Is professional photography really necessary?!

For me, having nice pictures was one of my top priorities. As someone who really enjoys photography as a hobby, the value in being able to look back at pictures of our ceremony and our family and friends being together for our reception was priceless.

It's high priority for me. I want to be able to look back at the pictures of me, FH, and my family and be able to show future children and grandchildren.

Professional pictures is actually at the very top of my priority list for my wedding. Obviously, most important to me is getting to marry my fiance, but having nice pictures to look back on is the next most important thing to me. Similar to the previous comment, photography is a hobby for me, so I always appreciate looking at photos. However, I also realize that not everyone has the same priorities. Some people prefer to not spend the money for a photographer, though there are many people (myself included) who find it important.

Professionally photos was a very high priority. Photos are one of the only things you have to look back on from your wedding day so it was extremely important to me to have someone who knew what they were doing and would deliver high quality photos.

Having professional photography was at the very top of my list of priorities. I can't imagine skipping out on this. Even if I had eloped I would still want professional photography with my husband on our big day! There was a discussion here on WW with a link to this exact same article several years ago. Interesting to see how opinions have changed/not changed since:

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/skipping-on-professional-photography/6a6cd97127ce9ab0.html

For me, a great photographer is towards the top of my priority list for our wedding. I want high-quality photos that capture the entire experience of our day (and all those little moments I missed during it). I am a huge fan of photography though, so it may be a higher priority for me than it is for others. In regards to couples in the past only having a few photographs of their weddings.. although that is true, I am sure that if photography was back then what it is now, a lot more couples would have chosen to prioritize it much more! That being said, it sounds as though photography was not a priority for the author, so she chose not to invest in it. Everyone is different, and for some people photography just isn’t a priority. I think the most important thing is to stay true to yourself and your unique vision for your wedding, and not be pressured into feeling as though you “have” to do something or you “should want” to do something that other couples do.

Photography is not the area to skimp on for your wedding. These are images you’ll look at for the rest of your life and are often the only tangible memory of your wedding day. Being the #1 priority for us, we actually went over budget on our photographers because we wanted epic photos, and I’m beyond happy with the images we received. Save in other areas, but spend money on a true professional for photos.

Photography was a top priority for me. It’s the only thing left once the day is over.


My parents ran off the courthouse to get eloped and they have maybe 5 pictures from that day. The one she has of her and my dad they have shadows on their faces. Still to this day 35+ years later my mom still regrets not having better pictures from that day. I did not want to regret not having pictures.

Having a professional photographer was a top priority for us! We'll look at those pictures for years to come, and besides our short wedding video, those will be the only tangible memory of our day.

I learned my lesson when I got a fellow college student to take my graduation photos. I went that route to save money, but have only a handful of photos from it that are actually nice. I really wished I had gotten someone professional for those photos, and after learning that lesson, I told myself I'd never skimp on a photographer!

It wasn't a priority for me and I don't regret it; I'm perfectly happy with the pictures my dad and other guests wanted to take. I do understand why people want photos of their wedding, of course. But I don't relate to the current extreme focus on photography to the detriment of everything else (e.g., relationships, budget for other parts of the wedding, etc.).

There are SO MANY posts here about people being upset with this family member or that guest "ruining photos" because of their outfit or hair color, or whatever. I think this might result from spending so much money (compared to other parts of the wedding) on photography, and then needing to have "perfect" photos to display/share/post.

My top priority! I studied photography, and the first reason I did was to take better pictures of my kid. I love collecting memories, and share it with my family one day when I am old as dirt 😆. For the wedding, especially, because I feel my wedding would be one of my best moments in my whole life, beside investing so much time into it, paying so much money, I want great pictures! I am very very picky choosing a photographer. If I see 1 picture on their portfolio which I don’t think it’s a good job from them, or one bad review, I cross them out from my list, because there is no 2nd change, so I can’t take a risk 🥂

It was/is definitely a top priority to us because we wanted to be able to look back at our wedding. We had a professional photographer for our minimony and we are also having one as well as a videographer for our big wedding.

Pro photography is at the top of the list because after the memories fade, flowers die, food is eaten, photos are all you have to capture the day. That's not something that we would leave to a novice or expect to rely on everyone capturing photos with their phones.


Plus there are a multitude of posts in the search box about pictures getting ruined by novices and pros who are not reputable. It's too big to leave to chance.

I think there was a bride in WW who wrote that she hired non professional and the photographer didn’t get any pictures of them because the memory card was missing. That’s a nightmare!

Professional photography is an absolute must for me. Thanks to Covid, we just lost our venue and have to find a new one -- and widdle our list from 150 to 30. REGARDLESS, we're still having photos of the day. I want to be able to look back on them and see our loved ones - us frozen in time!! These memories are so special!

I'm also keeping our videographer for the 30-person event. I want everything captured!!

Like others have said, photography is one of the most important aspects of our wedding. It's the first vendor we booked.

I'm possibly the odd one out here. When I started planning, I had put photography as my top priority. But as time went on, I felt so much stress and pressure to have a perfect white wedding, that I came to realise that wasn't even what I wanted. I was trying to make us conform to expectation and tradition, which is the total opposite of who we are as people. That's not to say that I threw away my preconceptions straight away and never looked back. I had a few months of feeling torn between the dream wedding and a real wedding, but I've feel so much happier and calmer since I was true to us both. As a result of that, our budget has dropped off dramatically and so have my wedding day priorities. So ultimately, I have removed the idea of a professional photographer for our wedding and am content for our guests to take them for us. I should add that I am an amateur photographer myself, so I will be making sure that we have at least one or two good photos to frame and treasure. And in all honesty, I don't know when we would look back at hundreds of photos of ourselves and 10 guests anyway. 🤷‍♀️

View Quoted Comment Okay thank you for your comment

View Quoted Comment Okay thanks for sharing. I'm sure pics from the 50s and 60s of people our age's grandparents are just as precious.

View Quoted Comment Hi Lisa, thanks for sharing your insight.