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triplexpac posted:Does anyone have any advice for finding a wedding photographer? They seem so expensive, but I'm not sure if there's any way around that. The somewhat "philosophical" point of view is this - years after the fact, the photographs and memories are the only way you will have to look back on your wedding day. Eventually, if you're so inclined, maybe you will want to pass your wedding album on to your children, or even grandchildren. If that kind of thing is important, it might be worth it to you to spend the extra money on it, and cut from elsewhere. If not, that's fine too.
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Apr 19, 2012 21:22
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triplexpac posted:Does anyone have any advice for finding a wedding photographer? They seem so expensive, but I'm not sure if there's any way around that. Groupon. My photog has different little groupons all the time. He was a friend of ours, so we got a deal. But seriously. She did one, buy 2 hours get 2 hours.
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Apr 20, 2012 01:42
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I found my photographer at a bridal expo, if that's a route that's available to you. She had tons of photos, an eye for design, and an affordable package. She even threw in some freebies.
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Apr 20, 2012 05:24
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So, I'm getting married in a few months, and holy poo poo, things are starting to really add up. My fiancee just called me in tears about the prices of everything. The latest was the price estimate she got for the flowers and boutonnieres, tablescapes, centerpieces, reception hall decorations.. a whopping $8,000. Granted, we live in SoCal, and we're going to have 350-400 people, but that still seems like a grip of money for flowers? Is that the norm? Her family is telling her that shes getting a good deal, cause they've "heard" of other people spending 10-15k on this stuff, and don't want her to shop around because they don't want to be embarrassed if they go with someone else, or whatever. Maybe I just need to adjust my mindset here?
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Apr 20, 2012 17:22
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Capt. Awesome posted:The latest was the price estimate she got for the flowers and boutonnieres, tablescapes, centerpieces, reception hall decorations.. a whopping $8,000. That seems REALLY high to me. Here's what I got for $1,054: Bridal Bouquet: $95.00 Maid Of Honor Bouquet: $50.00 Boutonnieres for Groom, Best Man and Dads: $50.00 Corsages for Moms: $40.00 Guest Book Arrangement: $60.00 Table Centerpieces (8): $304.00. Mantle Garlands (2): $300.00. Plus tax and delivery fee. Granted, I only had one groomsman and one bridesmaid, but still. I think they're full of it.
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Apr 20, 2012 19:12
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If you want "tablescapes" you have to pay for them.
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Apr 20, 2012 22:37
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It's a 350 person wedding. That's a pretty big wedding, and you'll need flowers to decorate a larger hall, etc. Assuming 8 tops at dinner that's 43 tables that need centerpieces. At $50 each that's $2,000 alone.
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Apr 20, 2012 22:55
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Psychobabble posted:If you want "tablescapes" you have to pay for them. I worked for a florist doing weddings through high school and college, and I've never heard the term "tablescapes" before. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you have some places to trim the budget if you want.
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Apr 20, 2012 23:44
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Re: Photographer We found our photographer through http://www.ppa.com/ You have to sift through a lot, but you'll most likely find someone.
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Apr 21, 2012 00:01
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For a 350+ person wedding that is not an unusual price for flowers. Similarly, everything else will be much more expensive as well, ie: high end food and drinks would run you upwards of $50,000. You can save money by doing very simple table displays, such as an orchid, which will look nice, not be so ostentatious as a giant froofy display and actually allow people to converse with someone on the opposite side of the table. These for example would run you a lot of money: http://affluencefloral.tripod.com/reception_flowers.htm versus something smaller/simpler: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-stock-photos-wedding-head-table-centerpiece-closeup-image6979813 or http://www.onewed.com/photos/show/beautiful-white-orchids-arranged-in-clay-pots-for-wedding-reception-table-c
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Apr 21, 2012 03:07
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Thanks guys. I don't know what "tablescapes" are.. I may have made that word up, it sounded like something though, I think I was trying to talk about the linens, and toppers or whatever. At any rate, we're looking at like 30-40 tables, 6 bridesmaids bouquets, 2 flower girls, and then all the other decorations for the hall. I guess it really does just add up when you're looking at that many people. It just seems like so much! Thanks for the reality check guys.
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Apr 21, 2012 05:18
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As a guy needing to size my own finger for a ring purchased online can I get this done at Wal-Mart? Should I go to a mall jeweler?
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Apr 22, 2012 04:39
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Totally TWISTED posted:As a guy needing to size my own finger for a ring purchased online can I get this done at Wal-Mart? Should I go to a mall jeweler? I'd go to a proper jeweller. The future misses and I are going ring hunting tomorrow and this will be the first time we will see what looks good on her. We've seen lots of things online but in the end it seems very unwise to buy without sizing and seeing at a proper jewellers.
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Apr 22, 2012 04:46
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Capt. Awesome posted:Maybe I just need to adjust my mindset here? Suggest telling her not to mention it's for a wedding when she's shopping around. Say it's a party of some other kind. Might help bring the cost down a bit since some places tack on a wedding tax.
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Apr 22, 2012 12:44
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Reene posted:Suggest telling her not to mention it's for a wedding when she's shopping around. Say it's a party of some other kind. Might help bring the cost down a bit since some places tack on a wedding tax. But don't do this if they are actually going to be setting your flowers up on your wedding day as that is a bunch of drama you just don't need. Also, it won't work if you are getting all your bridal party boquets and boutteniers through the same florist because florists aren't stupid.
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Apr 22, 2012 23:53
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Capt. Awesome posted:Thanks for the reality check guys. I know my cousin spent $8k for flowers in SoCal for about 200 people, and that was the wholesale price for the flowers as my aunt did the arrangements for free. They also bought them in LA then drove them to Santa Barbara because it would save them a few grand as well.
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Apr 23, 2012 15:38
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I'm liking more and more that my fiancee doesn't really want flowers haha
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Apr 23, 2012 18:45
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triplexpac posted:I'm liking more and more that my fiancee doesn't really want flowers haha Likewise, likewise. Except instead she's very allergic.
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Apr 23, 2012 18:49
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Feeling a little lost in planning, so I thought I'd ask for opinions/ideas here! We are getting married in a year, so we have time to work this out, but we've bounced around quite a few different ideas as far as venue/theme, and the one thing we keep coming back to is camping. Would it be totally stupid to have a camping wedding and spend the weekend with friends and family, and also get married? Assuming this is not totally stupid, what ideas work for food, decorations etc? Would it be horrible to do typical campfire fare, like hot dogs and such (veggie dogs for me, but whatever)? I appreciate any input, we've been trying to find a good balance between keeping our families happy, and not having a big fussy wedding, except that we have totally gigantic families. We have thought about people who don't want to camp, and our tentative location is also very close to hotels and civilized beds.
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Apr 23, 2012 20:00
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That sounds super cute if you both like the outdoors and you think your families would be up for it. I think if it's part of the theme it wouldn't be tacky to do burgers & hot dogs. Have some nice side dishes and cake, too, though. The major possible problem that I see is one or both of your mothers/grandmothers going " BUT I WANTED YOU TO GET MARRIED IN A CHURCH/HUGE PRINCESS WEDDING!" in which case you need to balance your own desires versus the level of hell to pay that would result if you don't do their bidding.Be sure you put appropriate dress code on the invitations, too. The outdoors is no place for high heels and party dresses.
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Apr 23, 2012 20:13
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We aren't doing camping, but our wedding is going to have a woodsy theme. We're not doing a church wedding, we're getting married at a nice restaurant that has a big private park area and wooded area attached. Restaurant has a lot of wood & exposed beams, we're going to decorate it to have a nature theme. Anyway, I guess I'm just saying you could possibly find a middle ground between camping & a traditional wedding, if your families have their heart set on something where they can dress up and all that. But if everyone that matters is on board with it and you want to get married camping, I say go for it.
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Apr 23, 2012 20:24
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Luckily/unluckily, my mom isn't really involving herself so much in the planning. She had always talked about how much she wanted to plan the wedding with me, and now that it's here, she seems to have decided otherwise. My older brother is getting married in September, and I think most of her planning power is going into that one. Bonus info, for those wondering how traditional my family is, my mom is having me dress up as a bear for my brother's wedding, because he always wanted a 'ring bear' instead of bearer... I wish I was joking. Anyway, the point is, I'm pretty much free to do what I want, I just want some creative feedback 
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Apr 23, 2012 21:10
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So, we went ring hunting yesterday, with limited success. We were able to count some things out (yellow stones, green stones, very purple stones), but we didn't get to see any Padparadscha which we are really curious about, nor were we able to see a direct comparison between White gold and Palladium. We are on a budget of about $4000 + taxes, so we are counting out Diamonds (which she has from her father anyway) and Platinum. She's currently on a jewellery design course and I asked her prof for help - unfortunately his response was to suggest himself - unfortunate because his style is not something she'd like. I really want to know of anyone's experience with Palladium rings. A lot of jewellers don't stock rings in Palladium, but I'm wondering if it's just because the mark up on Platinum is so much better. (On this point, we were looking at sapphire and ruby rings in a couple of jewellers, someone would come talk to us and we'd say we were looking for engagement rings, at which point they would drag us to the diamond rings and then get really annoyed when we would say we weren't interested in diamonds). The other thing is we are in Vancouver. Are we likely to save a lot of money going down to Seattle? It's certainly feesible to do that, but I don't know if there is the massive drop in Jewellery prices like there is for everything else.
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Apr 24, 2012 01:36
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RetroGracey posted:
If there's a food theme going on, it can work. At our wedding, our food was modeled after restaurants that we loved going to while we were dating, and that included an Irish pub so burgers and fries were on the menu. Didn't hear any complaints, and the people with kids were glad to have them available.
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Apr 24, 2012 15:42
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I thought y'all could appreciate this: Are these the worst wedding pictures ever? Basically, this poor couple in the UK shelled out $1200 for some of the worst photos I've ever seen. The photographers wouldn't use a flash because one complained about being epileptic, they completely missed the groom's parents, and nobody is looking at the camera in the group shots. It's kind of amazing.    
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Apr 24, 2012 16:06
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That is horrible. I came here to post about the photographer at my friends' wedding being terrible, he won't post pictures online until each picture gets a certain number of "likes" on his Facebook page ("Here's a picture of the groom! 20 likes and I'll post one of the bride!"). The bride and groom don't even get a full set until his magical number of Facebook likes is reached. What the hell, man. But that photographer from the UK blows this guy totally out of the water, I hope they had a relative or two who took better pictures.
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Apr 24, 2012 17:57
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Gotta do your research and see completed albums. $1200 is pretty cheap for wedding photos. Though even for the price they're pretty bad, I could do better. Even if you have to work without flash, you can still set a fat aperture and get some decent shots. As an amateur photographer/neurologist I'm also suspect of the epilepsy thing, because even of the epileptics who do photosynchronize, it's usually repetitive stimulation that does it (ie: strobe lights), not random flashes. If she's really that sensitive, she picked the wrong profession...
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Apr 24, 2012 18:05
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Well according to the article they already shut down the company and sold their cameras. Some people think photography is easy and anyone can point a camera and hit a button, but lighting and composition are really important. It's a bummer that couple got screwed though.
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Apr 24, 2012 18:19
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I went to my sister's wedding in Algeria, and took my Canon 450D as a backup (I'm an artist and take photos for documenting my work). They had hired a photographer (from the area, but advertised as a professional weding photographer). They paid her and her assistant about $350 - a lot by Algerian standards. I took back up photos throughout the evening - battling against the 20 or so Algerian relatives taking flash photographs on point and clicks. When they got the photos back from the photographer about 5 were useable. They had to use mine as a backup (which were mostly off to the side as the photographer was very territorial). I feel really bad for that couple, but they should have had someone taking back ups - or at least have seen good examples of the photographer's work before. (And seriously, an epileptic photographer who gets set off by camera flashes?) However, for my brother's wedding he had an awesome photographer who accidently left his flash gun behind. I got to play with that bad boy for a week until his girlfriend finally came and got it off me (I contacted him as soon as I found it). Nuntius fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Apr 24, 2012 |
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Apr 24, 2012 19:46
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:That is horrible. I came here to post about the photographer at my friends' wedding being terrible, he won't post pictures online until each picture gets a certain number of "likes" on his Facebook page ("Here's a picture of the groom! 20 likes and I'll post one of the bride!"). The bride and groom don't even get a full set until his magical number of Facebook likes is reached. What the hell, man. If they've paid him demand their wedding photos. If he fails to produce them immediately then they need to get an attorney involved, ASAP. A buddy of mine has been married for two years and is still fighting their photographer for their pictures.
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Apr 25, 2012 19:05
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JohnnyRnR posted:If they've paid him demand their wedding photos. If he fails to produce them immediately then they need to get an attorney involved, ASAP. Seriously read the contract, and KEEP A COPY! That goes for any contract you sign. If they break the contract, sue the piss out of them. If the actually put the facebook poo poo in the contract, you should read better. If you didn't have a contract, you're an idiot.
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Apr 25, 2012 23:41
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JohnnyRnR posted:A buddy of mine has been married for two years and is still fighting their photographer for their pictures. How does this happen?
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Apr 25, 2012 23:48
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Knockknees posted:How does this happen? After the wedding the photographer took the (lots of) money and left the country for an extended vacation... and decided he was just going to hang out in Asia for a couple years.
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Apr 25, 2012 23:54
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JohnnyRnR posted:After the wedding the photographer took the (lots of) money and left the country for an extended vacation... and decided he was just going to hang out in Asia for a couple years. Something similar but not as terrible happened with our photos. After our wedding our photographer decided to visit family back in Russia. Something happened with his passport/visa (I forget what it was exactly now) and they wouldn't let him leave the country for six months. Of course all his equipment and files were back in the states. It ended up taking almost a year to get all our pictures and things promised in the package we paid for. So I guess "what are your post wedding travel plans?" is a good question to ask your photographer before booking them :P
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Apr 26, 2012 00:24
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JohnnyRnR posted:If they've paid him demand their wedding photos. If he fails to produce them immediately then they need to get an attorney involved, ASAP. This sounds like something they agreed to. Maybe they wouldn't pay for negatives so this is something he offers and sells as a way to get friends interested in their wedding pictures on Facebook.
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Apr 26, 2012 01:06
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Hey everyone! Just wanted to finally post since I have been lurking this thread since its birth during my engagement. I have learned a ton of information in this thread, and was able to save tons of money on things as well as be more informed before I actually signed any contracts. The big day is on Saturday, so I just wanted to give everyone my thanks!
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Apr 26, 2012 22:51
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Low Carb Bread posted:Gotta do your research and see completed albums. $1200 is pretty cheap for wedding photos. Though even for the price they're pretty bad, I could do better. Those are atrocious even for that price point. Ours came out lovely, and they were $1500 including a second shooter, raws, and an engagement photo session. One of those lovely point-and-shoots could do better than that 'professional' photographer did! Poor couple. 
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Apr 27, 2012 17:41
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My fiancee wants to do one of those websites that people can visit to get all the maps & info they'll need for our wedding. Is there a general consensus on what is the best website for that? A friend suggested weddingwire.com , just curious what else is out there.
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Apr 27, 2012 21:32
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triplexpac posted:My fiancee wants to do one of those websites that people can visit to get all the maps & info they'll need for our wedding. Is there a general consensus on what is the best website for that? A friend suggested weddingwire.com , just curious what else is out there. Writing one yourself because you're a web developer and your fiancee is an artist so can do design work is...a more work-intensive way. Rewarding, though! (plus I got to write my own rsvp system)
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Apr 27, 2012 21:34
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triplexpac posted:My fiancee wants to do one of those websites that people can visit to get all the maps & info they'll need for our wedding. Is there a general consensus on what is the best website for that? A friend suggested weddingwire.com , just curious what else is out there. A couple I know has theirs at ourwedding.com. Looks nice enough, basically like a blog. Honestly you could probably just use a blog.
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Apr 27, 2012 21:52
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