Photographer-same for engagement and ceremony?

[mayachel]

Fiance and I live a good 4 hours away from where we will be getting married. Neither of us have ever lived in the area where we will be getting married. This being said, I''m questioning how we should handle our engagement photos. Do we do them with a photographer upstate anyway? Do we bring that photographer down state? Do we just use a different photographer in each location? Is there a downside to that?

 

[emeraldlover1]

There are no rules but there are a lot of other factors like budget and photography style to name a couple. Some people use different photographers and on the other hand we hired an NYC photographer for everything and she is traveling upstate to shoot our wedding.

 

[meresal]

The biggest downside I would say, is that you won''t get the chance to develope a relationship with the photographer for your wedding. If you have the funds to pay for travel, I would use the same photographer for at least two of your shoots. (ie, Engagement/Wedding or Bridals/Wedding)

 

[mayachel]

Thanks EM1. I knew I could count on hearing what you are up to in your own wedding plans. It IS really nice to have another metro-bride around. Can I ask you how the whole travel aspect is working with your photographer? Do you pay for lodging as well as travel expenses? Is it a flat rate, etc...?

 

[mayachel]

meresel-The relationship is a little bit of concern for me. Mostly from a df being comfortable in front of the camera perspective. From reading other women''s posts it seems as though the engagement shoot was a chance to practice "acting natural".

 

[wannaBMrsH]

I think Mere has a very valid point about building your relationship with the photographer. It is important that you see your photographer in action prior to the actual wedding. You don''t want to have great engagement pictures with one who shoots very artistically only to find that your wedding day photographer will only shoot very posed photos (receiving line, etc). And Vice-Versa, you don''t want to have a straightforward bridal shoot only to find that your wedding photographer has a much more photojournalistic style.

The initial session is your chance to mention things that you won''t have time (or mind!) to on your wedding day. Such as "I prefer to have more (or less)direction"; "I don''t like to have the camera that close to me"; "I dislike this scar (birthmark, extra love roll, etc.) and would appreciate it if you could focus away from it"; "If you see any wardrobe malfunctions, PLEASE let me know ASAP!"

We had a photographer that was going to do all sessions (Engagement, Family, Bridal, Wedding and TTD) only to discover after the first two shoots that she is being deployed next month! We had to scramble for another photographer and we don''t have a budget to reshoot with him....but I am keeping my fingers crossed and we referred another friend to him who booked him for both the engagement and wedding photos so hopefully we can see losts more work before our own wedding.

Good Luck!

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 5/10/2009 9:25:47 PM
Author: mayachel
Thanks EM1. I knew I could count on hearing what you are up to in your own wedding plans. It IS really nice to have another metro-bride around. Can I ask you how the whole travel aspect is working with your photographer? Do you pay for lodging as well as travel expenses? Is it a flat rate, etc...?

Generally, if you hire a photographer and want to bring him/her along to a wedding out of state (or even out of town, depending on how far it is), you pay for their lodging and airfare. Some of them will have you pay only one or the other, or only have you pay for lodging and airfare with a very reduced rate for the photos. If you have a photographer in mind that is local to you, just ask their rates and how they prefer to handle such a situation. If it ends up being more than you can afford, look into photographers in your ceremony location that have a similar style. Your local photographer might even recommend someone to you!

 

[Elmorton]

I got married about an hour away from where I lived, and we asked our photographer to travel so that our e-photos could be in the same place where DH proposed. She did, and did not charge us mileage, though it said in her contract that she would (we were okay with that). If I remember correctly, that hour's worth of travel (and hour in return) would have cost $60.

Could you do something like meet in a park in the middle? I thought getting to see our photographer's style was pretty invaluable. Since our photographer was a photojournalist, seeing our e-pics really helped me not have different expectations for our wedding photos (since she did not toy with things like color balance, lighting effects, photoshopping, or do many posed photos, our photos did look pretty different than what I thought of as "wedding photography"). Just getting a feel for your photographer's directives and work (with you) can help define your expectations.

 

[katamari]

So, we just drove 2.5 hours to meet our photographer for engagement pictures this weekend (5 hours total) and I think it was totally a good idea. It was on his suggestion that we also use him for the engagement pictures (we were just going to skip them), because he likes the opportunity to get to know the couples. He says it makes him better able to capture the "you" moments versus just the stale traditional ones. Having just done this, I can totally see his point. Plus, he gave us a lot of good pointers that may have been specific to his style/equipment. And, we got to learn his personality, too, which I appreciated.

 

[Rhea]

I used the same photographer for engagement photos and one of our weddings. DH was very shy with the photographer from one of our two weddings (I wasn''t, I went to school with her). It was such a difference for the photographer we used for both engagement and wedding. DH was a lot more open and even though he remarked that engagement photos were a waste before hand, after the wedding he said that it was worth it, and he felt more comfortable. You can tell the difference between our two sets of wedding photos, DH is much more natural and didn''t hide behind his hair for the photographer he had time to get used to.

 

[emeraldlover1]

Date: 5/10/2009 9:25:47 PM
Author: mayachel
Thanks EM1. I knew I could count on hearing what you are up to in your own wedding plans. It IS really nice to have another metro-bride around. Can I ask you how the whole travel aspect is working with your photographer? Do you pay for lodging as well as travel expenses? Is it a flat rate, etc...?

Oh gosh, sorry I''m late, I just saw this. I am paying for my photog''s hotel for one night, that''s it. She is providing her own travel. I really think it depends on how far away it is going to be for the person.

Did you decide on a venue? I forgot. Where is it?

Anway, I absolutley LOVE my photographer so I couldn''t imagine doing pics with anyone else. I really found the engagement session was a great way to get comfortable with her. And...my fiance and I are not the most comfortable in front of the camera.

 

[musey]

As others have alluded to, the main upside to doing an engagement session with your planned wedding photographer is that it can function as something of a ''trial run'' and/or relationship-building opportunity. It''s one photoshoot, so really, you''re not going to be forging lifelong friendships here... but it gives the photographer a chance before the day to get to know a bit about your personalities and what you''re like to work with, so that they can (if they''re good) alter their own working style to bring out the best in you.

That said, if you''re generally used to being photographed and/or simply comfortable in front of a camera, it''s really not all that important in the relationship-building area, and the only perk becomes testing out the photog. If you''re confident in their abilities, then you don''t have to worry about that at all.