Say Cheese!

I have to start this post by admitting that my best friend, Pinterest, let me down here. Pinterest was great for looking at a bunch of amazing photographs I wished I was a part of or took myself, but she lead me down a dark path of wanting what I felt like I couldn't afford. Those gorgeous wedding photos with the perfect lighting where everyone looks beautiful and happy and right out of the pages of a magazine. I searched and searched and every link took me to a photography website where the prices ranged from expensive to holy-crap-who-can-afford-that!?

All is not lost, ladies. Pinterest might have let me down but I was determined to capture my wedding with perfect photography and still come in on budget. I knew keeping the cost down would mean sacrificing certain elements that might seem essential, like a videographer for instance (more on that later). They key here is to prioritize and make the tough choices. I was okay with not having a videographer, but letting go of the photographer was beyond the limits of what my inner bridezilla would allow. You might be okay with having digital or disposable cameras strategically placed around the venue for your attendees to use and act as makeshift photographers to capture all of those crazy druncle (that's drunk uncle for you newbies) moments at the reception. I, on the other hand, had photography at the top of my priority list.

I LOVE photography and am a self taught amateur hobbyist. It's possible I tell myself with Pinterest and a few online courses I could be ready to start my own business. It's also possible I have no idea what I'm doing and manage to luck into some amazing lighting that makes it look like I know exactly what I'm doing. Either way, none of this would help me in my quest to find the perfect wedding photographer for under $1000.

The key is to use your resources. By this, I mean Pinterest's red headed stepchild, Google. Google isn't all shiny, perfectly narrowed down images the way Pinterest can be, however, he's sturdy and reliable. Fire up the Google and start looking for any schools or colleges with degrees in Photography. We're looking for current students or recent graduates. These are people with mad skills but not too much professional experience...yet.

I found a Fine Arts college about an hour north of Los Angeles and figured I had nothing to lose so I called. Apparently, these schools love to help their students and recent graduates find job placement. Go figure. A lovely woman emailed me a form they use to gather all of the information about the "job", including my date, price range, location, etc. Once I returned the form, I started receiving emails. It's important to note here, having an open mind is key. Not all photography students want to be wedding photographers. I mostly got emails from fashion photographers who were interested in helping me. It wasn't always exactly what I imagined in my Pinterest-obsessed mind, but I looked through their portfolios to see if I could work with what they had to offer.

Sometimes lightning strikes and the wedding gods shine down on you. After four or five emails of photographers who weren't quite right, I received emails from two who had actually shot weddings and had wedding portfolios to show me. It's all subjective at this point. I knew what I wanted because I had been staring at all of the perfect photos on Pinterest for so long. Whether it was realistic or not, I had an idea of the style of photography I wanted. After staring at both portfolios for days and getting some outside opinions (not too many opinions, as that usually takes me down an obsessive over analyzing path) I picked the one I felt came the closest to my Pinterest ideal. Her work was beautiful and she had multiple weddings for me to look at which was impressive for a recent graduate. The beauty here was that she wanted to be a wedding photographer and had worked for one as an assistant for a while. She just didn't have enough experience to be able to charge the big bucks yet.

The theme here is to think outside the box and embrace what presents itself. Don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole. The square peg being the uber pricey photographers with the fancy assistants, and the round hole being you and your not so fun budget. Okay, enough analogies. Get out there and find those hidden gems. Ask your friends and family, use your resources and get creative!