A picture is worth a thousand words. There can be so much meaning around a single photo, especially if it was taken at just the right moment. I’ve always valued the art of capturing special and monumental moments through photography. I love the way photography can keep memories alive indefinitely, which is why choosing a photographer and cinematographer for our wedding was one of the most important decisions to be made. Besides booking the ceremony and reception venues, these vendors were at the top of my priority list and where I was willing to stretch the budget a bit if needed. When talking about it with my boss she said she realized right away what I cared most about for our wedding day; making the memories last forever. Whereas for her what was most important was the music, which is something in the moment. It was interesting to hear her perspective and realize what I valued the most. Of course I also care a great deal about the food and the music, the things that are going to set the ambiance for the day, but I also know in my heart that marrying my best friend and having all of our loved ones there to celebrate with us is going to make it the most magical day of our lives regardless of those things. I know that it’s going to be the most exhilarating and beautiful experience, and there’s nothing I want more than to have the photos and videos that are going to allow me to relive it over and over again and to share it with our kids someday. I’ve heard it a million times how fast it’s all going to go by, and the one thing that makes me less anxious about that fact is knowing I’ll have the professionals there to capture all of the moments that I may miss and the ones that I never want to forget.
Booking the Photographer
Beginning the search for the photographer was a pretty overwhelming experience. As you can imagine, especially living in Westchester, considered by most as the wedding capital of New York, the market is extremely saturated with hundreds of talented and reputable photographers. Because of this, although I did a good amount of research on my own on The Knot and other wedding websites, referrals played a big part in our search for the right photographer. We started off by going down a list of preferred vendors from our reception venue and setting up meetings with the ones that appealed to us the most. This list consisted of photographers who have all shot at our venue before and thus have experience with the grounds.
We met with one very talented guy who had won global awards for his work and was very sweet. He is particularly famous for capturing the most beautiful moments at just the right time, which is exactly what I want someone to do on our wedding day. I want the real, raw emotions to jump out of every single photo. Along with that I also want the standard posed photos with Jonathan and our bridal party and photos with family, but the candid shots are what matter most to me. We didn’t ultimately go with this guy because although his work was remarkable and we were confident that he would capture the candid moments perfectly, he seemed a bit too laid back and laissez-faire. Now you’re probably thinking: why is that a bad thing?! It’s not necessarily a bad thing but on our wedding day I need someone who’s going to provide a lot of direction and structure. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would adhere to a strict timeline and boss people around in order to get the must-have family photos. The day is going to be so chaotic in the best way possible, which is why I need someone who is going to take the lead and ensure that I get all of the photos that I want.
We also met with a large studio that had multiple photographers to choose from based on availability. It was good to see the difference between a studio and a one-man shop. The studio was nice but the biggest downfall for me was the copyright ownership and timeliness of delivery. Large studios tend to take longer to edit your photos and send them to you, and in some cases they don’t give you complete rights to your photos which means that you may have to print everything through them or they’ll put a watermark on every photo. I want to own the rights to all of our images and receive them all fairly quickly after the wedding, so for those reasons the large studio was ultimately out of the question.
Eventually we met with another photographer who owned his own company and was referred to us by our cinematographer, who we’ll get to in a second. Another big selling point for me besides having a very talented photographer and owning the rights to our images was having someone who would make me feel comfortable behind the camera. With a lot of these vendors it’s been more about a personality fit since most of them are generally around the same price point and are very established, so the products won’t differ as much as the relationships can. When the vendor’s work involves taking pictures that will document one of the most significant day of our lives, the relationship we have with them is paramount. This guy checked all of the boxes for us and we couldn’t be more excited to have him as our photographer on our wedding day. Before the big day we’ll also have an engagement session which will be a great opportunity for him to get to know us as a couple and our style. I highly recommend doing an engagement shoot with your photographer before the wedding if it fits within your budget.
Booking the Cinematographer
Choosing the cinematographer was a bit less work than the photographer because I just so happened to absolutely fall in love with this guy’s work and didn’t feel the need to look any further. He was one of the recommended vendors on the venue’s list. I took a look at all of the vendors but this guy’s work really stood out from the rest (I watched the videos on his website and nearly all of them made me cry!). A cinematographer shouldn’t just be filming the day, because anyone can do that, they also need to have the eye of a photographer. The talent really lies within the editing, how they string together the various parts of the day with the music and how they shoot certain moments and transition from one clip to the next. It really is an extraordinary art. I honestly couldn’t be happier with the guy we chose, he is so incredibly talented and his wedding films are so beautifully put together that they feel more like movie trailers. His products include 3, 6 and 10 minute films, longer edits of ceremony, reception, and dancing, and raw footage. We decided to go with a 6 minute film, which I thought was perfect as it’s not too short nor too long. We’ll probably also purchase the longer edit of our reception since I’ll want the full speeches on video, our first dance, the dances with our parents, etc.
As I’ve said before, the photos and videos of the day are so, so valuable to me, so I was willing to spend more money on these areas. In my opinion, if it fits within your budget, you should highly consider booking a cinematographer as you’ll have a visual recording of this most special day in your life that generations to come can enjoy! Also, our cinematographer and photographer have worked together in the past, which is a huge plus because they’re already familiar with each other’s work and will not bump heads or get into each other’s way. The last thing you want is to see your cinematographer in a lot of your photos or vice versa! So needless to say, I could not be more thrilled about our choices for these two vendors, which were at the very top of my priority list!
In case you missed it, here’s the post talking about how we booked our reception venue, and here’s the story of how Jonathan proposed! This journey so far has been nothing short of amazing. I’m one lucky gal 🙂