What to do?
Less than a month to go and things are finally starting to really come together! Thank goodness. We have definitely had our fair share of surprises in planning this wedding, but nothing compares to the doozy we got yesterday.
We finally had our engagement pictures taken. I know I know, most people get their engagement pictures taken when they are somewhat newly engaged, not 29 days before the wedding. We intended to have them taken in early June but hesitated to set up the appointment as it seemed rain was in the forecast every day. We really really wanted some nice pictures outside. July just got plain busy, and a couple of those weeks I was consumed in panic that our photographer would not actually live up to my expectations of the style we wanted. Fortunately my concerns were mostly short-lived, as he showed us examples of his photography that reassured me he was still a good choice for us.
And so that brought us to our appointment yesterday. Of course we pick a day that is 93 degrees out! But no rain, so we succeeded in that regard. We met our photographer at Tuggs at Saint Anthony Main for our session, starting out with a nice cold beer (photographer had water) as we discussed our plan for the photos. We then spent the next two hours wandering around the area, taking pictures by the river, along the cobblestone streets, in the historic buildings nearby, and even a few in the most random places you could think of (parking lot?). We even found ourselves amongst a homeless person's belongings as we took pictures by some beautiful arches. (Fortunately the homeless person was not "home" at the time). It was HOT, and of course it is recommended to wear long sleeves and long pants to avoid drawing attention away from your face. So there was some definite sweating and glistening faces, but our photographer graciously carried around our towels and my makeup so that I could reapply as needed. We had so much fun!
We finished up our session at his studio, taking some formal portraits. We then had the opportunity to see the pictures, and oh my gosh were they stunning. Better than I could have imagined, which wiped away any remaining reservations about him and his abilities! Neither of us have ever really seen our own profiles much, so it took us some getting used to all the pictures of us gazing loving at each other. :) But overall we are so pleased with how it all turned out.
And then...dun dun dunnnn...we start talking pricing. The session was free/included with our wedding package, but we were prepared to have to pay for actual prints. Even prepared to spend more than we'd like. But not prepared for what we were presented with - $80 for a 4x6. For a single 4x6!!! Excuse me? An 8x10 was $100, and the rest was equally outrageous. And of course our photographer, who has claimed more than once that he's a lousy salesman and just says it how it is, stressed that this is the going rate. You know, in 1970 a 4x7 was $12.50, and then double that every ten years or something ridiculous. He offered to cut the rates in half, but that is still beyond ridiculous. The other option is to buy the whole CD of images, which in theory sounds like a marvelous idea and the smart thing to do. Though it is cheaper than his per print pricing, it is still way above what we were prepared to pay. And we truly only wanted our 10 or so favorites and then some copies for our parents, grandparents, etc. Not all 200 of them, or at least not for that price.
So we managed to leave, after an hour of rather annoying discussion as to why we needed to buy the CD, with the agreement that we'd get back to him on what we want to order. I was totally disheartened and deflated. We had just taken some of the most beautiful pictures I have ever been a part of, only to realize that we don't know that we can justify the expense to actually have them. Grrrr.
That brings me to today, and to the point of this posting. I am curious if any of you that may read my blog have had engagement pictures taken. If you did, are you happy you did? Do you think it is worth the price to have those pictures now? If you didn't, have you ever regretted not doing it? I don't really know when we would ever get professional pictures done like this, wedding aside, so it feels like this is our chance to have them if we want.
We are so at a loss for what to do. I keep thinking about the pictures and would be so disappointed to never see them again... If nothing else, at least I am now confident that we will be happy with our wedding photos. And fortunately we have an agreement with him that will prevent this same thing from happening with our wedding photos.
We finally had our engagement pictures taken. I know I know, most people get their engagement pictures taken when they are somewhat newly engaged, not 29 days before the wedding. We intended to have them taken in early June but hesitated to set up the appointment as it seemed rain was in the forecast every day. We really really wanted some nice pictures outside. July just got plain busy, and a couple of those weeks I was consumed in panic that our photographer would not actually live up to my expectations of the style we wanted. Fortunately my concerns were mostly short-lived, as he showed us examples of his photography that reassured me he was still a good choice for us.
And so that brought us to our appointment yesterday. Of course we pick a day that is 93 degrees out! But no rain, so we succeeded in that regard. We met our photographer at Tuggs at Saint Anthony Main for our session, starting out with a nice cold beer (photographer had water) as we discussed our plan for the photos. We then spent the next two hours wandering around the area, taking pictures by the river, along the cobblestone streets, in the historic buildings nearby, and even a few in the most random places you could think of (parking lot?). We even found ourselves amongst a homeless person's belongings as we took pictures by some beautiful arches. (Fortunately the homeless person was not "home" at the time). It was HOT, and of course it is recommended to wear long sleeves and long pants to avoid drawing attention away from your face. So there was some definite sweating and glistening faces, but our photographer graciously carried around our towels and my makeup so that I could reapply as needed. We had so much fun!
We finished up our session at his studio, taking some formal portraits. We then had the opportunity to see the pictures, and oh my gosh were they stunning. Better than I could have imagined, which wiped away any remaining reservations about him and his abilities! Neither of us have ever really seen our own profiles much, so it took us some getting used to all the pictures of us gazing loving at each other. :) But overall we are so pleased with how it all turned out.
And then...dun dun dunnnn...we start talking pricing. The session was free/included with our wedding package, but we were prepared to have to pay for actual prints. Even prepared to spend more than we'd like. But not prepared for what we were presented with - $80 for a 4x6. For a single 4x6!!! Excuse me? An 8x10 was $100, and the rest was equally outrageous. And of course our photographer, who has claimed more than once that he's a lousy salesman and just says it how it is, stressed that this is the going rate. You know, in 1970 a 4x7 was $12.50, and then double that every ten years or something ridiculous. He offered to cut the rates in half, but that is still beyond ridiculous. The other option is to buy the whole CD of images, which in theory sounds like a marvelous idea and the smart thing to do. Though it is cheaper than his per print pricing, it is still way above what we were prepared to pay. And we truly only wanted our 10 or so favorites and then some copies for our parents, grandparents, etc. Not all 200 of them, or at least not for that price.
So we managed to leave, after an hour of rather annoying discussion as to why we needed to buy the CD, with the agreement that we'd get back to him on what we want to order. I was totally disheartened and deflated. We had just taken some of the most beautiful pictures I have ever been a part of, only to realize that we don't know that we can justify the expense to actually have them. Grrrr.
That brings me to today, and to the point of this posting. I am curious if any of you that may read my blog have had engagement pictures taken. If you did, are you happy you did? Do you think it is worth the price to have those pictures now? If you didn't, have you ever regretted not doing it? I don't really know when we would ever get professional pictures done like this, wedding aside, so it feels like this is our chance to have them if we want.
We are so at a loss for what to do. I keep thinking about the pictures and would be so disappointed to never see them again... If nothing else, at least I am now confident that we will be happy with our wedding photos. And fortunately we have an agreement with him that will prevent this same thing from happening with our wedding photos.
That really sucks that they are so expensive! Okay here is my story. We did have engagement pictures taken, and like you we did them about 5 weeks before the weddding because I wanted some done outdoors and that spring was not cooperative. Our session was also included with the wedding package but I will say the photo prices were cheaper (still way too much but less than what you are looking at) so we did order some but not too many. I will tell you that not one of those pictures is displayed anywhere in our house at this time - as soon as we got the wedding pictures those covered up the engagement pictures and have never been changed! And then of course now with a kid his pictures pretty consume every frame so no one would ever know by coming to our house that we ever had engagement pictures done! I say just order one or two for yourself (make copies on a home copier, if you don't have one we do, so you can give a copy to some family members) and then spend the big money on the wedding pictures!
ReplyDeleteSorry you have to make these kinds of decisions, it sucks that photography is so expensive. Good Luck and enjoy your last month before the wedding, I still can't believe how fast it is coming up!
That is insanely expensive and I can't imagine that is a normal rate!! I have always wanted to take pictures outside like that...it sounds like an awesome location. Andy and I had his dad take ours, but we really only used them for our wedding invites. We have lots of wedding pictures displayed in our house though!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mandy, get 1 or 2...either a 5x7 and an 8x10 for yourself just to have. Since the wedding is so close, your family can wait and just have wedding pictures! I'm sure they aren't sitting around wondering when they are going to get an engagement picture of you guys, right? But totally buy at least 1 for yourself! I'm sure you'd regret not seeing those awesome pictures again.
Buddy, ugh. What a nightmare, those prices are INSANE! Not at all the going rate, what is wrong with this guy? Insane. Wow.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm glad they turned out nice though, and I would say you have to get some, especially since they were so beautiful. And I have to somewhat sorta disagree with Mandy and say that engagement pictures are actually pretty timeless and classic, and are sort of the perfect thing to have in a frame displayed in your home. I know my grandparents, and both sets of our parents still have our engagement pictures on their mantles/buffets. I mean when do you guys see yourself getting prof. pictures done of the two of you, without wearing a poofy wedding dress and tux. You know?
Ugh. What a punk, I'm mad at that photog for you. Grrrr... will he let you buy the digital copies of like your two favorites? Then you could get prints done for you and all your family?
I should send you the pricing package of the lady that took pics of gus/dan/i this past year. I know she hasn't been in the business as long as him, but it would give you something to compare against.
Thanks ladies! I appreciate all of your comments/perspective! I forgot to mention that he told us all we needed to do was not eat at Taco Bell every day for a year and we'd be paying for the CD...or use the money in our card box from the wedding (I'm shaking my head in disbelief and annoyance)
ReplyDeleteI think I definitely need to get at least one copy of my ultimate favorites, because I would just cry if I never saw them again. And I know our families would like a copy of a nice picture of the two of us as well, so maybe we need to do some serious negotiating with this guy. Alicia, if you could send me info on your lady, that would be awesome. The more ammo we have, the better. He'd be crazy to not try to negotiate some sort of sale, instead of getting absolutely nothing out of the session.
Anyways, I appreciate all of your empathy!