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Wedding Photography

I have to admit that choosing a wedding photographer was one of the biggest decisions for us.  Photography is important to both Chris and I, and we both wanted beautiful pictures to look back on, but it was a little daunting to find that right person to capture our day.  There seems to be so many photographers out there and unless you have people who can give you recommendations, it can be hard to narrow it down.  A big point with us was price.  We wanted those beautiful pictures you see in magazines and on the blogs, but many of those photographers were just out of our budget.  Searching on the internet and following links from other sites helped me to kind of form a group that I thought were pretty good and were within our budget.  The thing is, though, many of them seemed to be kind of the same – there wasn’t one that really stood out from the group. 

Then I came upon Melanie Johnson’s blog.  She is a photographer trying to get her business started and was looking for couples and brides!  I LOVED her work.  The coloring of her photographs was absolutely beautiful, and the way she captured her subjects’ emotions (mostly children, even still)  really spoke to me.  I wasn’t sure at first if hiring somebody “new” was a good idea, but I kept coming back to her site, so I contacted her.  We really hit it off, and after meeting with her my fiancee and I were ecstatic to hire her! 

I am going to be talking a lot about our budget and some things we’re doing to stay in it.  One of these things was taking a chance on a “new” photographer.  We got such a great deal, and since we will be one of her first weddings to shoot, I know she’s going to do everything she can to make us look great (hey, we will be in her portfolio after all!).  Going this route may not be for everyone – experience does count for something.  There’s not much worse than reading the horror stories of brides who had bad photographers, or ones that didn’t show up at all!  But, really good photographers have to start somewhere too!

 About a month ago we had our engagement session, and of course, it wasn’t a gorgeous sunny day like we had hoped for.  We did have some sun, along with the light rain and clouds.  But I’m so happy with the results that it only reinforces my happiness in choosing Melanie. 

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Is photography important to you – is it a big part of your budget?  What type of styles do you admire??  

Happy Friday everyone!