Photography

I’m not even sure how you could do this, unless you mean with a cell phone/tripod. I own a professional camera with multiple lenses and a tripod and my equipment cost almost as much as it did to hire a photographer. Add in the potential cost of editing software and guaranteeing that you’ll get the photos you want and hiring a professional (even for only a few hours if you can) is 100% worth it.

Personally, I think it's worth it to hire someone to do your wedding photos, and find something else to DIY to save money for your wedding instead. You'll have your wedding photos for forever, and letting a professional handle it takes away a lot of the stress. You wouldn't have to run around trying to capture your own photos all day at your own wedding, and you'd get some candid photos rather than all posed. To help save on cost, you could check with the photography department at a local community college to see if there are any students available to photograph your wedding. This is often a cheaper option than hiring a professional wedding photographer, and still get good quality photos.

View Quoted Comment I’m sorry I should have specified lol 😂 I was actually referring to buying a camera and just letting one of my family members take the photos, my cousin actually took my aunts wedding photos with her own camera and they did look good but I’m just hesitant because I want my big day to be perfect.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the advice! You’re right- hiring a photographer would be stress reliving but I’ve been going through all the photographers on this app and these prices are killing me 🤦🏼‍♀️ but the community college thing is a good idea and I’ll look more into it

Where are you located? I'm in the LA area and my photographer is amazing and fairly priced!

View Quoted Comment I live in Enterprise, Ms

Nothing about this sounds like a good idea. We bit the bullet with our photographer because they are worth it!

Also this…

I think you should def hire a photographer . It is your big day and you want the pictures to be the best and every detail to be captured , especially if you want getting ready photos . Maybe diy other aspects of the wedding.
When we were doing our wants list we had video and photography at the top

I’d definitely do some shopping around. Ask for referrals from people that live in your area. A Photographer was something I personally wouldn’t skip. It can be pricey but it’s something that you will always have and be able to look back on& I think you’d regret not having that. Congratulations! In the end all of the stress will be worth it😊

I highly recommend cutting your budget in other areas in order to afford a professional photographer! Your wedding photos are the only physical thing you will have once your wedding is over. You don’t want to risk leaving this very important part to a friend or family member.

Save money by hiring a professional for just an hour or two for posed pictures and ceremony. The rest of the day doesn't matter as much if they are not professional IMO. That's what we did, so she is only charging us by the hour, so a total of $300

View Quoted Comment

I would have her do a test shoot. Get dress up and have her take some practice photos and then make your choice from there. OR see if there is a college student in photography would want to get some experience under there belt for a few hundred dollars.

But i did that my first wedding and they were great but this time around im doing it different.

If you dont choose a professional i would make a list for the person who is taking them of the photos you want or looking for to take. Including the little details of your make up jewelry etc.

Are there any colleges or universities near you, you could reach out to them and see if they a photography department. A friend of mine got descent pricing on their photography (however they agreed to allow them to use their images for a part of their final project).

This is one area I’m adamant on spending money on a quality professional. Your pictures are going to be the only tangible memory from your wedding (other than your spouse) and you want to look back with happiness, not regret (especially since you said you want it to be perfect). For reference, my sister didn’t want to spend much on a photographer and she ended up disliking her photos so much that I bought her and my BIL a redo session with my photographers for Christmas last year. Cut other areas and hire a quality professional.

I definitely recommend a photographer, but if you really want to go that route I recently discovered wedit which is a service where they give you cameras and the guests take pictures and then the service edits them so they are nicer, lol

https://www.wedit.com/