Claudia Rodriquez vs. Vanessa Vargas

pdcbride09 · August 20, 2008

hello Everyone!

I was wondering if anyone has any pics of their wedding from either of these photographers. I like both, however, I'm leaning more towards Claudia as her work is just beautiful. The only thing is that she is a lot more expensive than Vanessa. I don't know if I should save money and go w/ Vanessa or just bite the bullet and pay extra for Claudia (who's work I do like more).

Any help or recommendations would really help me out. I did not think that picking a photographer would be this stressful! It's all I could think about!! grrr!

So any pics advice would really help me out. Thanks!

SunBride · August 20, 2008

Babycow used Vanessa Vargas. She just posted the following link in her review (in the wedding review section)

babycow_bucket/TOP WEDDING PICS - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

cancunbride2be · August 20, 2008

I used Claudia and I LOVED her and her work. A sample of pics is posted in my Dreams Cancun Review.

pdcbride09 · August 20, 2008

Your pics look great. I just look the way her photos come out. Just love them. It's just a HUGE price difference from Claudia to Vanessa. Claudia is $1500 for 3 hours while Vanessa is $850 for 3 1/2 hours! they both supply prints and a cd..want to save some money..but I love her work!

Also, how long did you guys have Claudia for? Do you think 3 hours is enough for ceremony/cocktail hour/and dinner? We are having our reception at Playasia restaurant so not the basic reception. More of a sit down dinner. let me know your thoughts!

angela1184 · August 20, 2008

thats a toughy....i plan on using Claudia only bc of all the wonderful reviews on her. i was looking to save $$ too but in the long run these are pics that we will have FOREVER. its important to me that i can bring them home to show my friends/family who were unable to attend my actual wedding.

whats more important to you...variety from Claudia or price and simple pictures from Vanessa? only you know

pdcbride09 · August 21, 2008

Angela,

I hear you on the having these pics for the rest of your life. Have you looked at Vanessa Vargas at all? Her pics aren't bad at all..actually pretty cool..just don't think they edit as well as Claudia does as far as shiny foreheads/lighting and that sort of stuff.

I really think I want to use either Citalli or Erik. Did you already book w/ them? if so who did you get to chose?

Also..saw that you are from Chicago. Did you know that Southwest will be taking over ATA's flights at the end of next year which includes Cancun? We are bummed about that as our wedding will be in May. I see yours will be in November so maybe you'll get lucky w/ that!

Blkatz · August 21, 2008

I just booked Erik from Claudia's team. I had a choice who I booked. I would definitely book soon because May is a very busy month for them

RyanAmanda · August 21, 2008

Picking a photographer is a tough one.

My sister is a professional photographer yet she has NO pictures of her wedding up in her house because she hates all of them. I thought that any picture could look great with editing - that it's the photoshopping that makes a picture amazing. But apparently that's not the case. My sis has amazing photoshopping skills but there's nothing she can do to make her pictures better.

I went back and forth on photography a couple times. The reason I thought I would go for a less expensive photographer is that if you think about it, 15 years from now, your pictures will look bad. We were going through my cousins pictures the other night and we were killing ourselves laughing. It was cutting edge photography at the time but now it's horrible! The Laura Ashley BM dresses and feathered hair didn't help either...lol.

In the end, we went with the photographer I love, Del Sol. Right now I'm wishing we hired no photographer - but that's only because we're reno'ing our TINY closet into a walk-in one and had to use the closet reno budget to pay for photography...lol. I'm sure once I see our beautiful pictures, I'll have NO regrets though!!!

MomentsThatMatter · August 21, 2008

I would recommend going with the photog you love... if you did save some money and were not happy with the pics, you would be upset for a long LONG time! Its not like you can go back and redo them.

Karen · August 21, 2008

Hi. Vanessa was our photographer and we loved her. Not only was she professional, talented, affordable, and efficient. She was also just a really sweet person. Jay and I got married by ourselves. On wedding morning, my dressing assistant never showed up. I answered my door to Vanessa in a robe and my veil. She helped me zip up and calmed me with girl talk as she took photos of me. She hand delivered the photo CD to us while we were on our honey moon just a few days later. I was blown away by her beautiful pics. I highly recommend Vanessa.

Here's a link to our pics:

Slideshow of jason and karen wedding 1 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting