The True Value of a Pro
After over 15 years of covering weddings, I have been witness to almost every kind of wedding imaginable: four person affairs under the boughs of flowering fruit trees, vows exchanged on top of mile-high mountains, and elaborate beach nuptials at five star resorts. They all have one thing in common….something didn’t go quite as planned.
Now most of my brides and grooms are savvy individuals. They have planned every detail (sometimes even over-planned a bit) to ensure that their special day was one they could enjoy. So you can’t chalk their wedding day woes up to a lack of planning. They were merely smacked square in the head by ole’ Murphy himself. And you know what….most of them were completely unaware that anything had even gone awry.
“How??”, you might ask. “How could they not know when something went wrong? What, were they so stressed about getting married that they didn’t even notice?” Nope, quite the opposite. They had done their homework and hired true professionals to surround them on their wedding day. People who were passionate about what they do, who treated the couple’s wedding as if it were their own, who had the experience to know exactly what to do if a problem arose– a true wedding professional. Not someone who thinks it might be fun to ‘do weddings’. Not someone who is under the illusion that weddings are ‘easy money’. No. Rather someone who could step up to the plate and protect the bride and groom from all the little problems that crop up during major events like weddings.
Now, I’m a photographer, so I could naturally tell you of photography related emergencies (such as the time that I had not one, but two cameras give up the ghost right in the middle of a wedding), but most professional vendors would be able to tell stories of their own. Fortunately I was able to look at my assistant and say, “go get my other camera”. As a pro, I plan for the worst and hope for the best. I carry at least three cameras to every wedding. Can your weekend warrior photographer whom you hired for a bargain of $750 say that? Likely not. My couple never even knew that anything was amiss…as it should be. This is a day that you, as the betrothed, should be able to relax and truly enjoy the romance as the moments of your wedding go by.
So before you start thinking “How can I get a photographer for cheap?”, stop and ask yourself if saving that money is truly worth it. Wedding planning is an area where most often you get what you pay for. Decide on your priorities and make your vendor selections based on what is important to you, not what someone else says should be important. It’s a common saying that “when the wedding is over, all you have left are the photographs”. Now I think that is going a bit too far, personally, but the point is a good one. Flowers do wilt, the food is eaten (and so often you don’t even get a bite!), dresses are doused with adult beverages of all types—but your pictures save your memories. It’s why they are so important. Don’t trust those memories to just anyone. Find a photographer who is a true professional. You won’t regret it.
Ginger Moseley
Ginger is a wedding and lifestyle photographer located in North Carolina.