When my brother got married last year, he hired a photography student from the local university to take his wedding pictures. The student did not cost as much and agreed to give my brother his negatives for little or nothing afterwards. A professional normally charges $1000 -1500 for them.
I’ve just got engaged myself, so I’m looking to save money when I get married (I didn’t realise that a wedding costs this much!). Anyway a few ideas I’ve come up with to save money on a wedding photographer are to use a student from the local university or TAFE like my brother, or to give out disposable cameras to our guests.
Students may not have the experience of shooting hundreds of weddings, but they will have a fresh and artistic eye and capture some of the greatest moments.
My only problem with hiring a student is that I will want to see a portfolio of their work and create a working contract. I’ll also want to make sure that they know how to work with large groups of people. It might also be best to specify some general outlines of what needs to be done on the day. E.g. when taking a photo of the bride, include her whole dress not just from the knees up.
The other option to save money was to place a disposable camera on each of the reception tables. That way the guests can take photo’s of each other. It should reduce costs and hopefully provide a more personal touch to the pictures.
Anyway, those are the ideas I’ve come up with in regards to saving costs on a photographer. Does anyone have any more ideas? Can anyone see likely problems with my ideas above?

Here's one (you may have already seen it, I haven't read through the replies!) http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=167753&highlight=photographer

I cant understand why someone would want to cut costs on the wedding photgrapher :huh: ..at the end of the day ..when your big days over ..your cakes been eaten and your flowers are wilting ..you still have your photographs to look forward too ..and they last a life time too :)

Not all wedding photographers cost an arm and a leg ..If you searched SF you'd find a fair few professionals ..where prices start from has little has £500 ..some even less ;)

You could always stick the camera on a tripod and use the delayed action release. (The photographer gets to sleep with the bride!)

I cant understand why someone would want to cut costs on the wedding photgrapher :huh: ..at the end of the day ..when your big days over ..your cakes been eaten and your flowers are wilting ..you still have your photographs to look forward too ..and they last a life time too :)

Not all wedding photographers cost an arm and a leg ..If you searched SF you'd find a fair few professionals ..where prices start from has little has £500 ..some even less ;)

Sometimes, when you simply don't have the money for it, you have to cut costs ;)

Me and my husband got married 2 weeks ago and decided not to have a photographer due to cost, most people nowadays have digital cameras, so we took the chance, and i must say the photos that people have given us are beautiful, not posed just very natural looking. I hate standing posing to have my photo taken so this was great for me. Enjoy your day!

We did a similar thing. we didn't want to pay for a photographer as we are photographers ourselves (not professional sadly) so we asked a couple of friend who we also knew to be excellent and also asked for copies of the good ones from the guests too :)

worked out more natural, more relaxed as we knew the person behind the camera and much cheaper :D

I am a very reasonably priced wedding photographer who takes natural photos of the day.

Please see my website if you're interested:

http://www.lucydavies.co.uk

Ta! :)

Lucy

I think its reasonable to get family members/friends to take photos and upload them on the net after, or have disposable cameras, or both. I'm lucky because my cousin is a photographer (http://www.mauricephotos.co.uk).

hi I contacted bramhall photography explained I didn't want to pay a lot he's doing me 40 photos 8x6 in a lovely album supplying me a cd of all photos taken so i can do copies in a mix of colour sepia and b&w all for £450 and that includes multiple venues his portfolio is very impressive hope this helps good luck in your search

Hi we used one of the press photographers from our local paper, alot of them moon light as wedding photographers & are really good obviously. Think we paid about £200 all in for the whole day & all the negatives aswell ( can't remember how many but it was alot) & the processing of some of the pictures too which he delivered to our wedding reception that night for everyne to look at. He too both colour & black & white photos. Alot of my friends did the same thing. Good luck on the day & hope it is absolutely fantastic!! We Didn't really spend alot on our wedding which we organised in 3months & we had the best day of our lives & we are still together hehe.

Hi
My boyfriend is a professional photographer looking to move into wedding photography, so needs to do some weddings for his portfolio and wont charge very much.
Check out his stuff at rickychopra.com or email him at rickychopra@btinternet.com

Alice

If your looking for informal photos have a look at my site www.tombarnesphoto.com very different to other wedding photographers I specialise in informal shots and normally don't do posed shots unless absolutely necessary/requested.

www.tombarnesphoto.com

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Tom Barnes
+ 44 (0) 7515 898 999 (please note new mobile number)
www.tombarnesphoto.com / info@tombarnesphoto.com

I have a friend doing the photos and hes doing it as a pressie so were very lucky, my dream would be to ahve a videographer, sounds wierd i suppose but when I got married a pal did it and it was awful, but, that said I ahve peoples voices and humour on a video, people like my dad who is now gone.

I dont think photos can give you that and I am gutted I cant afford for someone to film it this time...