Your wedding day will only happen once. The memories will last forever but, great pictures and videos will allow you to keep and share the memories in a special way. If you are planning to hire a professional photographer, it might be a good idea to have friends and family taking pictures as well. Every moment of your wedding day is only going to happen once and everyone will see it differently. Photographing your wedding is a fun way for friends that are not in the wedding party to feel they made a valuable contribution.
There might be guarantees from a professional photographer but, what good will those do after the ceremony? Those moments can never be captured again and if something goes wrong you will have no recourse but perhaps a financial refund. Ask others to take photographs and video also, you should have no problem enlisting back up photographers.
There are certain shots that you will need to make sure do not get overlooked. Provide a list of people and shots that are to be taken and have more than one person take each one.
1. If you hire a professional photographer you probably want to save money where you can. Ask them to show up only when needed and be specific about which shots you want and where they should be taken. There is probably no need for them to take pictures of the wedding party getting ready but this might be a lot of fun for one of your friends. Have a friend or family member with the groom and his groomsmen and one with the bride and her attendants taking pictures.
2. It would be a lot more fun for the bride to have a friend riding with her to the church taking pictures stead of a strange photographer.
3. Make sure that whoever will be taking pictures gets good photos of the venue before your guests arrive. Of course there should be plenty of pictures as guests arrive as well.
4. Besides pictures of the actual ceremony there should be pictures of the seated guests and wedding party. These should include the entire wedding party and the parents of both the bride and groom.
5. You will need to let your photographers know what pictures you want right after the ceremony and who is to be in them. These pictures should include pictures of the bride and groom together with their parents. One picture of the new couple with his parents and one with hers is a photo that often gets overlooked. If parents are remarried, you should get a picture of the biological parents alone with the couple if you can. Don't feel too uncomfortable asking for this particular photo, you will be so happy you did.
6. Put disposable cameras on the wedding reception tables and encourage all guests to take pictures of each other and anything they think will be important to you. Instruct them to leave the cameras on the tables for you to develop and you will make sure whoever wants pictures will get them.
If you hire a photographer you can save a little money by asking to buy your pictures unedited or on a cd, you will want to ask about the reprinting rights. Limiting the amount of time they spend at the event and the number of pictures they take is also helpful. But, friends and family will be happy to take pictures all day long for free. Everyone can't be a member of the wedding party but this is one of those great job for friends that are not in the wedding party, and it will save you a ton of money.
