I hear this a lot

I'm writing this from Baltimore where I just finished my last wedding of the season (which was FAB. stay tuned for pics). While getting breakfast this morning I ran into one of the guests from yesterday's wedding. She was super nice and came over to tell me how much she enjoyed seeing the pictures I had done. (I did a slide show at the reception with some of the images from the day.) She told me she was a newlywed and just got married in September. Then she confided in me and told me how disappointed she was in her own images. She told me how the photographer hadn't posed anyone for the formals at the church, she told me how timid she was in getting fun, action shots at the reception, and she told me how she didn't capture the creative portraits of the wedding party or the couple. She told me how she wished she would have had someone like me photographing her wedding.

I hear this a lot and it always breaks my heart. Your wedding is a one-time-can't-go-back-and-redo-it-if-you-screw-something-up kind of thing. You never get that day back. After chatting with her a little more she finally confessed that she had been speaking to another more expensive photographer but chose to not use him because they didn't want to spend the extra money. She regretted this decision and said, in retrospect, she would have gladly spent the money to get the kind of photos (and peace of mind) that she was hoping for.

I'm not advocating that everyone needs to go broke hiring their photographer. You should most definitely have a budget for your photography and stick to it. But if you're on the fence about spending a little extra or saving a few bucks maybe your photography isn't where you want to skimp. Think about it. There are really only a handful of things you walk away with from your wedding day. In my opinion the top three are: your marriage, your gown, and your photography. In 20 years that's what you'll have left. No one will remember what you ate, what the cake looked like, or even how the venue was decorated (unless they're looking through your wedding album, of course).