DIY Pictures (in addition to some professional)

We have a really nice digital camera that takes good pics. We get 24 photos in our package for free, but were thinking about doing the rest DIY with some help from friends and family. Including our TTD session! I know this is a once in a lifetime event, but we really do not have the funds for an extra $1000 or so for additional professional ones. Anyone done DIY photos? If so please post!!!

We're doing our own photos! My Mom has a wicked camera and one of her good friends has taken up photography...I've sent her links to a bunch of great DW photographers slideshows and I'm not too worried about it! Everyone I've talked to that is my age, 25-30, says "how could you not have a professional take the photos?" but everyone of my parents generation says don't waste your money! Really you end up putting one or two of the photos on the wall and the rest stay in an album or on a computer disk. I've seen a bunch of friends wedding albums who had professionals take the photos and they're nothing too special! My FI and I are fairly photogenic and with the beautiful backdrop I'm sure we'll get a few shots that we'll want to frame. That's my rationale for not spending thousands on a photographer...anyone else?

I applaude your bravery but I would be afraid of DIY pics. A photographer's job is to catch those special shots that only they can see. It's like just because you can pick up a paintbrush doesn't mean you can create a masterpiece know what I mean?? but I wish you best of luck!

bahia: OMG I get the SAME reaction! My parents are the ones saying "save your money" (maybe partially because they do not want to foot the bill) and then friends are like "Splurge!"

I agree you only hang up one or two and the rest stay put away, I think our free 24 photos might have to do it for us on the professional end...

My newsletter tips would help for a TTD, even though they are focused on children. The one that would probably help the most is knowing that it will be a lot easier to do your TTD in good light. Plan to start about an hour before sunset when the light is softer.

Most people can get a few nice shots in great light. Now to get your wedding covered nicely, you really need someone who really knows what they are doing & has lots of practice. Weddings move so fast. To cover everything & do it right, a photographer really needs the experience & skill.

I had an ultra-budget wedding & was going to skip photography & just hope enough guests got good shots. It was making me nervous. I finally decided to up my photography budget & I am so glad I did.

I do think the older family members didn't get why I'd spend so much on photography, but they got it afterwards. They had never seen wedding pictures like mine. After sorting through all the shots my guests took, I was really glad I didn't reley on just those. In the bright sun, most peoples pictures didn't turn out. Now that I know photography, I can see why they didn't work & I can see what it took our pro photographer to get spectacular images while the guests were too dark.

It's not even 2 years since my wedding & the photographs mean even more to me now. There are so many that I consider priceless, like this one of my father.

A huge print from my wedding is currently the main decoration in my living room. So often I think about how glad I am that the girls at BDW convinced me to splurge on my wedding photography.

So my advice would be if you can cut back anywhere else, consider it. Unless you really don't care a lot about pictures. Some people don't which is understandable.

If you are going to reley on guests pictures, you might want to take a card reader & a computer or another way to back up the images. It can be hard to get the images from guests after the wedding. Not everyone is set up to burn CDs. I ended up paying per image on snapfish to get some from guests.

Thanks for the info, I think I will up the photo budget, somehow...

I am just going to rely on the photos that come in the package. One of my BMs husband does photography as a hobby, and is really good so he is going to supplement. I just can't see spending a lot of money on photos that are going to be put in a book and stored on a shelf .... just my thoughts though.

I echo the comments of some of the other ladies, I'd try to avoid DIY wedding photography if you can. You never know what you are going to get with relying on guests. Perhaps you should shop around before discounting a pro. The photographer from my venue was pretty pricey as well, so I looked around and found a great photographer within my budget. I am going with a digital only package (all images in high resolution on DVD) so I will be able to print as many images as I want.

Of course I will still encourage guests to take pics as well but their pictures will just be a nice bonus Good luck!

Everyone has that one thing that's important to them. For many of us here it's photos, since we're all so photo crazy. I would never want to rely on my guest photos. My fiance proposed to me in front of 12 friends who KNEW what he was about to do, and not one of them brought a camera! I grabbed my camera and said "someone PLEASE take a stinkin photo already!" For me, photos are super special. That being said, I wouldnt rely on my crowd to capture the moment.

For chicas who know their photos are gonna be in a dusty album, it might not be worth the splurge for you. Just bc it's important to me doesn't mean it has to be for you too. We're all on a budget so you have to figure out what tops your charts.

If you really want to go DIY on your photos, I'd designate one person to be in charge and give them a list of specific photos you want so they don't get missed. Don't waste your $ on disposable cameras. Go in with fairly low expectations so that you might be pleasantly surprised. If you think you'll be saddened if your friend's photos don't rock, then this might not be the way to go. Just my $0.02!