My Search For A Wedding Photographer

When you start planning on a wedding, you start to compose your list of "must haves" as opposed to the things that you are willing to cut if the budget doesn't allow. For me, one of my essential must haves is a photographer. A professional photographer. Like everything else the first time around, I didn't have a photographer. I had my witness- with his camera taking a couple of pics after we were done getting married. Only a few pics were taken and even fewer survived and the poses were horrible. One pic really was ok and that was what I used to blow up to a 8x10. It was an extremely bright day that day so I'm hiding in my ex's shadow to shield my face somewhat from the sun so that I could open my eyes just a little. My ex is also squinting. So finding and hiring a wedding photographer initially seemed to be, what I thought was, a no brainer.... until I really started looking into it. Can you say over whelmed, hard, stressed? This is tough stuff and finding the perfect photographer for you, that will capture your moments and make you look beautiful and still be affordable all seem to be incompatible. You're getting one or the other it seems. I have been on a mission to find that right combination of elements that I have discovered are crucial to me --

Not to mention this....

I've learned (discovered), and trust me there is a lot to learn, that I have a preference for a look. I didn't know this before I started on this venture called wedding photographer shopping. I've seen very few wedding pictures and the pictures that I have seen from friends have been of the non-professional type. And even a couple of the professional galleries I have seen, they all looked basically the same to me. Almost cookie cutter. I didn't know there was such a wide, wide range between one end of the spectrum to the other. But there is. Boy is there. I've discovered, yes of course I want some of the traditional stuff that you get, because those are important!-  but the "look" of that traditional stuff matters to me. The eye of the person capturing it is worlds apart. I am such a creative person and I like photos that almost seem artistic! That jump off the screen gallery and take my breath away!!! These get me excited. Artistic, beautiful photos. This is what I am looking for and dreaming of. To get a sense of what I'm talking about take a look at some of the photographers that I've been looking seriously at and that I think are just gorgeous!

 For instance, I'll start with a basic photo. This is from David Parson's Photography (link found here: David Parsons Photography ). It seems simple enough but I have searched high and low to see photos of a wedding in the Alumni Chapel and they don't seem to be posted much. So this was wonderful to find and let me know that beautiful pictures can indeed be taken inside the Alumni Chapel. Important to me since that is where our wedding will be.

David Parsons Photography

Here is an example of a photographer's work that I just love. Her name is Phrene- Exquisite Photography out of Grand Rapids and her galleries are gorgeous! Here's where the creative stuff comes in that I fall in love with. Thinking outside the box. With some photographers you can just tell, they are intuitively not just photographers, but artists. This appeals to me on every level being artistic myself. This is from Phrene's Wedding Blog and be sure to check out all of her wonderful work. (Find here work at this link here: Phrene's Wedding Blog )

Phrene- Exquisite Photography

Phrene actually has an assistant, Carolina, whose work is really great as well and she is (along with a couple of other photographers) now included at the top of our list of selections that we have narrowed down.

Another photographer that I am in love with is JCarlynn Portrait Artist, (find her link here JCarlynn Portrait Artist formly known as Imaginz.com ). She's out of the Lansing area. Unfortunately they are beyond what we can afford at this point. This one kills me but, we have a budget so... But get a load of these incredibly artistic photos. I am so in love!

JCarlynn Photography

Finally on our list of considerations and in the top running is Timeless Elegance Photography out of Charlotte, (link can be found here: Timeless Elegance Photography ). I can't say enough about their work and has all of the elements that are so important to me. For those that have been to Our Wedding Website, under the "theme" tab I mention the elements of our wedding that we are striving for. These include: Elegance, classy, timeless, and old world. Timeless Elegance does that in spades!

The good news is that I HAVE finally made up my mind after looking and looking at untold amounts of photographer's work. I've got the same feeling I got when I tried on my dress! There are some really talented photographers out there and it wasn't easy finding a combination of all of the things we were looking for but we are finally, finally there and I couldn't be more thrilled with our decision!! 

Robin

Our Engagement Announcements (why we needed them)

Over and over again you will most likely here me tout the glories of Vista Print. I've said it before, and I will say it again, I love Vista Print. I love creating on it. I wish there was some kind of job that I could do just what I do on Vista Print. Create! I'm constantly taking designs, and creating designs on them for different things, even if I don't actually order them, just because it's fun. It's also been so awesome for my wedding. I've used it over and over again. My latest use and design came a couple of nights ago to design our engagement announcements. 

I admit that engagement announcements weren't something I was planning or even on my radar. I think that's because I made it all "official" on facebook and my most immediate friends and family know. But surprisingly enough no one else does, even though we got engaged nearly 6 months ago.

When we got engaged in September, my October surgery date was looming and that, along with my health- was, and still is, the priority. At that time, I asked Joe whether or not he would want his mother at the wedding and started to discuss that option and what would need to happen in order for her to be invited. I suggested us meet with her for dinner to just see how things went. That couldn't happen, however, until I was able to actually sit down to dinner and that wasn't going to happen until after the surgery. At that time we were thinking perhaps around Jan or Feb. with an October surgery date. (Having had the surgery now, I realize how crazy that is). But that was the plan. Until that happened, we decided not to tell anyone in his family. You can ask people to not say something or keep something confidential, but quite often someone does indeed say something regardless of the fact that you have asked them not to. To ensure that didn't happen, we didn't tell anyone in his family. 

As far as my family went, we were going to announce it at my family's Christmas get together in January. I felt it would not only be easier to be able to tell them all at one time, but would be more personal. Kind of like a non-planned engagement party. But none of that came about (you know what they say about the best laid plans). My surgery date was rescheduled, canceled, and then rescheduled again finally in mid-January, which meant I missed the family get together. An incident happened with Joe's mother in December which led to the realization that nothing had changed for her and that a conversation would change nothing. At that point Joe  did tell his father, and only this past week his grandmother and brother. So here we are, now in March and finding ourselves in a position where a great deal of family members and quite a few of Joe's friends still don't know of the engagement.

Quite often with this type of thing there's an engagement photo session. That's something that we may still do but not something that has been done at this point and still may not happen. So I got on Vista Print, looked at some options that would be good with photos without having anything in my mind whatsoever of what I would use. Not even the photo. I was just looking for something that would be photo friendly; and quite honestly looking at their pre-formatted templates that already had a place for a photo already set up. But then I came upon a design that compliments our Save The Dates perfectly. Something I have already designed. 

Our Engagement Announcements

I found that with taking pictures and resizing them and with the natural border line along the top, that it worked quite well and I could fit three pictures on there nicely. I'm thrilled with how they turned out and have started sending them out. I sent them out to contacts that I had on my email list but Joe, who is extremely bad about anything that has to do with keeping in contact, social or communication type stuff doesn't have anyone's email at all. So I'm in the process of trying to get a hold of those so that his side of the isle, as far as people he knows, can be informed. 

The best part of this of course was that it was free! Like I said, I used images I already had, (no photographer, session or fee for prints) and since I'm sending them out via email, (no ordering and no postage). I've got so many things that will be mailed out later that I'll be paying postage on later, this helps a lot now, because every penny saved-- does. 

By the way, for more amazing ways to save with Vista Print, I found this incredible site made by a former bride herself. She calls herself the Vista Print Goddess and I bow my head to her! (and would kiss her feet too!) I can't thank her enough for the information she put out for others to use and I'm paying it forward here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://vistaprint-goddess.weebly.com/sample-email.html

Enjoy!