Finding Suppliers

The hunt for wedding suppliers can be a complex, confusing and overwhelming mine field. Yes, you could just book in with the first you meet at a wedding fair, or with the photographer that was used at the last wedding you attended as a guest. But what if that isn’t what you want to do, or what if those photographers just don’t fall within your budget/ aren’t available on your date / you just didn’t really like them?

Thankfully, there is a way to get the photographers to come to you. You will still need to research them to make sure they are right for you, but it can make your search easier and less stressful, as you will know quickly if they are available on your date, are happy to work at your venue and if they are within your budget. 

Find A Wedding Photographer .co.uk

Request quotes from photographers in your area by filling in the little quote application form on findaweddingphotographer.co.uk/ or you can browse the listings of photographers in your area. I didn’t submit a quote as I don’t currently have a genuine requirement for a photographer, but the quote request form is very quick and easy to fill in with just 7 fields. After submitting the quote request you will have photographers respond straight to your email inbox. Within 2 minutes of looking through the listings for photographers in my area I found a listing for a father and daughter photography team who advertise themselves as affordable with a price range of £500-£800.

3 Great Wedding Discoveries

Here are 3 very different wedding ideas I have discovered recently that I think are definitely worth sharing with you.

1) A fabulous recycling idea…
Recycle your wedding dress to make a christening gown. 

Previously I discussed my reasons for donating my wedding dress to charity. One of my reasons for not keeping my gown was because I couldn’t see the logic behind keeping the dress when most people store their dress away never to be looked at again, or to be pulled out once a decade or so.

But instead of simply storing, selling or donating your dress why not turn it into something else?

Flash Sale with Record The Knot

Just a quick mini update to let you know about a flash sale a wedding video company is having…

“See your wedding through the eyes of your guests with Record The Knot. We gather all the videos and images your guests capture on their devices and transform this amateur footage – with professional video treatment and editing techniques – into a totally unique, bespoke wedding video.

For the next two days we’re slashing €50 off our price, meaning you can get a full multiperspective wedding video for only €100 – British Pound: £87.03 (estimate based on current exchange rates).

But hurry, this offer ends Thursday 01/06/2017*”

Great Photography Package

It can be one of the most difficult tasks you will face when planning your wedding – the hunt for a photographer. For those who have to carefully consider budget restraints when looking for the perfect photographer the task is even harder.

I recently published a post on a website service called ‘Trusted Local’ where you upload your details and photographers contact YOU.
If you are yet to give Trusted Local a try or if you’ve not had much luck with this method as yet, I take great pleasure in introducing you to Vickie Moss.

Vickie Moss is a highly skilled Wedding Photographer based in Devon who has recently stepped in to the wedding photography business. With a year under her belt and with her second shooter being a certified photographic consultant you will have no worries about booking Vickie.

You only have to see her pictures from Morwenna and Ian’s wedding for proof of the absolute faith you can give to Vickie in photographing your special day. Ian confided in Vickie that he pretty much had a fear of cameras and actually didn’t want any wedding photos at all. Check out the gallery of the wedding to see just how awesome the pictures turned out!
At the moment Vickie is offering coverage from the ceremony to the 1st dance for just £695. For this fantastic price you will have Vickie and a second shooter (who just so happens to be her fiancé) and 150+ fully edited photos.

If you are a Bride or Groom to be getting married in the area of Devon don’t hesitate to contact Vickie to discuss your wedding photography needs!

Shoot-It-Yourself

If your budget is anything like mine there is categorically no room for a videographer, not unless that great aunt with the hairy mole on her chin gifts you with a handsome cheque.

Even if a videographer is in your budget you may be thinking twice about if you want one or not. A stranger pointing a camera in your friends faces asking them to comment on your day so far or to give a message to you? Your friends & family may understandably feel uncomfortable or freeze, not knowing what to say. Would your video feel personal, fun and truly reflect your day?

Well, thanks to Andrea and Becks (who you may remember from Dragons Den) at Shoot-It-Yourself you can have a professionally edited video of your special day shot by your friends and family!

With packages starting at just £199 (edit only package) a wedding video could never be more affordable. With the edit only package you ask your friends and family to film your wedding on their smart phones and video camcorders, send SIY the clips and let them edit your videos to your own choice of music.

If you had your heart set on a wedding video before the budget sheet told you that you couldn’t afford one then this would be the perfect solution for you.

Photographer Comparison

Finding a wedding photographer can feel like a minefield! From deciding on what style of photography you want, to trying to traverse the maze of photographers in your area, the style of photography they offer, not to mention trying to compare their different packages and the costs for each.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could input what you want and the photographers come to you?

Well, believe it or not, this is possible! The website ‘Trusted Local‘ provides a service where you can request quotes from local photographers to your area, and all you have to do is fill in a few details about what you require.

I’ve just filled in my details, and am now waiting to receive quotes. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Click, Flash, Snap

The uncles have had a few drinks, downing their last one, they make their way outside where one drops his trousers and there is a flash from behind, laughing and celebrating at their idea, another joins him and drops his trousers as another flash goes off. Inside the ceremony room children are running around taking snaps, unsure of what they are actually snapping, and too busy rushing around to stand still long enough to create a steady focus. A few weeks later as the Bride and Groom go to collect the results they begin to laugh but ultimately feel disappointed at what they see in front of them.

This is often the story that is created when disposable cameras are given out at weddings on the tables for guests to use to take pictures. 20/30 years ago, giving out disposable cameras for guests to use at a wedding was a good idea. It meant that the Bride and Groom got some nice, informal pictures of their guests that they wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. Now a days disposable cameras are nothing but a waste of money for the budget bride.

You are looking at about £2 per disposable camera and then £3.50 ish per camera to process them. To buy and process 10 cameras you’re looking at £55.

Disposable Camera

Aside from the cost there is the point of how useless they are when most people, if not all have either a digital camera or camera phone, that has a zoom, better pixel-ation and different modes they can use depending on the photo conditions, inside, outside, dark etc. Your guests will be able to take much better pictures with their digital cameras than they ever will be able to with disposable point and snaps. Plus they will give you copies for free, emailing them to you and often putting the pictures on Facebook.

Not to mention that the majority of people who use disposable cameras at weddings are children, who run around snapping people, with their fingers over the lens or moving the camera so that it is too fuzzy to make out who is in the picture, or drunk men who take pictures of themselves mooning.

My sister in-law and brother in-law felt pressured into having disposable cameras at their wedding, which they say to this day was a waste of time and money as loads of guests had their own digital cameras that they were using. They never even got them developed.

Therefore I am campaigning for any bride, not just the budget bride to step away from the disposable cameras, and to for once, trust your guests to be able to take some pictures and give them to you after the wedding.

Did you have disposable cameras on the tables at your wedding? Do you regret or are you really glad you decided to provide them? Please comment with your thoughts as I’d love to hear from you.

My What Happens Next

In January 2011 I finally got around to contacting the local registry office to provisionally book the registra.

I found out that because we live in Berkshire but are getting married in Wiltshire, we would have to do the legal stuff and pay the legal fees with our regsitry office closest to us in Berkshire, and would have to book and pay for a registra from the registry office closest to our venue in Wiltshire.

So I provisionally booked the registra in Wiltshire and had to wait to do anything with the Berkshire registry office until a year to go. We booked the venue 2 years before the date so didn’t feel in too much of a rush to start booking anything else.

photography was an area that I was determined to save money on. Looking at how much photographers charged made me feel sick, and yet so many of them didn’t even give prints, just a DVD with your pictures on. I tried contacting colleges in the area to see if we could get a student photographer to no fruition. After contacting various photographers, I found our photographer by chance on a wedding forum. He was fantastic, great to communicate with and the pictures on his website were perfect for the style of photography we wanted.

One thing to bare in mind when choosing your photographer is the style of photos that you prefer. We wanted traditional photo’s; the family shots, the cutting of the cake, signing the register, a few of us as Mr and Mrs and then a few candid shots of everyone mingling and having a good time. I wasn’t interested in the shots that seem popular with the pricier photographers of the wedding party running through a field, or jumping up and down etc. If there was anything I didn’t want to be doing on my wedding day was running or jumping.

The photographer (zndr photogrpahy) offered us a great price and so we paid our deposit with him.

From my experience of looking for photographers one of the things that I would make sure you ask them is if they require to be fed during the day and evening (depending on how long you are having them for) and if they require you to pay for them to have a room at the venue the night of the wedding. Too many a time have I read on wedding forums about brides who thought they had found a great photographer who closer to the wedding then informed the bride and groom that they required to be fed during the wedding breakfast, for drinks throughout the day to be bought for them and/or to have a room provided for them the night of the wedding. If you do not ask before putting down the deposit with them this can come as a very unexpected and un-welcomed expense.

We decided that it wasn’t our duty to entertain our guests as if they wouldn’t enjoy the day without entertain so forwent the clowns, bouncey castles, singers etc that can be bought in to entertain yourselves and your guests at the wedding, not only because they cost money we didn’t have, but this was a big factor in our decision. The only entertainment we have booked is the hotel recommended DJ to play in the evening.

Make sure to draw up a contract with everyone you employ for your wedding, photographer, caterer, entertainers etc, to stipulate, how much you need to pay them and when, how long they will be working for and what they will be providing, and cancellation terms, for what happens if you or they cancel to protect yourselves and them.