Written By: Andrea Horne
Photos By: Green Valley Photography
Your venue is booked and your dress is purchased. But what about your wedding photographer? Photographers
can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000. The rule of thumb is to spend 15% of your total wedding budget on
wedding photography and photo packages. Here are 3 easy ways to find a great photographer: a bride’s referral,
the venue’s referral, or a wedding expo. First, if you have a friend that recently got married and you were in the
bridal party or a guest, then you saw the wedding photographer working firsthand. You can ask your friend how
her experience was and the types of packages offered. Second, your wedding day venue may have a preferred
photographer’s list. This would be a list of photographers that have shot this venue numerous times and know
all the best areas for the perfect picture. They can give you pose ideas to replicate with your groom. Lastly, local
wedding expos and bridal fairs are a great way to meet photographers. Plan on visiting at least 4 photographers’
booths to look at their work and ask about their price packages. You will get a feeling within the first few minutes
if you like them and can see if their style matches yours.
Now that you have found your wedding photographer, here is how to make the most of them. Each photographer
should have a standard shot list for a wedding. This includes the ceremony, first dance, cutting the cake, etc. What
about your rings? They can be photographed with your flowers, with the centerpieces, or perhaps outside hanging from a tree. You may just want a close up of it as you hold your new husband’s hand. Wedding photography
has come a long way from the traditional wedding party and family line-up photos. While those types of shots
are still necessary and always asked for by the bride’s mother, wedding photography has become very artsy and
creative. It is up to you, the bride, to decide just how creative you want to be for your wedding day.
I work as a Creative Director for a photographer and style photo shoot editorials for him. He has photographed
many weddings and every bride has been different. The photos in this article are from a wedding that he recently
shot. It had all the formality of a traditional wedding, but the bride and groom insisted they did not want it to
be stuffy. So they sent us their Pinterest board of inspirational wedding photos. It was definitely unexpected and
filled with funny, out-of-the-box images! For instance, the groom’s favorite movie was the Godfather and he wanted to set up this shot of him in a chair with all the groomsmen around him like Marlon Brando and his henchmen.
The bride wanted to recreate a scene at the bar celebrating her new nuptials. This kind of tongue in cheek humor
makes for a very unique wedding album. Photos are a way of capturing the bride and groom’s personalities and
invite you into their love story, so plan on finding the right photographer to capture yours!
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