The Photographer Who Wasn't

I should start this post by saying even though I treasure the beautiful photos of mis Abuelos' from their wedding, when we first started discussing our budget photography was the first thing we cut. My fiancé has been in 7 weddings... he's a social butterfly what can I say. I have been in 3 weddings myself. The outcome of being in the wedding party at a collective 10 separate weddings, is a loathing for all things "Wedding Photography." There is nothing worse, to us, than doing the awkward posing that these photographers ask you to do.

Awkward Photo #1:

Source

Awkward Photo #2:

Source

Ahh posed photography....we much prefer the journalistic/candid approach to wedding photography. So rather than pay someone upwards of $3,000 we asked my Fiancé's sister who is an artist, an art/photo/ceramics teacher, and overall amazing person to do the photos. She was floored and excited. All she asked for was a flash and a tripod. SOLD!

Source: FSIL

In fact FSIL is SO good at photography everyone just assumed that the photo above was one of our "engagement photos." So we simply say "Sure is," and exchange knowing glances about how much we hate "engagement photos" as well. The fact of the matter was the above photo was a candid shot of me sitting in a tree watching FSIL take photos of the stunning Sedona red rock and my fiancé sneaking up and tickling me. I look G_d awful in posed photos, and I can never seem to smile right. So candid is definitely the way to go for us.

This is not to say I have not had times where I have thought I may have made a bad choice. My Catholic guilt occasionally goes crazy and I feel terrible for imposing upon her during her little brother's wedding- but my fears have been quelled by the entire Future Family In Law that FSIL is quite happy and is very much looking forward to shooting the wedding. Since she hasn't ever shot a wedding before we have done a dry run at the venues, which was quite fun for us. Those photos to come!

So how are you and yours saving money? Or do you think not having a "professional wedding photographer" is a bad idea?