The two biggest things I wanted to get taken care of first were the venue and the photographer. I think booking the venue and the photographer early {and yes, I realize this is VERY early... we're still 1.5 years out!} really allows us to be picky and get who and what we really want. Seeing as how our wedding date will be one of the more popular days in September, I wanted to make sure that Douglas and I booked things early so that way we got what we wanted.
Let me start off by saying that wedding photography is ridiculously expensive! From doing research of the photographers in the area, one could EASILY spend $4000-5000 on photography. As two graduate students on a budget, Douglas and I approached finding a photographer from a very logistical point of view: what is is that we really want, and how much are we really willing to spend?
We decided that we would greatly prefer a husband and wife family owned business, as opposed to wedding companies that hire out individual photographers. This decision was two fold: first, family owned businesses tended to be more affordable, and second, I'd rather that our money went to support a family as opposed to supporting the big business that is weddings. After deciding we wanted to look for family studios, I did a lot of research finding out what different studios offer and what is pretty typical for a photography package. I narrowed our search down to a few photographers that we met with in person, and I was surprised at how differently each meeting felt.
The first meeting we had was with a husband and wife team that I met at the Oregon Bridal Showcase in Eugene. Their work was lovely, and they've had a lot of experience photographing weddings. The entire time we spent with them, however, felt a little uncomfortable. The packages they were trying to convince us we needed {and honestly, I don't feel like I need a 4x6 of every photo you take!} were well over our budget, and it was overwhelming to feel pressured to book quickly. A friend of mine who is going through the wedding planning process right now gave me this advice: "make sure to ask a lot of questions, and if you have an ounce of doubt ... DONT DO IT!"
So, the search was on for another photographer. The second one we met with owned his own studio with his wife as the assistant photographer. We met with them at a local coffee shop and viewed some of his photos on his laptop. Douglas and I didn't get super excited, I think because we didn't get to see any actual prints of his photos and because there were a lot of distractions {being that we were in a coffee shop}. His price was right, but another piece of advice that I've heard from my fellow wedding planner friends is that you have to really have a personal connection with your photographer. "When it comes down to it, do you mind that these people are going to be in space all day?" These people were nice and everything and they weren't pushy {which I greatly appreciated}, but I just felt neutral about the whole thing.
When Douglas and I visited our venue for the first time, we had this instant "Oh my god, this is it!" feeling. We discussed that it was unrealistic to expect that we get that feeling about everything that relates to our wedding. We kept that in mind when we met with the third photographer, and we were shocked. This guy is AMAZING. His work is great, and we loved his philosophy about his photography and his artistic point of view. He was very professional but friendly, and we ended up chatting with him for a very long time about things not even related to our wedding. It was such a relaxing and enjoyable experience for us. He even got Douglas to open up and start chatting, which is a really good sign considering usually he is pretty private about things unless he likes you. ;) We left our appointment with him feeling excited, comfortable, and really hopeful. This is the same way that we felt about our venue, and we have total confidence that he will be able to capture our day and tell the story the way that we want it to be.
If you're interested in viewing some of his work, his blog can be found here: Joshua Rainey His wife Rachel assists him with photography and you can tell that their styles really complement one another. I guess there's something to be said about knowing your fellow photographer really well! We met up again this afternoon to finalize the booking details, and we got to meet Rachel and their newborn son Kellen. They are a beautiful happy family, and I'm glad to have them be a part of our engagement/wedding experience!
Being able to find a venue and a photographer and still be within our budget has given me a lot of confidence with all this wedding planning stuff. When I first started out, it seemed almost impossible to be able to make decisions and everything was really overwhelming. But now that we have our date, our venue and a great photographer, I'm feeling very in control of this wedding and am really happy with how everything is falling into place.
Next up- catering! I think I'll take a break from planning for awhile first, though. :)
<3 J
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