Having Someone You Know Being Your Photographer Versus Hiring a Professional One

We used my friend/x-co worker. She isn't professional by no means but photographs a lot of weddings for way cheaper than a pro. I was prego with my 7 yr old and we were trying to do everything on a small budget. My wedding pics aren't the greatest, but at least we have some memories of our wedding day for only $200, and she developed them and gave me the negs too. By now I'm sure she has a digital cam and would email the pics. If money wasn't an issue back then, I would have definitely gone wit a pro.

Well I guess I would say it all depends on how good your friend is. I have a friend who is an amazing photographer- he takes the most beautiful pictures and he could definitely be a professional photographer if he chose to do so. He has taken some classes, he is also an artist so some of his pictures reflect his artistic view. He has a nice big professional $1,000 camera that makes a huge difference. He usually develops his film at Proex. I would hire him for a wedding without a second thought- but I would not pick another random friend that doesn't have the capabilities or the nice camera that he does. Advantages of hiring someone you know are, they know the family and there is no confusion about who is who. They know what shots would be the most special other than the usual family shots, kiss, cutting cake, etc. The difference in money would be huge. But professional photographers know a lot about taking pictures obviously- the lighting, the angles, the tricky stuff that makes perfect pictures. Again, it would depend on the skill level of your friend.

Hi Kristi,
I am a proffesional photographer :) If your friend has the ability to take fun wedding photographs and a good camera go for it! One thing to be concerned about is do you want your friend to work on your wedding day or let them just relax and enjoy your festivities. I have photographed family and friends weddings and it usually means I am working the whole time and not being able to sit and visit. Also what about lighting techniques? Do they know what to do when the church is dimmer and you can't have any flash photography, etc... As for printing your photographs, theres alot of good labs out there. Sams Club, Costco, Shutterfly.com are a few examples.

I Hope you have a beautiful wedding!!!
~M. C.

We hired a friend of my Mom's. We had an "up north" wedding, and he was worked for the local paper. The photos were pretty good, but not the amazing photos that I see some of my friends have from their weddings. Those people who charge the big bucks take totally different photos than a friend does. The big bucks photographers will get images of the bride and groom that look like they should be in a magazine (my BIL and his wife had these kind of photos). That really wasn't important to me (since I am not a model and will never look like I belong in a magazine really), so I just wanted nice images from the day. Ours are pretty good, and I have a few that I really like of my husband and I. We paid $300 for his time, and he just gave me the rolls of film to develop myself when he was done. I think it was worth the cost savings, because of my expectations for the images.

Jessica

My Father In Law is a photographer and we had him do our wedding - we got a lot of pictures, but my issue is that he took a lot more pictures of his family and my husband's friends (the only pictures of my 7 cousins were from the disposables on the table!). So my advise is to make sure they understand to take pictures of everyone! (where as with a professional they generally don't know anyone there, so they take more random pictures and generally get pictures of everyone)

I think that it's totally fine. It really depends on how high of a priority you place on the photography aspect of your wedding. Is your friend going to do formals or just candids? I'm sure since it's a friend he/she will want to do a great job for you, so go ahead and still be specific in telling him/her what types of shots you'd like to do. Make a very detailed list of the formal ones i.e. "Bride with Mom, Bride with Mom and Dad, Bride with flower girl, Bride with Ring Bearer...." Do that ahead of time so your friend can help you make sure you get every picture that you want and no body feels left out.

As far as printing goes I would recommend NOT going to Target or WalMart. My personal favorite is a place called Universal Color in New Hope. Their website is universalcolor.com. They are a chain but I don't know of another brick and mortar in MN. They have a GREAT online presence, you can upload photos to their site and get prints, photo books, gifts, and enlargements right there and have them shipped to you for really reasonable prices. They also have live Customer Service if you have questions. Always do Matte not Glossy--it looks way more professional.

Possible downsides-- depending on the experience of your friend, you may not get any artsy/creative shots, you're relying on that one person's equipment to work perfectly, not run out of batteries or card memory/film, and that nothing happens once the photos are taken. And as much as you trust and love your friend, accidents do happen. So make a back up plan!

You could get creative and have ALL of your guests be candid "photographers", especially at the reception-- either with disposables or ask them to up load there favorites from their own cameras on a certain photo site (you'd have to set that up ahead of time) with creative wording like "we don't want to miss a single moment of our wedding please help us treasure each memory by uploading and sharing your favorite photos that you took at our wedding" or something like that...

Hope that helps! I had a professional for my wedding and LOVED the photos, but I am a photographer on the side and have done quite a few friends weddings with much success, so I can really see both situations working wonderfully. Good Luck!

If you want to stay friends I would recommend hiring a professional. Just in case. I would never hire a friend (if s/he wasn't a professional) to do something as important as take my wedding photos. What if something happened? Could your friendship survive having no wedding photos?

My parents had a friend do there wedding years many, many years ago. They ended up not getting any pics because the guy bought a new camera for the event and didn't know how to use it something. The only pics they have are ones that others gave them. But I've heard of this sort of thing happening with the pros too.

If you go this route, have them develope with better quality than target. Go to Proex or something. Your pictures are really the only thing you will have from your wedding when your old and gray (besides your rings). Don't skimp on them to much.

For our wedding we had a friend of my husband take the photo's. He did a great job but we figure he would since this was his part-time job. Good Luck!