Considering less experienced photographers....

As long as your expectation isn't the same as if you were hiring a seasoned pro, go for it, but you'll need to understand that you'll have to be patient because he or she won't know protocol as weddings the same way. And with that they'll be at a disadvantage with getting certain shots.i would at least as t to know they are competent with exposures and composing images, and that they can work in the lighting conditions your wedding is in. And that they are willing to go with the flow and be adaptable. I don't think many would be happy going that route, nor do I advise it, but if you have to, you have to. Good luck!

My MOH's little sister got married last May and the hired a friend to take pictures, she took 5 months to get the pictures back to the brides family. She did a very good job, I would have freaked if i were in their position.

Everyone is very different but i would suggest hiring a professional.

I think this is fine as long as you understand what you will be getting for quality. Everyone starts somewhere! I personally didn't have the best luck but I should have done more looking around as well. Luckily we only did e-pics with her. I would highly recommend doing your e-pics with whomever you would like to do your wedding. It will give you a very good idea of what to expect, without spending too much money on the photos.

While I don't have an answer to your exact question, here's something to consider while searching for an affordable photog that took me a while to realize. If you find a pro that you like, but they are just out of budget on their packages, consider requesting a custom package or "a la carte" contract from them. One of the best ways I found to cut the initial cost is cutting out any print credits, print packages, albums, etc. As long as your photog is giving you the rights to the edited images in the contract and you'll have access to the pics forever, there's no reason to pay upfront for prints. Will you want them? Of course you will...but why not wait until a few months after the wedding to order them when you've recouped a little financially? It'll take the photog a while to get the edits back to you anyway, so you'll be waiting either way. Not only that, if you have rights to the images, you might be able to have them printed somewhere for less than what the photog would have charged anyway.

I hope that helps some...I'd definitely try to fit a pro with experience somewhere in your budget, even if you have to make cuts elsewhere. Like Jay Farrell mentioned, a less seasoned wedding photog is going to have a higher chance of missing those really important, once in a lifetime shots. Good luck with your choice...you may stumble onto a good one and get lucky though!

Can you squeeze an engagement shoot into your budget? If so, maybe that would be a good trial run. If you don't like the pictures, you'll still have time to find another photographer.

Also, I ended up saving $1000+ by choosing two "associate" photographers instead of the owners. The quality of their portfolios is still great, but they are significantly less costly than the owners. I didn't know that was an option until I asked about pricing options.

My suggestion if you go with a less experienced photographer is have a very detailed checklist of all the pictures you want. They won't have the experience or creative ideas someone with more experience would have. Also ask a family member or friend to watch family poses to make sure you can see everyone and that the positioning looks good. I loved our photographer but some of the family pictures weren't positioned very well because of her lack of experience she didn't think to look for that.

A non pro is going to take four times as long to get your family group pix. They will not have any out of the box ideas for your casual shots. They will not know about lighting, composition or overall timing. They'll get the canned shots; the dress in the window, the ring on the shoes, but they won't be able to capture the essence of your wedding, of your personality.

Get a pro; you won't regret it.

Nothing wrong with getting somebody that is just starting, but make sure you get somebody that knows what they are doing. It's different to be able to get some good snaps at events vs being able to get the right snaps with low light and movement.

I think it's all up to you...but for me personally photos are really important as they are to most people. Hiring someone who is not a professional to me doesn't mean you'll get bad pictures. To me, you need to be cautious and make sure your choosing someone with talent and maybe just trying to get their name out there, hopefully someone who has shot a few weddings. Good luck.

You could always get two less experienced photographers. I would not suggest just one.

One of the main worries with this route is missing "key moments". With two photographers you should probably get these covered.

However, I think good photographers who are wanting to get into weddings need some "test weddings". Having two of these could turn out really really nicely if they are good photographers for other things.

Like @Jay said, be sure to match your expectations to the fact that you are not hiring a seasoned professional. Yes, everyone starts somewhere, however practicing on your wedding may not be what you had in mind.

Questions to ask - ask to see a full wedding, not just their favorite shots, ask how long it takes to edit your pictures (this it so you have a realistic expectation and aren't shocked when there are no pictures up in four weeks), what their emergency clause is if they don't show, what their backup policy is (when and where do your pictures go once they are taken and on the memory card), above all else, get a contract!!!!

I wouldn't do it-- photographs are one of the things you will actually have after the day-- unlike the food, cake, invites, music... and a thousand other things to spend your money on. We got a ton of pictures but they are all 'meh'. Our photog was pretty cheap, and now I wish we'd spent more money in that area.

I honestly wouldn't go with someone that didn't have experience. Your pictures are something you will want to have to look back on your big day. We've hired a photographer that has been working for someone else's company for 6 years but has decided to branch out on her own. Because she is just starting out on her own her prices are amazing. We didn't sign a contract until we saw her full books of pictures ( current and past) and discussed our visions and expectations.

Think about what you want your wedding photography to be and if you can cut back on any other aspect of your wedding to pay for a more experienced photographer.

I went with a non professional who is building her portfolio. I wanted pictures of my wedding, of all the hard work I'd done, of my BP, my guests and of course David and me. But I didn't feel I needed the professional magazine spread that is becoming all to common now....and expensive. I think those pictures are gorgeous but I felt not at the cost of other things. My money went towards my guests. And I didn't want to put my guests through some long waiting period while I was out trying to get my "essence" caught. We got the type of pictures I wanted and a couple of non traditional in for good measure, but I kept it short and sweet and I had her capture a lot of pictures during the reception with all the people that counted.

I'd be weary of a photographer with little experience. We went with a mid price range photographer recommended by a cousin. We were his 89th wedding. He did an AMAZING job! We could have found cheaper but I feel like the $ we spent was a solid investment.

Like others have said, pictures are one of very few things that you'll have at the end of the day. How would you feel if your amateur photographer buggered up the moments like the first kiss? First dance? Try to make cuts in other areas to ensure you have a qualified photographer to capture your day!

We hired a photographer off of Craigslist. He had been employed by a big agency for years, but was just going out on his own, and wanted to build his portfolio. We checked out his website, and an album he had done for another couple. We negotiated for just 3 hours of coverage (some getting ready, the ceremony, and formals), and a disk with rights to reproduce. We also interviewed him to make sure he was someone we'd be comfortable with.

Yes, there were a few we'd like to have gotten and didn't. (He got the kiss, etc., but missed some of our guests who gave blessings.) But we paid only $400, and got great photos. And the guy is now charging several thousand for weddings.

I get a little impatient with the "photos are all you'll have left of your wedding" argument. After our wedding, we had the memories. We had our rings. We had our ketubah (formal Jewish marriage contract), professionally designed by a talented artist. And most of all, we had the marriage itself.

In fact, for my first wedding, the professional photographer disappeared after sending us proofs of the photos, so we ended up with no professional photos at all. The amateur ones were enough to help preserve the memories. The marriage lasted nearly 20 years, and produced two wonderful children. I'm hardly going to consider the wedding wasted because it didn't result in an album of photos somewhere.

You have to decide what your priorities are. For some people, photos are critical. Others will hardly bother to look at them after the wedding. Spend your money on what is actually important to you, not on what someone else says should be important.

Another option you can look into (this is what I had to do) is find a photographer that charges by the hour instead of full day packages. I am fine with just having a photographer for the main things but for the rest of the stuff, I didn't want to spend that much money. My photographer charges by the hour so I am able to just get what I need and still have the professional quality. She also gave me a discount for opting out of E-pix and for wanting less fully edited pictures. I will still get tons of pictures and I know how to edit them myself if they actually need it (most professional quality camera's don't need a lot)

We picked a photographer who's only been in business for a few years. She's done weddings before so she had a portfolio to look at, and we liked the weddings she had done. When we met with her we talked about what feel we were looking for, what we liked and didn't like in her portfolio, and what kind of shots we definitely wanted. She talked about timelines, what options we would have for shots around sunset, and showed us a wedding she shot so we could see start to finish. Ultimately we felt very comfortable with her, and so far don't regret the decision. She did an engagement shoot for us and the pictures are great!

I would like to say don't hire someone less experienced...however DH and I do photography on the side and have only done a few weddings but I'd like to think we're not too bad despite our less experience. However there are things that set us apart as still being good. First off, DH has all the gear, he has pro level cameras and lenses that are worth like 4 times his car (he just got a new camera body today...I think that makes a total of 6 camera bodies right now not including his film camera or infrared cameras). The lenses are top of the line, even our wedding photographer borrowed a lens for our engagement shoot. DH reads about the latest gear and techniques all the time, and he is seriously 100% committed to delivering a great product. We spent several hours watching a video that cost a couple hundred dollars all about wedding photography covering lighting, pace of the wedding, how to do family portraits, etc. We had extremely high expectations for our photographer so we expect the same from ourselves. The only thing is we don't have a lot of wedding experience (we have a lot of other photography experience, and DH has taught me a lot so I'm the second shooter) so we charge less.

So if the type of person you find has a similar passion to what I just described, and already has some pretty great photos and understands lighting and has good equipment and everything, then I'd say you're safe. However, I feel like those types of photographers may be hard to find. Often it's some person who bought a DSLR camera and took some pictures of their kids that they liked and figured maybe they'd do photography for fun. Stay away from people who just say they really like taking pictures and that it's fun, etc. Make sure they know the technicality required, the camera gear required, and the way a wedding is run.

ETA: Also make sure that they have backups set in place. DH has tons of backup hard drives for all his photos, he even has backups at work so that if there was a flood or fire in our apartment his files would still be safe at work. Also, make sure they have backup gear. During our wedding our photographer's camera shutter went out. First time it had ever happened to him at a wedding (and he does like 40 weddings a year). He had a backup camera (with slightly lower resolution) but then also called a colleague who brought a replacement within like 30 minutes and DH and I didn't even notice until he told us after. These are things experienced pros should have set in place because you don't want to lose your pictures.