Luminaire Images Blog • by Molly Ann

Perhaps wedding planners and designers can weigh in on this, too: The tendency for some engaged couples to contact a vendor, possibly even going so far as to meet with them, and then stall on the actual hiring and agreement signing.

Why You Wait
I’m sure there are quite a few reasons, the most influential of which is likely cost.  When a supplier slaps down a multi-thousand dollar estimate I’m sure quite a few couples balk until they can carve out a more definitive budget so they’ll better understand what they can and cannot afford.  Secondarily, finding time to sit and talk seriously with your fiancée about wedding decisions is far more difficult than most people think, and often months may pass before the couple is in agreement about whom to hire and how much to spend.  I know some brides also take a few weeks to contact several similar vendors and compare them based on information that’s given.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait…Too Long
It’s important to understand the amount of time in advance you should be commissioning suppliers; most photographers in my area are usually booked 6 months to 1 year in advance. Waiting too long to book a supplier for your wedding date could result in the vendor you had your eye on from the beginning being snatched from under your nose by a quicker couple, especially if your wedding is during the “high” season (March through November here in Southern California).  If you procrastinate on hiring vendors until your wedding is almost upon you then you also run the risk of finding all the “choice” suppliers in your area have been taken ahead of you, and all who are left are less talented or less experienced than what you had in mind!

The Best Solution
…Is a “Priority List.”  As soon as you are engaged, sit down and create a list of all the expenses you expect from your wedding, and then arrange it so that the most important expenses are at the top.  Then over the following months as you continue your planning, just work your way down!  For example, if you deign the wedding dress, the venue, and the photography to be the three most important aspects of your wedding, then acquire them in that order.  That way, if your budget should unexpectedly dwindle as you near the end of your list, it doesn’t matter so much because what is at the bottom was not the most important to begin with!  Booking your most important suppliers early on also ensures that YOU get them, because you were faster and had your priorities straight!

So the other night I was thinking about my successes (for once, instead of my shortcomings) as a professional. I was thinking back on one truly triumphant moment and how I had felt like a World Cup player who’s just scored a goal: There is a bubble of excitement, a burst of energy, a moment when you leap for joy, realize you’ve just scored, you’ve just won. If you’ve been watching any of the games, you know what I’m talking about, even if you’ve never played—it’s the moment when the scoring player tears at his shirt in relief, there’s a swollen roar from the crowd, and the people in his corner to cheer with him, and dogpile on top of him in triumph.

I’m sure there are volumes of literature out there discussing how soccer is a metaphor for life…you have to set goals in order to score, in order to score you have to take a lot of shots on the goal, and you will miss far more than you make.  I’ve missed a lot of goals, but the ones that I made are so soooo sweet.  And the BIG ones that I made…well, all I can say is that they make the missed shots completely worth it!

Taken from Digital Wedding Forum blog, I couldn’t have put it better myself:

Well there you have it! Right there in black and white. Good photography is worth paying for but 22% of Brides don’t realize it until after the wedding is over.  What the heck can we do about that?

Online printer/image host/publisher Shutterfly released their most recent survey results today and amongst a few worthless facts (like blue is color of the season) there was some valuable information.

Should’ve spent less on the dress; more on the memories. Of survey respondents married within 12 months prior to the survey, 28 percent felt they didn’t spend enough money on the honeymoon; 22 percent felt the same about the photographer. 19 percent of the same sample reported spending too much on the bridal gown and food.

So this either means that 22% of the surveyed brides either wanted more product or there are a bunch of hack wedding photographers out there who aren’t living up to brides’ expectations. Interesting food for thought no matter how you look at it…

I can’t tell you how often people say to me (when I tell them that I am a wedding photographer), “Oh, we never got our wedding pictures from our photographer!” or “I wish I would have spent the money to hire someone like you instead of just telling my wedding guests and/or my friend to snap some pictures.”

As professional photographers, we value brides who value photography.  It means their priorities are straight, they already trust us to do a good job, and their wedding, as a result, will be nothing short of awesome to photograph.

This image was featured on PostSecret this week.  I thought it was interesting because I photographed some boudoir imagery for a young woman last week who mentioned that she didn’t want pictures showing off her body so much for her fiancé as much as she wanted them for herself.  ”So when I am old and fat,” she said, “I can look back and remember what I really looked like when I was in my prime.”

Really, it’s so rare to find that kind of forward-thinking attitude among young people.  It’s hard to understand what an “emotional investment” is when you’re still young enough not to have experienced the need for one.  For example, if you are a young adult, you may not yet personally know anyone (close to you) who has died.  Because of this, you may not TRULY understand how valuable photographs of this person will be to you someday.

Always make sure you have a lot of good imagery of the people you care about!  You’ll thank your photographer later.

Luminaire Images has been featured as a spotlighted (err…spotlit?) vendor on Interior Decorating blog Primed4Design.

Check out the P4D blog for interesting decorating tips, chic but affordable furnishing solutions, DIY projects, and photos of stylish pro and enthusiast-designed interiors!

Thanks for the shout out, Chrys & Jen!

An image I shot during a 2nd-shooting gig that I just thought was cool:

Kids are indisputably the best dancers at weddings…and I would say that slightly intoxicated groomsmen are often a close second.

I’m thinking of doing a series of flying hair.