I chose to use an outside photographer and pay the fee. I am fortunate enough that my parents, as a wedding gift, are paying for the photographer so I am going to shell out the vendor fee. It might be a different story if I had to pay for all of it myself. Its ridiculously high but I am willing to give something else up. I did research online and they hotel photographers just don't compare to some of the others out there. There were several that we liked, you just have to go through their work and see what aesthetic fits you as a couple.