[tomtom]

Word up.
Me and MrsTT are tying the knot in September - in East Yorkshire... Its shaping up to be quite a big (also read as expensive..) shindig and I have been tasked with finding a suitable photographer (not too intrusive, lots of candid shots & arty shit welcome) and a band (funk/soul/covers style of thing).. Any advice, suggestions, people who want to do it? It's not bargain basement, but some of the charges I've seen make me weep...
Cheers, TT

[andyd]

Ask to see lots of pics that they've done before. The mother in law was in charge (read took it upon herself) to organise ours as she was recommended. I'd put our photographer in for c*nt of the year 2007 if I could go back in time. She's thankfully retired so you won't have the misfortune of booking her.
I guess my point is- choose wisely as it's important. You don't want to be bitter and twisted over a book like me 

[andy popp]

Word up.
Me and MrsTT are tying the knot in September - in East Yorkshire... Its shaping up to be quite a big (also read as expensive..) shindig and I have been tasked with finding a suitable photographer (not too intrusive, lots of candid shots & arty shit welcome) and a band (funk/soul/covers style of thing).. Any advice, suggestions, people who want to do it? It's not bargain basement, but some of the charges I've seen make me weep...
Cheers, TT

Enjoy!!!!

[tomtom]

Ask to see lots of pics that they've done before. The mother in law was in charge (read took it upon herself) to organise ours as she was recommended. I'd put our photographer in for c*nt of the year 2007 if I could go back in time. She's thankfully retired so you won't have the misfortune of booking her.
I guess my point is- choose wisely as it's important. You don't want to be bitter and twisted over a book like me 

Cheers good advice.. I don't want them to be intrusive.. Went to one where the photographer thought it was his fecking show! And he had an assistant holding his off camera flash.. Was like a tool with a following umbrella..

Huge range in cost.. £700 to £2k at the moment. Eeeek!

[tomtom]

Word up.
Me and MrsTT are tying the knot in September - in East Yorkshire... Its shaping up to be quite a big (also read as expensive..) shindig and I have been tasked with finding a suitable photographer (not too intrusive, lots of candid shots & arty shit welcome) and a band (funk/soul/covers style of thing).. Any advice, suggestions, people who want to do it? It's not bargain basement, but some of the charges I've seen make me weep...
Cheers, TT

Enjoy!!!!

Thanks it's easy to forget its supposed to be fun with all the organisation shizzle #grumpyoldman

[erm, sam]

Just don't bother. Get a mate who likes taking photos  to take a few 'formal' pics of you and the missus, mums and dads after the ordeal service/book signing and get on with the rest of the day. 

[dave]

One of my climbing mates from uni does weddings, based in York, I'll hit you up with details.

[tomtom]

One of my climbing mates from uni does weddings, based in York, I'll hit you up with details.

Nice one Dave.

[Paul B]

Just don't bother. Get a mate who likes taking photos  to take a few 'formal' pics of you and the missus, mums and dads after the ordeal service/book signing and get on with the rest of the day.

This is a terrible idea unless you really don't give a cr*p about the outcome. Wedding photographers seem to get a lot of shit and lack of respect elsewhere on the web which seems unjust as its a pretty high pressure and often difficult conditions to shoot. After all, I doubt you'd ask a mate to cook to cut costs?

If I wasn't running of to Vegas to avoid this whole ordeal (if you think of it as a trip/wedding/honeymoon in one then the cost looks rather favourable) then I'd have been looking at using Alex Messenger (that or press-ganging Cofe/Johnny). I was impressed by his wedding shots of Sam and Lu's wedding and the rates seemed favourable. He was keen to pass on a decent number (not the whole lot) of processed images with which you could print yourself (I mean at somewhere professional). As I said, Sam and Lu's book looked great to me.

There appear to be numerous business models for wedding photographers but one thing I've noticed is that prints (album generally), are where a lot of money is made. I'd also avoid anyone who promises you all of the images from the day, that screams punter.

[Wood FT]

No advice but congrats Tom!

[Percy B]

Stressful, isn't it! Dom Worral is your man for wedding photographs - his user name on here is Gingerninja, or google dom worral photography. He did my wedding and was awesome. Even gave me and the missus a lift up to Curbar on the way back from our reception for a spot of bouldering. Can't recommend him highly enough.

[Johnny Brown]

I'd recommend Cofe (if he wants to do it).

[nai]

Woo, Happy news, congratulations Tom

The worst thing about my wedding was the photography.  We hired a two-man team, one was supposed to be doing candid shots & the other the traditional groupings.  But what happened was they worked side-by-side with the result that we had loads, and I really mean loads, of group shots but none with everybody looking at the same camera (they blamed our guests standing with them taking their own shots, the cunts).

Then there was all the lovey-dovey nonsense poses afterwards, I don't look back with any fondness on those images of us standing in ridiculous poses outside a party containing all of our family and friends, so I'd just get one and move on, your guests will have come from afar and you won't get chance to catch up with them all if you spend two hours trying to summon a natural smile on steps, in trees, by a statue, in a doorway, etc.

Afterwards they came to our place with the shots on a laptop and spent four hours trying to get us to decide which ones we wanted, this was after a day at work and there were two sets of shots to look at as they hadn't bothered to order them chronologically.  It was after 11 by the time we finished and we naturally got fed up, wanted it done with and made bad choices which resulted in a crap album we then had to pay to change.

So, if cofe's not your man, meet as many as time and patience allows, see their work, make sure they'll do what you want on the day and enquire how you'll all decide what goes in the album afterwards.

Good luck with it all, loads of tricky, niggley decisions ahead. None of them mean much alone but sum of the whole and all that

[dave]

Another warning - a mate of mine got married a few years back, I don't know where they got the guy but he was shit on a technical standpoint - all the photos had the bride's dress totally blown out, no detail at all. The guy's LCD would have been flashing like Saville. I thought the photos looked shit as a result but bit my tongue at the time. Luckily their marriage failed a few years later so they didn't have those photos hanging over their heads.

[andy popp]

There's always a silver-lining.

[fatdoc]

Stressful, isn't it! Dom Worral is your man for wedding photographs - his user name on here is Gingerninja, or google dom worral photography. He did my wedding and was awesome. Even gave me and the missus a lift up to Curbar on the way back from our reception for a spot of bouldering. Can't recommend him highly enough.

Dom will sort u out... If he is not here he uses his real name on FB

[SA Chris]

Congratulations Tom. I expect bridezilla will appear around June. I've done pics at 6 family or friends weddings, it's not rocket science to get good results.Hardest is when people don't really know what they want; if there are group shots you want make a list beforehand, don't stand around umming and aahing, and make sure there is a loudmouth or two amongst the ushers who has the list and isn't scared to order people around so all the photographer has to do is get the shots.

[erm, sam]

s a terrible idea unless you really don't give a cr*p about the outcome

It isn't that crap really. What sort of pictures are actually important to the bride and groom, I mean really? Of course one wants some nice shots but this can be done with out a team of wedding photographers. I didn't a proper photog at my wedding and we have loads of amazing photos and you know which ones are the least interesting? The ones on the green outside the registry office. It is the ones of the party and good times which remind me of the friends who came and the fun we had. I do wish we had taken a big photo of all the guests in one place, but I can live with it to have not had the grief outlined in several posts above..

[tomtom]

Thanks for the suggestions, Dom's website has been forwarded to the committee...
Some good advice there as well - thanks. I think I asked Cofe a little while back - and he gently declined - no worries

[tomtom]

This site is the fave with mrsTT at the moment...

http://www.inspirephotos.co.uk/weddings/

Edit, just had a gander at these and they're not great.. Too much photoshop over colour weirdness...

[Paul B]

It isn't that crap really. What sort of pictures are actually important to the bride and groom, I mean really? Of course one wants some nice shots but this can be done with out a team of wedding photographers. I didn't a proper photog at my wedding and we have loads of amazing photos and you know which ones are the least interesting? The ones on the green outside the registry office.  above..

I don't see why you're linking hiring a pro to strictly formal/posed photos?That's far from what I've said. Obviously you're happy with what you ended up with (and that's great for you). However, I've read a tonne of horror stories down the same line (and seen some truly awful results). Anyway as always its just my 2p and I don't want to detract any more from the OP.

[Sidehaas]

Cant recommend anyone iin your area but would strongly recommend against a deal that includes an album if you want to cut costs.  We got married (like you, big do) last June, our photographer cost 550, for that he and an assistant took photos from the morning until we got to the reception venue, and we selected our 60 favorites aft we returned from honeymoon, which he then edited and gave us digitally.  There is a company online called blurb with whom you can then design and order your own album - takes a bit of effort but gives you more control, the results are fantastic and itll probably save you a couple of hundred quid vs paying a photographer to do it.

[Sidehaas]

Ps photography is nothing...the thing that really got me was when I had to spend £300 or somethi.g stupid on effing seat covers!!   
Have fun

[SA Chris]

You mean "excludes" an album?

Other thing worthwhile doing is setting up a Flickr (or similar) account beforehand and distributing the account and log in details so there is a central place where everyone can put their photos so you can see them.

[Falling Down]

Congrats TC 

[rich d]

We were thinking about not going down the pro route, but decided to in the end. They were not intrusive and we deliberately didn't go for too many posed photos - but had a list of the ones we wanted. We got some great photos and an amazing album that was definately worth the money. They photographed the wedding but not the reception. We put disposable cameras on the tables (obviously they matched the colour scheme) and got loads of stupid/rude and funny photos that pretty much summed up our reception.
My best man rounded up everyone for the required photos which went smoothly and more importantly quickly. It helped that there were only 50 of us there and that we were all drinking champagne out of small bottles with a straw.
The posey ones of me and Lyns were taken as the guests went to the reception venue on the coach and this meant that they were in the bar/garden as we turned up and again weren't left waiting.

[webbo]

Tom
There is a guy who climbs at Rockcity who is a wedding photographer, I think he climbs with the East Yorks mountaineering lot. Offer to teach him how to climb for a discount.

[tj]

I can recommend Victor @ victor@pavonphotography.co.uk. He did the photos for a mate's wedding and then again for ours. He was £500 18 months ago, so very good value, but his shots much better than the price suggests, honest. He got some good informal shots (which was one of the reasons we used him) and was pretty relaxed. Some wedding photographers seem to forget who's day it is, from what I've seen. I agree with previous comments about the technical ineptitude of some wedding photographers too.

Music-wise, can also recommend the (appalingly-named!) Good Vibes Collective. http://goodvibescollective.com/ (the websites a bit cheesy too!). Again, I wouldn't let that put you off, they did our wedding and another mates- good band and nice folk to deal with. Not mega-cheap, but the music was quite important to me. You can go nuts and have about 9 of 'em IIRC  They were also happy to play a set-list of our choice, too.

Have a good one!

[gingerninja]

thanks percy b and fatdoc for the props. www.dr-photography.co.uk is my site.
let me know what you are after and i can sort you out a really good price for some quality photography.
can even get you climbing like percy and lu's pics hehe.

[tomtom]

thanks percy b and fatdoc for the props. www.dr-photography.co.uk is my site.
let me know what you are after and i can sort you out a really good price for some quality photography.
can even get you climbing like percy and lu's pics hehe.

Sorry - we've got the Photographer sorted out now... A fella who was on the same wing as Daves mate in prison.... Thanks for getting in touch though.

Just got to sack the caterer today...

[andy_e]

I bet your wife-to-be is glad you're not going to be getting married underneath the Keel any more.

[SA Chris]

Have to find something else to do on the morning before the wedding now.

[slackline]

Nothing wrong with go climbing on your wedding day....


I'll toast to that by slack---line, on Flickr

[tomtom]

I bet your wife-to-be is glad you're not going to be getting married underneath the Keel any more.

They've never met (the Cliff is the other lady in my life... )

Have to find something else to do on the morning before the wedding now.

Drive round the kebab van?

Nothing wrong with go climbing on your wedding day....

If there was anywhere within range I might! The best bit of being the groom is that you just have to turn up 1/2 hour before and say yes a couple of times... I had to ban wedding talk yesterday... it was getting unbearable and monosyballic grunts were'nt getting the message across..

[Paul B]

Sorry - we've got the Photographer sorted out now... A fella who was on the same wing as Daves mate in prison.... Thanks for getting in touch though.

Just got to sack the caterer today...

We keep sitting down with a bottle of red to try and pick a Vegas wedding chapel. It usually just ends in hysterics and more and more outrageous styles of wedding.

[SA Chris]

That's the way to do it. Wish we had done the same when we were there, just got hammered and staggered into the nearest one. Missed the window now though.

[Yossarian]

Many congrats!

Re photography - we did it all ourselves, with a little bit of help from a couple of photo-savvy guests.  We ended up with exactly what we wanted, everyone was happy, etc, etc.

It wasn't really a cost-saving exercise. More a case of not wanting someone else's style screwing it all up.

(The fact that I've only recently finished finalising the reception ones is neither here not there...)

[SA Chris]

Yossarian, Yossarian. Yes I do vaguely remember that name.

[galpinos]

Congratulations TomTom.

Whatever anyone says and despite a bit of hassle getting it all sorted, it's a brilliant day and totally worth it.

[tomtom]

Congratulations TomTom.

Whatever anyone says and despite a bit of hassle getting it all sorted, it's a brilliant day and totally worth it.

Spent the afternoon email arguing with our now fired caterer about how much we dont owe them.. slippery f*ckers.. At this rate it might not be that much cheaper with caterersII - but there will be twice the Booze and whatever we want

[T_B]

If I wasn't running of to Vegas to avoid this whole ordeal (if you think of it as a trip/wedding/honeymoon in one then the cost looks rather favourable) then I'd have been looking at using Alex Messenger (that or press-ganging Cofe/Johnny). I was impressed by his wedding shots of Sam and Lu's wedding and the rates seemed favourable. He was keen to pass on a decent number (not the whole lot) of processed images with which you could print yourself (I mean at somewhere professional). As I said, Sam and Lu's book looked great to me.

We used Alex. Safe to say, we have some incredible photos. Plenty of people who don't know him as a climbing photographer were blown away.