Photography

When I was making a photography decision I hadn't created the blog yet so I thought I would go ahead and post about that process since for me it was quite possibly the biggest if not one of the biggest vendor decisions.  After the wedding is over the cake is eaten, the flowers die, invitations get thrown out, the dress goes in the closet but the pictures are the only physical thing you have left that you hopefully will be able to display.  Photography is the documentation of the event you spent lots of time and money planning and of course you want it to be captured and most likely you want something nicer than crooked snapshots Uncle Fred took.

I know I tortured my family with all of my photography talk especially my sister. She was gracious enough to go to all of my initial meetings and then sit with me pouring over photographers' work and listening to me discuss the same stuff over and over and over and over.  I even tormented a few friends at work asking them to look at work and give me their opinions.  I know I was a bit ridiculous during this decision and I thank all of you who endured me throughout the process.

I started with a list of 40+ photographers that I had either found through recommendations on the knot or those who advertised in magazines, websites etc...  After researching these photographers by looking through their online portfolios and pictures from other brides who graciously shared their pictures.   I narrowed it down to my top 15 photographers based on photography style.  After contacting these photographers and getting more information I set up meetings with 5 photographers. There were many other photographers I would have loved to meet with however I didn't want to even look at someone that just was completely out of our ballpark budget wise.   In my opinion you definitely get what you pay for, to an extent, which is why we were willing to splurge a bit if necessary, however you have to draw the line somewhere based on your budget.  I also felt that there had to be great photographers out there that weren't uber expensive, we just had to look harder.  That being said our decision was based on WAY more than price but it's obviously part of the decision making process.

During our meetings I was meticulous about getting all the info I needed and took the same questionairre to all the meetings to make sure I didn't forget to ask anything. A few of them thought I was a bit off my rocker. We then even had a second meeting with my top 2 picks to make the final decision.

I am very excited to say that we are having Geri Ciulla of Ciulla Photography photograph our wedding! She has amazing style and does beautiful work that speaks for itself. She has an eye for catching all the details and the small moments some people might miss.  But on top of it all she has a great personality and is full of energy!  Both myself and Andy clicked with her which was important since she will be with us all day.  She didn't bat an eye at any of my questions and even seemed to appreciate that I was making sure to do the correct work to know that we would be a good fit.  She is definitely worth every penny and I know she could charge way more and I would still be happy to pay her fees.

Check out her work on her website or blog.