The 5 P’s - How to Choose your Wedding Photographer
January 14, 2007 | Filed Under Articles, weddings | Comments Off
There is so much to think about and plan for your wedding day…the dress, the venue, the cake, the flowers, gifts for your bridesmaids and groomsmen, wedding décor, the list is endless! You need the perfect photographer to capture all the exacting details and effort you have put into this, the very best day of your life… after all, you’re going to remember your wedding day through the eyes, heart and talent of your photographer…
Uncle Jack can take nice pictures – let’s get him to take the photos… I chose a beautiful dress with a fabulous train which was meant to be fanned out and shown off in the photographs. We got a ‘friend who takes great pictures’ to photograph our wedding and needless to say, my train is lying in a heap at my feet in most pictures! BIG mistake… a good photographer would never have let this happen – attention to detail is SO important!
How to choose the perfect photographer for you?
As you might imagine, wedding photography is one of the most challenging types of professional photography – there are no ‘second takes’! You will want to select a wedding photographer who has the skills and experience to capture everyone looking their very best and the skills to produce beautiful work. At the same time, your photographer should have the personality to complement you on your most joyous day. Remember, you will be interacting with this person all day in sometimes stressful conditions. In addition, your photographer will be interacting extensively with your friends, family and members of your wedding party. Take your time and follow some of the following simple steps (The 5 P’s), and you will most certainly be satisfied with the outcome…
- PHOTOGRAPHS – Narrow down your choice of photographer by the photos they produce. You will find a wide range of descriptive terms attached to today’s wedding photography; documentary, traditional, reportage or photojournalistic and contemporary are all terms used to describe style and approach. Do the research, look at as many wedding photos as you can and see what you like! In these fabulous days of the internet, this is an easier task for the modern bride, as most experienced wedding photographers have websites you can visit, or websites such as Celebration.co.za give you a showcase of professionals to choose from. Use their websites to study their photographic style and ability. In this way, you can save time doing personal interviews by narrowing the selection before you start interviewing the shortlist! When making the final choice of photographer, ask to see a whole wedding album - complete coverage of a single wedding is a lot more important than seeing a selection of beautiful highlights from different weddings. When looking through the album, evaluate the work by placing yourself in the position that this could have been YOUR wedding coverage.
- PERFORMANCE – Undoubtedly the best way a bride can prejudge the competency of a wedding photographer is a recommendation from a friend, colleague or family member in whom she trusts. Recommendations and glowing rave reviews tell you a lot about their experience with the photographer. They will have personal insight and experience of the photographer’s personality, style and service which is all very important.
- PERSONALITY – Before you book your photographer ensure that you enjoy their personality and style. We are all unique individuals and as humans we get along better with certain types of people. When you interview photographers ask yourself a few basic questions: Do I like this person? Would I choose to spend the day with him or her in a close, personal situation? Will he/she fit into the social environment of my wedding day? If you don’t want them turning up in jeans and a T-shirt – say so! If this person is going to be with you all day on your big day, you want to be sure you will feel comfortable in their presence and they will not irk you or put a dampner on the occasion! Some photographers like to ‘run the show’, others prefer to take a reportage approach – go with your natural instincts and choose a photographer who best meets your style and personality.
- PRICE - The old saying "You get what you pay for," is usually true for wedding photography. There are only so many weekends in the year and the number of weddings a single photographer can book is limited. Therefore as a photographer comes into greater demand by developing his artistry and experience the price will certainly go up. The end result is that the best photographers are more expensive than others. So, as you are planning your budget, if excellent photos are important to you don’t scrimp in this area. Ten years from now, the photos you bought will be there on your table to remind you of the other details that might otherwise be forgotten. Price is usually the one obstacle that prevents many wedding clients from selecting the photographer who undoubtedly could give them the best value for their money. Quite often the difference between the price of the photographer you really like and one who you feel is "within the budget" is miscalculated. Within the framework of the entire wedding day, it makes good sense to evaluate the money spent on photographs in relation to what’s being spent on flowers, food and music. Although everyone knows that the pictures are the only thing you have after the moment has passed, some people still feel that they have to put the money "where it shows"…
- POST WEDDING PRODUCTION - As you will know from the meticulous attention to detail that is going into the planning and preparation of your wedding, the difference is made in the finer details - are the beautiful pictures which will make up your wedding memory going to last a lifetime? Would you like for the photographer to put together the album for you, or would you like to buy photographs and arrange the album yourself? Some photographers allow you to hold the master CD (if digital) but most photographers would hold the negatives so you can order reprints from them. Ask your photographer what his/her arrangements are with the production of your photographs. Do they print proofs for you to choose your favourites? How long after the wedding will your photographs be ready?
Following these simple steps will ensure you hire the perfect photographer to meet your needs and receive a wedding album to treasure for years to come.
Congratulations on your forthcoming Marriage and enjoy the planning!
Wedding Speeches - Advice, Tricks and Techniques to Wow Your Wedding Audience
January 3, 2007 | Filed Under Articles, Events, News, weddings | Comments Off
Long or short, a wedding speech is a wonderful way to express the feelings from the heart that well up during the good times during a wedding. Giving a speech for the majority of folks is like walking on a tightrope over a raging river with no net underneath you. A great time will ensue when you have to give a wedding speech if all is done in the correct manner.
The wedding speech should be fun and all of this is relative to the people in the audience as guests, as well as and including the giver of the wedding speech. It’s not hard to turn what could be a dreary time during the reception when wedding speeches are being given, by being prepared, having a well written speech, and giving it with a certain amount of flair so the guests love it.
And now is where the trouble starts. For some folks, it’s a near impossibility to get a good speech down on paper. If you have the ability to write a good sounding wedding speech but have trouble when it comes to putting it into the written word, then your mode of delivery will not do the speech justice because it comes out sounding like someone else speaking instead of you and the whole thing is ruined.
If you are having problems getting around this dilemma, then consider this; there are lots of internet based ways of taking care of your wedding speeches like software that will let you compose your own speeches, or hooking into a site that has speeches that you can use just as they are, or finding a professional who can write your speech for you.
The people that write for a living are a good choice if you decide to have your wedding speeches written for you; not only will they do a good job on the speeches, but also you get to pick the selection of the choices they give you so you can get the speech that sounds the most like you speaking when you have to pick the final writeup.
Once you have received your wedding speech, get familiar with it by practicing it over and over until you know it like the back of your hand, and you will impress the wedding audience with your wonderful speech giving prowess and they will be talking about your speech for a long time.
Your wedding speech can be very important to both you and the listening audience, so keep a small card with you and refer to it as you speak so you don’t forget to include all the points you want to make.
At the last minute you are asked to change your wedding speech because someone else giving a wedding speech is having a problem, don’t have a panic attack; just make the changes and keep on going. There is no doubt about it, you have the stuff to deliver a wonderful speech. The most important factor of all is remain sincere and down to earth. There is nothing more necessary than to be sincere and be true to yourself.
Wedding Speeches - Build a Long term Impression With These Marriage ceremony Speech Hints
January 3, 2007 | Filed Under Articles, Events, engagements, weddings | Comments Off
By: Glen Quagmire
Joy and good wishes are the order of the day when there is a wedding, and expressing these feelings are done through giving a wedding speech. Giving a speech for the majority of folks is like walking on a tightrope over a raging river with no net underneath you. Wedding speeches can be a fun experience and not a torturous ordeal if done in the proper manner.
That fact goes not just with the speaker, but the audience as well. For a really memorable time that everyone at the wedding will talk about for some time, just make sure you have a good wedding speech to give, and deliver it with flair.
And now enters the problem. A lot of folks can come up with a great speech but trying to transfer their thoughts into words on paper can be a real problem. Putting a well written wedding speech into written words for some folks is a hard thing to do because when the words go down on paper, it sounds unnatural and everyone listening to that speech giver speak, thinks he is reading someone else’s speech and not using his own words and that in itself can make the delivery a painful thing to listen to.
Look around and there are numerous ways to get around the problem, some of them being going to the internet and getting prepared speeches or even searching out the professional aid of a writer who can write wedding speeches for you.
If you need to resort to some of these methods to get your wedding speeches written, remember one of the best choices you can make it to use the services of someone who does speech writing as a living, and can give you the right sounding speech every time.
Just so you can present your wedding speech without a hitch and make it an enjoyable time for everyone involved; be certain to learn the speech well after you get ahold of it and practice it over and over so it will come naturally to you and sound just like you wrote it to everyone listening to you.
To keep yourself on an even keel when giving the wedding speech, take a few notes with you on a small card that you can refer to periodically.
Things happen, sometimes without warning, and if this is the case with giving your wedding speech where you have to make a change in your speech to help out somebody else’s speech, then just do it and don’t worry. You are very aware of the fact that you have what it takes to deliver a great speech. Most importantly, be yourself in all things. Stay down to earth and you will come out on top.