Tips for wedding photography on a budget

Here are some ideas on how you can save some money on wedding photography:

1. Hire a photographer for just part of the wedding.
Some photographers have packages, other photographers will work on an hourly rate. Perhaps you just need someone for group shots and portraits and maybe only an hour or two of the reception instead of an 8-10 package rate. It never hurts to ask.

2. Make the album yourself.
Some photographers make you buy their album in their package. Other photographers
will let you purchase your own album.(After all what if you don’t like the particular album they use? There are a million online companies now that sell albums. MAKE SURE YOU BUY ONE WITH ARCHIVAL PAGES so the pictures don’t get ruined over time.

3. Make the prints yourself.
Some photographers who shoot digitally will just let you purchase a CD with hi-resolution files so you can take them to be printed yourself. Photographers who shoot with film sometimes will let you purchase the negatives so you can print the
images yourself. The downfall here is that you have to make sure you are going to a
high end printer where the pros go and not your local drugstore. Do a test print or two to make sure.

4. Don’t buy those cameras for the table! The pictures never come out that good and you end up spending a lot of money.


5. Do not skimp on the photographer! Better to have someone great for less time than
a non-professional who isn't trained in wedding photography. That includes friends,
relatives and well meaning acquaintances who "moonlight" doing photography!