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In all my years of writing about weddings, hearing about weddings, working at weddings, and planning weddings, I've decided where my number one wedding priority lies (besides, you know, the right partner and all that lovey-dovey shit). My top wedding priority is amazing photography.
I want to binge on amazing photos of your weddings. Back in the day, I wanted to take amazing wedding photos. And, most importantly, I want to have amazing wedding photos of my own wedding.
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My first time around, we did not have amazing photos. We did not even have a wedding photographer that I liked. He was so bad, we fired him right after a disastrous portrait session. This time around, the very first vendor we booked is our photographer.
Now, I'm lucky, because I've gotten to spend the last seven years in what's basically an immersive wedding photography school. I've seen what great wedding photos look like, that I absolutely love. I've seen what great wedding photos look like that I can appreciate, but don't speak to me on a personal level. I've seen great wedding photographers bust out on the scene, make their mark, and then burn out or move on to other things. So, by the time I got engaged the second time, I had a list of amazing Offbeat Bride vendors to shoot my wedding.
But two things drove our ultimate decision: What we wanted our wedding would look like (fun! vibrant! full of color and whimsy!) and where it took place (Northern California). This meant I had the perfect excuse to book one of my all-time, long-time favorite wedding photographers: Wild About You Photography.
You've seen their photos all over Offbeat Bride, you've seen me gush about them recently, and, soon, you'll see what our wedding will look like through their lens! I can't freaking wait. But in the meantime, you can check out this recent wedding of theirs…
…featuring a bride wearing my dream KMK Designs dress, with purple hair like mine, getting married to a cute bearded groom, in the woods of Northern California. There's nothing like getting a flawless taste of your own wedding, through the lens of your own amazing wedding photographers!
So, that's one wedding vendor down — a billion more to go. But, no matter who we book from here on out, I know that the wedding photos are going to be amazing. And, booking the right vendor for my top wedding priority (besides the love, blah blah blah) has given me the ability to go from “what the fuck am I going to dooooo!?” to “keep calm and plan the fuck on.”
What was your number one wedding priority? Where you surprised by it? Or did you know you were going to go for it from day one?
Previous Megan-wedding-planning accomplishments…
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About the Author: Megan Finley Horowitz
When Megan's not writing, traveling, and sleeping, she's eating like the fate of the world depends on it. (You're welcome, world!) You can snoop into her personal life over on her website The Dash and Dine!
We went above our budget for wedding photos and we’re so, so glad we did. The wedding day was over so fast, we tried to stay in the moment but it still felt like we blinked and it was gone. We hired Offbeat favorite Carly Bish (carlybish.com) and we feel so much better knowing that she captured everything for us. Only one teaser photo so far, but we can’t wait to see the rest!
Oh yeah!!! And you just reminded me why it’s an even better investment for mahself. I have anxiety, and when it’s A BIG BUSY DAY, my memory tends to get hazy because my mind is in overdrive. Even more reason why a photographer is my wedding day ace in hole.
Ditto! Photography was #1 on my ‘must be perfect’ wedding list. Yet I made a rookie move and booked a couple just starting out who were within my tiny budget. Well, their photography got worse and worse the closer my wedding got. They started over Photoshopping everything much to my dismay. I fired them the week of my wedding. I decided no photos were better than the crap I was going to get. Thankfully a photographer friend of mine came through with a referral to a photographer friend of hers who was free that weekend, and my wedding photos turned out a million times better than I could have hoped for! In retrospect I should have booked the photographer that I wanted and scrimped on the budget elsewhere. It would have saved me a lot of stress!
Same! I found my photographer, Studio Sequoia, on Offbeat Bride and it was instant love! I have the most amazing photos that transport me and make me laugh! The day is the day and maybe that entree was tasty (or meh like ours) but the photos are forever. Flowers? Monogrammed whatevers? Who needs ’em? PHOTOS! I would have paid double for the quality we got (but am so grateful we didn’t have to). We were even able to barter some stuff.
To pimp Kelley of Studio Sequoia a little more, she told us that she keeps her rates reasonable (and will work with couples, too) because for HER wedding, her Friendor photographer forgot her battery so all the pictures of the day were from some disposable cameras someone ran to get at a drugstore. And she wants no one to ever have that happen again. She will travel to you but she’s in San Diego and I was thrilled with her!
I was so excited to see that you picked Wild About You photography! And that you booked them before any other vendor. We did that too (LOVE Lily and Chris), and I’m so glad that we did. Our budget is pretty modest, but my fiancée and I decided that our top priorities were the photographer and the venue, so making sure we secured photographers whose work we liked, and with whom we get along was crucial. We actually booked them before we could even secure our venue! (It was a matter of timing) Our wedding is next year, but we are so, so excited to work with them, as well as some other really great vendors we found, courtesy of Offbeat Bride.
I’ve been following your posts, Megan, and am eagerly awaiting more stories of your planning adventures.
P.S. We’re also getting married in the woods in Northern California!
WHAT!??? That’s awesome! This all just made me so happy. I can’t wait to see YOUR wedding. I love planning at the same time as you guys. It’s so much freaking fun/keeps me so calm.