas while she wrote everything down. Pics of me and my Mum would have been my number 1 priority, but I think I was stressed out that day and didn't think things through.

With hindsight, it would have been helpful to have a list of "people groupings" - just to jog our minds about which photos were important to us.

I've cried a lot about this since Mum's death - sounds silly, but I was so proud of her on the day and have no Mum and Daughter pic to treasure.

I'm dying to put up a link to my website to get some advice and constructive critisism from real people (not my family who are all just saying what I want to hear) but it has my name and address on the first page.

Puff, thats really sad, and given me another thing to think about. My plan was to take candid and natural shots all day without too much interferance and no posing people, but if I do that I'm bound to miss an important shot, like Puff and her mum.

Like others we wanted to avoid the cheesy set ups and agonising wait outside etc etc

Our photographer came with 3 cameras, one with B&W one with colour and one 'posh' one for the few set groups we wanted.

He came to our house where I was getting ready and he was so nice and chilled it helped me. We just chatted as I was dong my makeup and he got some really beautiful shots.

Then at the venue he got more inside during teh ceremony, but never held up proceedings! Afterwards me, dh, our parents and brothers/sisters snuck out the back for 15 mins. He he the 7 set groups we had agreed on written down so he got them perfectly, plus some of Dh and I larking about - in fact these are some of my faves :)

From then on he was around and about for the day, he managed a picture of every guest at some point or another. We had over 200 B&W, 200 colour, plus the formal ones. He gave us all the negatives (no such thing as digital cameras then) so we weren't ripped of on copies.

We ended up with a fantastic record of the day, and I seem to remember he cost about £400 for the day, plus film and processing - about £350 more. This was 8 years ago. When we looked around other more 'traditional' photographers wanted £400 for 36 foul misty prints in a white faux leather album. He was v good value for money

Hi there

DH is a wedding and portrait photographer and he specialises in reportage style. I'd echo what other posters have said. It's all about customer service and giving the client exactly what they want. That means a couple of meetings before the wedding to find out what photos are must haves, like Puff's mum pictures . Most people know our style so come in saying 'oh, just mill about and grab some shots of people enjoying themselves' but we usually try and persuade them to have just a few formal ones. It doesn't take long (we usually only take about 10 minutes for these) and lots of people, particularly parents, grandparents etc. want one of these for a frame.

Having a couple of meetings before the wedding also helps the couple get to know you so they trust you on the day and it's one less thing for them to worry about. I'd also agree with looking smart, but wear something subdued so as to blend into the background and not upstage any guests.

Also, the milling about shots quite difficult to get. People are never standing in the right place, there may be a candle coming out of the top of someone's head, the light may be v. poor etc. Most of the 'natural' shots we take are a little bit set up, even if it's just asking someone to turn towards the camera a bit, or hold a position. If course some of the totally natural ones are fab, e.g. bride and groom's reaction to speeches etc.

Anyway, good luck with the venture. If you've got any more questions just let me know

HTH

p.s. where are you based? Will you be a competitor? If so ignore everything I've said

NB am not a fan of dressed-up photographers, esp in own tailcoat - blee! Our wedding had lots of guests who didn't know each other so the photographer needed to look like the photographer and not Mad Uncle Alf. Think he just wore a nice shirt and trousers and one of those multi-pocket waistcoats. Probably something it'd pay for you to be flexible on.

Oh, and other little thing we liked, brought his own stepladder for taking \link{http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.wolfson.oxford.ac.uk/clubs/barco/images/Photos/Saints%2520and%2520Sinners/surv1wavey.jpg\this} type of photo so we had one of all the guests together.

I think it's good to have a balance - ours are "reportage" style mainly but there are some more formal ones, still very relaxed, just missed a crucial one which has come to hold huge significance for me.

Our photographer was recommended by a friend. He was brilliant. For us we liked -

He wouldnt tell us which photos he wanted, but asked us what we wanted

He didnt 'push' guests around, telling them where to stand while taking the photos

He didnt hurry the photos, and we didnt feel like we wanted to get rid of him!

Only thing which worried my dad was the fact that he didnt send confirmation that he was going to be there on the day, ie dad payed for the photos and spoke to him on the phone etc, but he wanted a phone call the day before to confirm. All the way to registery office, dad kept saying "hope the photographer will turn up!"

our photographer asked us what we wanted which was the most important thing I think. She asked what special photo's we wanted (ie me and mum, dd and her grandparents etc) not just the standard, groom with parents, bride with parents, weddng party although we had those too.
She was very informal but smart in a suit, fun, knew what she was doing and didnt take too long so people werent getting bored waiting for the reception to start
HTH

Our photographs were horrific.
Two years later we still don't have an album.
I have, at times, cried and cried.

One of my closest friends, having worked for kodak, booked and paid for it, with a company that he had doen some work for.
We met the photographer beforehand.
When he saw the photos he was horrified.

There are 130 of them.
Mostly terrible.
No composition.
Only 25 % of the photos are of dh and I.
And there is not one that we like.
Really sad.
Hope this hasn't happened to anyone else.

It happened to a friend of a friend of mine who paid E1,000 to a guy calling himself professional. She was given a pile of 6x4 proofs printed on gloss paper at Boots!!!! They were all either out of focus, badly exposed or dark and dingy. She chose the best of a bad bunch and he put together the worst album I've ever seen (Fake leather cover, "Our Wedding" written in gold on the front with doves, flimsy pages etc) I was so shocked and partly why I decided to start up on my own. I've done dozens of weddings for family and friends as an amateur and always (with one exception) really enjoyed it and had infinately better results that my friend's photographer!!

Have been almost married twice (1st july) and the first one just had pictures that were taking by other photographers not by the one we wanted so put us off( next Phootogapher had all the pctures taken in then album just seemed really friendlyt even when we went back 2 years running) we booked her as she seemed nice and had taken all the pictures in the album)