Picture Perfect

Our bride-to-be searches for the perfect wedding photographer.

By Sara Cardace

Somewhere along the way I got the idea in my head that wedding photography was so obscenely expensive that there was no way I could go the traditional route. I suspect this was because I was looking at the super high-end ones that advertise with (and generally get covered in) the wedding guide that New York Magazine puts out. I researched a bunch, and at first it seemed like I couldn't get a full day's worth of shots plus rights to the images for less than $4,000. (As if! That's like five month's rent!) Thank god it sounds like that may not be the case...

I checked in with some of my friends who've gotten married recently, several of whom have sent out awesome online albums full of really cool, spontaneous, instant-classic types of shots. (I'm a big fan of documentary-style wedding photos, and so it seems are most of my friends.) One of my favorite photos was a black-and-white one of my friend ( the bride that day) Kris, who was perched messily on a stool in her lovely white gown with all my closest friends crowded around her captured in various stages of drunken merriment. The photographer had set up the background and lights in some magical way so that the final photo looked kind of like an updated photo-booth shot. Everyone loved it. The best part? Turns out that Kris' photographer (see more here) charges much less than the aforementioned small fortune and her fixed rate -- I'd include it here but I'm not sure she'd want me to; it's very good though, trust! -- includes full pre-wedding through reception coverage, full rights to all the images, of which there will be approximately 2,000, and retouching after the fact. It almost sounded too good to be true, but I emailed Aubrey directly and it turned out we were all indeed on the same page. Amazing!

Meanwhile, a few other people with whom I'd checked in as well were sending me their recommendations as well. My friend Mike (an in-demand photographer in his own right who's decided to stop doing weddings as of late) pointed me in the direction of a few budding photographers whose skill he could vouch for, but who would probably charge a bit less than the norm because they were just starting out. (Note to self--email them both tomorrow!) My very helpful sister also did some research and sent me some links. Once I've gotten in touch with all the potential hires I'll make the final decision. Hopefully that will happen by the next time I post to this blog...

Picking and choosing a photographer has actually been kind of stupidly stressful. I don't need any fancy albums or super-formal portraits or anything like that -- if you've been reading this blog for awhile you know that I was even considering not hiring a photographer at all. But then several people reminded me how much time and effort (and, uh, money) were going into the whole thing, and how stupid it would be not to get at least parts of it documented for posterity. And I have to confess that ending up with just a bunch of random, blurry throwaway-camera shots of the reception would have made me a little sad. What's most important to me is that we get a few great, fun photos of the reception, at least one reasonable group shot of my entire family (there's two parents, five sisters, five husbands, two nieces and two nephews in all, and we are NEVER all in the same place at the same time...), and some nice, intimate images from the ceremony. Nothing too involved. Shouldn't be too hard, right? We'll see.

Once that's settled it's back to the hunt for an officiant to oversee the ceremony on the big day. All my leads are failing to yield anything useful and I think it's probably time that I put some serious time into the search. If anyone has some spare time lying around, I'd be very grateful if they'd be willing to share!