still kickin'

So, I've been safely outside the bride blogosphere. It's nice out here. I encourage brides to remove themselves from other people's wedding plans for a while. Get some perspective. breathe.

My break was actually pretty busy with vendor appts and booking the photographer (yay!), florist (yay!) and dj (yay!). Yep, all done. I did wonder why I was spending a lot of time picking out a florist when in comparison, I spent one hour to pick out my dress. At first it seemed like I SHOULD agonize about what flowers and the aesthetic, and in the end, it mattered, but not as much as that click you have when you realize you can trust someone to do right by you. And do an awesome job.

We hired the first photographer, florist and dj that we met with. That said, we interviewed 6 photographers, 3 florists and by the time we got around to the dj, we were so tired of meeting with people that we just said f* it, let's trust our instincts and since he was in our price range, and all of his past customers *glowed* about him, we booked him.

We did seek out other customers' feedback on each of the vendors. That was key. Sending in deposits hurt (him more than me), but I guess we'll be paying out a lot more in the near future.

It's nice having this all done, so now we get to focus on the holidays.

Photography

We are on a pretty tight budget. Mostly because we decided to get married in one of the most expensive cities in New York. Yes, yes, I know, I could have totally indied it out and had a super budget wedding, but in the end, I don't want my last memory of my elderly relatives to be their continual harping that their boxed lunch didn't have chips. They shall have dinner. Just no favors. or save the dates. or other little things that end up increasing the costs.

Now, about the photography. I have been known to cry when viewing online galleries of friends' weddings (esp when set to Feist's Limit to Your Love, geez, waterworks!). So, we wanted someone good. But then you contact photographers and all of these terms start floating in your head, high res cd, low res online gallery, art edits, full resolution, blah blah blah.

I had no idea what to ask for. After interviewing numerous photographers, we went with someone affordable but awesome and I'm really excited.

Here are my helpful hints/questions when interviewing a photographer:

1. Make sure they bring a sample of their books
2. Look for the photos that you want yourself to be in
3. Ask what their timeline is to getting you photos after the wedding
4. Ask what their timeline is to getting you the completed package you sign up for
5. Ask that those timelines be included in the contract
6. Ask for contact information for at least 2 of their former clients, get their feedback before you sign anything
7. Do they have liability insurance (required by most venues)
8. Do they mind having a list of "must have" photos
9. Do they require a second photog for over a certain amount of guests? ours doesn't and i find it odd that a few do
10. How long have they been photographing?
11. Look for pictures in all sorts of light
12. Do they ENJOY what they do and can you tell from meeting with them that this isn't just a way for them to make money when they really want to shoot fruit for a magazine all day
13. Would you want to be friends with them? because you want to be comfortable with the person caputuring some of your most intimate moments.
14. Are they confident enough to handle your most annoying relative? you know, the one with the disposable camera ruining your professional pictures with their interference?
15. Do you get rights to all of your photos? you'd be surprised, some make you pay
16. If albums are your thing, how much will they help you?
17. What is their payment structure? I'm not comfortable paying the full balance until I see the product. I find it to be a huge leap of faith.

Just my thoughts.