Wedding Photography Costs & Camera shy partner!

Photography is definitely expensive, but remember that you are not only paying for their time day of but also the hours of work they do editing the photos after the event. If you find someone you like, see if they can work within your price point by shaving off an hour or something. Our photographer was a little outside our budget and when I told him we loved his work and him (we felt so comfortable in our meeting with him) but he was just too expensive, he said he was open to working something out within our budget (which was a few hundred dollars shy of his initial quote). There's no guarantee they'll be able to do anything, but it's worth a shot to ask.

As Hannah says, you can always negotiate!

That said, a good photographer should make someone feel comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera. My dad is notoriously stiff in front of the camera, while I'm an actor and can completely ignore it. We have some GREAT pictures of my dad, because the photographer picked up on that super fast, let dad just be... and sometimes gently prodded dad to do something. Basically, the photographer effaced himself if he wanted a pic of my dad, and then dad forgot about the camera.

My best advice for feeling stiff and uncomfortable in pictures is to remember to breathe.

I definitely went beyond my original budget when I found my photographer. She made us both feel comfortable and her work was beautiful. She was patient and could handle both of us being clueless on how to make ourselves look our best.


If you can find other areas to save money I would. After the day is over the pictures will be all you have left!

If you want a good photographer it does cost a lot. A good one is worth it if you want awesome pictures.
We aren’t having one because we both really don’t like photos so we are saving money, but we are kind of weird LOL
I know photoshop makes it all look so easy but it’s not. And a good photographer knows lighting, poses...so much goes into it.

I hate taking photos, as does my husband. So I went pretty simple, I knew we’d want SOME pics and I knew some family pics would be important to our families , and I also knew neither of us would have the patience for a photographer in our faces all day. So, I found someone who was willing to negotiate on partial day photography. We did getting ready, ceremony, and some portraits and then our photographer left before the bulk of the reception. Aside from portraits during cocktail hour, our photogs were just a fly on the wall. So we have some really nice candid photos of moments pre wedding and ceremony, some of our guests milling around and our set up, and just a couple of those awful draining forced set ups haha. So we whipped through those and got to our party ! We were both happy not to have it dominate our day and we have plenty of great pics ....
But, it was a challenge getting someone to entertain the idea of a partial day because theyre also sacrificing a day when they could get a full paycheck for a partial one. Mine was experienced at weddings, but weddings weren’t her day job ..,,but it’s worth asking around for what you are trying to get !!

My FH doesn't like his photo taken either, but when we picked our photographer, we picked someone we clicked with. Our photographer is our DJ's wife and we felt like we were meeting old friends when we had our consultation with them. So that REALLY helped my FH a lot when it came time for engagement photos.

As far as the cost, it does cost a bit more to get a good, experienced photographer. I've had multiple friends who have cheaped out on their photographers thinking it didn't really matter that much to them and they were not happy with the photos they got back. So I personally think it's worth it to spend the money on the photographer because the photos are something you'll have forever. I believe our photographer was $3,200 for 10 hours, 2 photographers and the engagement shoot.