Recently I read articles about how you don’t really need a professional wedding photographer for your wedding. Or sometimes you can skip any sort of professional vendor at your wedding (planner, florist, baker, videographer…). The recommendation is thatIf you want to save a lot of money, use a friendor, uncle, iphone expert, or on-demand photographer order website, crowd source space to do the job.
Listen, I am Indian, I get we all want to save money, especially at our weddings. So if you want to save a good chunk of change (photography costs range from $2000-$15000) on a photographer for example, here’s what you should expect:
1. You don’t mind blurry, dark lit pics – Your final photos may not be lit well, focused, or clearly shot. Did you know quality editing takes hours and quality culling of images takes even more time?
Non professional photographers won’t spend the time to go through 3000 images in Lightroom, narrow down to the best 300, edit each photo for lighting, color, sharpness, and send to you. Nor do they usually have the best composed photo (no amount of Photoshop will fix a blurry, super dark image).
2. You don’t mind delayed delivery or no delivery of photos – If you don’t have a contract and your “photographer” says they will send the photos in a few months, what do you do? Nothing. If you still don’t get the photos, then what do you do? Pretty much nothing.
Now of course, there are unscrupulous people out who may never send the photos to you, but you should have recourse if you signed a contract with them. Reputable vendors will also just get the job done.
3. You don’t mind not getting the most important photos – Did you photographer take a chai break while the jai mala was going on? Oops on that. Or was the photo where your spouse put the mangalsutra on you blurry? Also oops.
Non pro photographers won’t be around every second of every minute of your wedding. You’re not paying them, so why should they be at your beck and call for 12+ hours a day? Plus, they might not even know what is important to you and will photograph what they like.
4. You’re happy you saved a LOT of money – Excellent! You saved a ton of money. Did you receive photos that were print worthy to put on your walls? Are you thrilled to relieve each moment through each photo? No? Maybe? That’s something you need to decide.
When it comes to hiring vendors, we recommend hiring professionals. They are in the business, they understand what to do, and they can take the stress off of you. And, it’s their JOB. With that said, you have to budget for them too.
For example, if cake isn’t important to you, then you can with something cost effective. But if you think you cut out the professional entirely and do it yourself easily, you are wrong. Yes, you can DIY something, but it takes a LOT of time, and hard work; be prepared to put the work in yourself in exchange for monetary savings. (On a personal note, I’ll say to please never ever DIY/not-hire a professional wedding photographer, they are intrinsic to canonizing your wedding for years to come).
And if there’s an aspect of the wedding that you know you can DIY (for example, decorating cookies is your passion), then by all means go for it. Just remember how much time it will take. And remember to get pros to help with the rest because time is finite.
Whatever you decide, please remember that your wedding shouldn’t be about you running around enforcing schedules and herding people. It should be about you getting married and celebrating spending the rest of your life with someone special.