The weather may not look great but we are excited about photographing the wedding of our close friends Andi and George.

Getting married at Citygate Church, and then moving to Sopley for the reception – this is going to be one fantastic party!

It was a privilege to photograph a Lebanese-Danish wedding at Compton Acres, Dorset, England! That’s just what we got to do for Mark and Vicki!

Click on each thumbnail to see a larger image.

We went to see a couple recently who are getting married on the HMS Warrior in Portsmouth and we’re thrilled that they have chosen Promise Photography to photograph their wedding.

It is going to be an interesting challenge with not a whole lot of natural light seeping into ship, but we’ll get those all-important shots nonetheless 🙂

This article that has appeared in the Guardian today suggests that those of you looking for a beach wedding might not need to have to jet off to the Caribbean or Spain! Instead Bournemouth Tourism is hoping to get planning permission to put up a beach-hut to serve as a chapel!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/07/weddings-on-beach-bournemouth

How many of you (married or otherwise) would go for the option?

 

We met a couple recently who are getting married in April 2012 at Compton Acres in Dorset. Seems a little early to be choosing a photographer. We don’t think so 🙂

Assuming you like the quality of the sample photographs, here are some tips on how to choose the right photographer for you:

1. The B-word. Budget. Most of us don’t have money growing on trees. You will have set aside a rough budget for your photographer. But photographers are notoriously difficult to compare because they all offer different packages and different starting prices. One might offer a low starting price but when you get into the details, they give you 5 prints and the rest you have to purchase at extortionate amounts. Another might give you a DVD, another an album another free mugs and a cheesecake…. and the list goes on.

The solution is to not look for the cheapest advertised price, because like beloved Ryanair, you know that the end price is probably going to be considerably higher.

Look for a photographer near the top end of your budget as chances are they will be better quality photos and have everything you want as part of the package.

2. Package. So what should you expect other than someone just taking pictures of your wedding?

– Time. Most photographers will offer packages from preparation through to final dance but just check rather than assume. Also, if you happen to be having a very short wedding, be cheeky and ask if they will reduce the price! (can’t believe I’m actually encouraging that 🙂

– Photographs! Well, duh. But with the advent of digital photography are you happy with just some prints of the day, while if you want more you need to pay the photographer to print them for you? Most of us know how to use a service like Snapfish, or pop into a local Jessops and print photos. Remember that if you are having to pay your photographer for printed copies, it will take the final cost of the package up considerably. Make sure you are given digital copies of all your photos, not just a handful of printed copies.

– Albums. As lovely as digital photos are, there is something inherently more pleasant about looking through a wedding album. Find out if they offer albums, are they included in the price, if not, how much are they? Can you order more than one? What cost would that be? Do they only do one style of album?

– Photographers. You will already know that there are more wedding photographers in your area than trees in the Amazon but most of them will work independently. Check to see how many photographers will actually be present at your day. The simple rule is that two are better than one! Two photographer will be able to get photos of both Bride and Groom getting ready, make it easier to get all the right people in the right photos and cover more of the emotion of the day.

3. Recommendations. As mentioned in an earlier post, a good place to start looking for photographers is to ask your friends. They will help you collate a list of photographer to phone or not to phone in no time.

4. Comfort levels. Where possible, try and meet with the potential photographers and see how comfortable you are with them. Remember you are going to be followed by them all day, right from the early excitement of getting ready, the first intimate shots of you as husband and wife, through to the fun of the first dance. With group shots there is little more irritating than an over-bossy photographer with little sense of humour. Sure it is their job to get everyone in the right place at the right time, but a photograph of people who have just been ‘told off’ by the photographer isn’t going to be particularly attractive.

There are times when you aren’t able to meet with all the photographers but you can tell over the phone whether or not you will be comfortable with them and what their demeanour is.

Having spoken to many couples we know how difficult it can be to choose the right wedding photographer for you, but hopefully this list and this post helps make it a bit easier. If you have any questions or additional tips, we’d love to hear from you.

So you’ve found a photographer whose pictures look good, the packages sound like they are what you want but unfortunately their website has no prices on.  But you still make the effort and send them an email enquiring about their prices.

You get an email back stating that their prices are £xxxx. Ouch. Quite a bit out of your budget. So you write back to thank them for the quote but they are over your budget, and your search continues.

Not long later, however, an email comes back from said Photographers to say that another Bride has just moved their wedding date so now he can do your wedding for half the original asking price! What great news! The photographer we wanted and at half his original asking price! Amazing.

Or is it?

Why am I such a sceptic? Well.

a. Why doesn’t he have any prices on his website? Why create a barrier by not being clear with prices and getting the potential client to have to email for prices and availability?

b. If you asked whether they were available for your date (which of course you would), while asking for prices, he should have just said ‘Sorry we aren’t available’. Rather than also sending you a price list.

c. How many brides have you heard of that just happen to change their wedding date, and ‘coincidentally’ from the date that you are getting married? As you know, weddings are planned years in advance and only something seriously major would make a bride change her wedding date and go through the headache of re-booking venues, florists, car and so on.

It all just sounds like a very clever ploy to get you to book with them because it makes you think you are getting a 50% discount on the original price. Clever, maybe. Dishonest, definitely.

Recently we went to see a couple who were looking for some new photographers for their wedding in June in Bournemouth. I say new because the photographers they had originally booked had disappeared.

The couple had already paid the deposit but that didn’t seem to stop the photographers from vanishing into thin air.

To avoid having missing photographers here are some helpful tips (some of which will be rather obvious).

1. Ask your friends. Referrals are usually a good way to ensure your photographer is not going to go missing and is going to do a good job.

2. Do your best to get a local photographer. You should ask, if it isn’t on the contract form or website, for an address. That way you know where they are in case your deposit goes missing.

3. Meet with your photographers. This is crucial as anybody can have a fancy website but it is when you meet someone that you can really tell how comfortable you will be with them and gauge a sense of the genuineness (if that is even a word).

4. Test response times before you sign. What that means is, send them a couple of emails asking them for a bit of additional information. If it takes them a week to get back to you, sure they may be busy but it might also be a good sign they will be unreliable. If they are taking a week to get back you while they are supposedly trying to win your custom, imagine how long they will take if they do win your custom!

Having said that, don’t write  them off completely until you try the phone them. It could be (as we have found recently) that their email server wasn’t functioning properly and your emails were getting lost somewhere in cyberspace!

5. Don’t be shy to do what this couple did to us – ask for references, if there aren’t any on the website or they all seem a little too flaky. A wedding photographer who has nothing to hide will more than happily either send you quotes from clients or even get you a phone number so you can have a conversation with a past client.

I hope that helps in making sure your wedding photographers don’t go missing!

p.s. we’re pleased to say that this couple have decided to use us for their Bournemouth wedding in June. It’s going to be a glorious day! (and we aren’t going to go missing).

What a great way to start a year but by photographing the wedding of Sam and Amy. Sam was a genius when he managed to convince Amy to get married on the 1st of January. This way he has no excuse for forgetting their wedding anniversary and secondly it will also be easy for him to calculate how many years they have been married.

Here are a handful of the pictures from their fantastic day that took place at St. Swithuns church in Bournemouth.