5 years ago, Jose and I became husband and wife. Our wedding day was so fun and beautiful! It was a great day in late April with rain only at night, and by that time we were already dancing away. All our family, friends and coworkers celebrated with us, the food tasted AMAZING, we had the BEST DJ and we couldn’t have asked for a better day 🙂 Well… there is ONE thing we could have done better. Hire a photographer we LOVED!

6 years ago when Jose and I were engaged and planning our wedding, we were working our retail jobs and living in a small apartment. Both our fathers had passed away and we knew our mother’s wouldn’t be able to completely cover our wedding for us so we had to pay a lot of it ourselves. We knew there were certain things that were important to us and some that weren’t as important… of course, photography was important to me. I was just toying with the idea of starting some form of a photography business, I ALWAYS had a camera on me and I knew this was important to me. The minute we became engaged I did research and instantly fell in love with two photographers. Both were very close to my style of photography that I use in my own business… both were about $5,000.00 JUST for photography. This didn’t matter to me! I KNEW the photographs were all I cared about and I felt an instant “click” when I saw these photographers. However, we had a budget and Jose was NOT into the idea of paying that much for just one thing. ESPECIALLY after we attended a Bridal show and we found a photographer that for $5,000.00 gave us photography, videography AND a photo booth. His photos were OKAY. I didn’t feel anything when I looked at his photos, I didn’t even LIKE how some of his photos looked and after we met with him, I didn’t even love him! But the budget took control and we decided it was the best “bang for our buck”. Wow were we STUPID.

EVERYTHING after this went wrong. They HASSLED me for our payments (it was broken down into 5 payments). Our engagement session was only scheduled on HIS schedule – even the PLACE! You couldn’t just pick any location. He’d show a calendar and it was only on Tuesday and Thursdays that he did engagement sessions. The first Tuesday would be in Jersey City, the first Thursday in Central Park. Pick which date and location you’d like… WHAT??? It was crazy. And not only that, our engagement session lasted FIFTEEN MINUTES!! I kid you not. We picked Central Park and he showed up about a half hour later and photographed us for 15 minutes because that was the only time he had budgeted for us. INSANE. Our engagement pictures were OKAY. We got those back pretty quickly in an online gallery that we could order prints from. But we never got any proofs or negatives! Til this day, I STILL don’t have any proofs of my engagement photos. My gut was telling me we had definitely made the wrong choice after our engagement session and our wedding sealed the deal.

While he did show up on time on our wedding day, both him and his second photographer came to photograph ONLY ME! There are no professional photos of Jose and our groomsmen getting ready. Thank GOD my mother-in-law was there with her point and shoot and took a ton of photos, otherwise we’d have nothing! The photos were just TERRIBLE. Absolutely terrible. Terrible poses, terrible quality, just the worst. My favorite photos from our day were the ones on my mother-in-laws’ camera and the photos of DJ’s took at the reception! The videographer was his son, who was quiet and not an expert at taking videos in any way. I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve watched that video and that’s only because it SUCKED! If we invested in a real cinematographer, I’d probably love watching my wedding video! We didn’t receive our photos or our thank you’s for MONTHS and our wedding album?? We received it ONE YEAR LATER. That’s not even my fault! I picked the photos and approved the album 2 months after our wedding, I did my part on time – it was his slacking that made us wait forever for it! **thankfully the ONLY good thing we paid for with him was the photo booth!!**

I HATE our wedding photos and not only that, I HATED our experience. There was no connection. We were just another “client” to him. He just showed up, did his job and left. I vowed I would NEVER run a business the way he did and to this day, I deliver on that promise. Whether it’s with me or with someone else, do NOT let your budget decide your photographer. Pick someone who you feel a true connection, “a click” with, because at the end of the day THAT relationship is what will make for great photos! I love each and every one of my couples and I pour my heart into their experience with me before, during and after the wedding day. My business is because of THEM and I know I’d be nothing without my wonderful couples and so I am here to cater YOU. I don’t just show up to do a job. I love what I do and I love the people I work for. Your photographer should want the very best for you and your wedding day, not just want your money. Do not look at the dollar signs of a wedding photographer – I PROMISE you that you will regret it. I hate all my wedding photos so from my own experience, I can promise you there is NO worse feeling then not loving the photos from one of the best days of your life 🙁

That’s my sob story! lol Luckily we have photos of us we DO love from when we did our Anniversary session with the amazing Abby Grace Photography! I hope to do another one soon and I hope to have a vow renewal because damn it, we need a RE-DO! It’s NOT fair! Keep me in mind the next time you see a photographer you love but a few more dollar signs next to their name then you’d like to spend. I’m telling you… figure out a way to MAKE IT HAPPEN! You won’t regret it 🙂

**you guessed it, NONE of the photos in this post were from our wedding photographer. All from my mother-in-law, the DJ & Abby! Also, I don’t think our teeth are AS yellow as they appear to be in that first photo lol **