What would you do with only £400 for a photographer?

My photographer is £400 for the whole day including a second photographer because he is new to the market. He has done a few weddings, and I have seen the photos from them and they are gorgeous. He just needs to start out so is cheaper to get a profile. I doubt he would be able to do Cardiff, but hopefully there will be some up and coming photographers in your area.

x

It really doesn't hurt to ask. I have also known TOG's to give discounts for certain weddings for their portfolio. Worst case, nothing comes of it but at least you've tried.

Love the user name too but I am biased ?

Try looking away from cardiff maybe towards swansea why and then you won't pay the price!

My photographer is only £575 and I only found him because he did my friends wedding, he is travelling for our wedding so not sure if he would go to Cardiff but worth an ask for nothing. His website is http://www.tlfphotography.co.uk/Home.html

xx

Hi there.....I'm new to the site and was having a bit of a look around the forums tonight......I'm not sure if it would be of interest or of any use but I came across a forum on the journalist threads about money given for themed weddings......it's not quite discounted photographers but they might be interested in your unique theme!

Hope you find what you need photographer-wise. Im having the same dilemma myself at the moment.....need to make savings in some big areas.....and this seems like one that I need to be reasonable but is so easy to overspend on. It seems like one of those areas that would be easier if you knew someone in the business to get some insider info on packages and how to haggle.haha.

I second the post about trying someone who is starting out. Sure you might be taking a gamble but look at their portfolios, meet them and see how you feel!

Also there is no harm in asking someone who is slightly out of your budget what they might be able to do for your budget or someone who is in your budget if they'll travel. Don't ask don't get!

I would definitely go for it - don't ask; don't get! Most photographers have to start out somewhere and will pitch their prices accordingly. What you are really paying in a more expensive photographer is their experience. To deliver you the best images of your day regardless of the weather, light etc and to so in a style that you really love. Some photographers looking to build a portfolio will be able to deliver you a good set of images I'm sure. You might need to do a little due diligence when you meet them - but its definitely not impossible to get someone for this price.

Recently met the Daleks 'on guard' at the entrance to the BBC at Cardiff and I know they film alot of the series down in the Bay so a Dr Who theme seems a great idea!

Best of luck!

Ok you have £400 & the photographer you love is £800?

If you were really resourceful, would there be a way to raise your budget to £800. Maybe parents/family could contribute as their wedding present, or maybe you could take to ebay to sell some unwanted wares. Regarding the offbeat stuff, maybe you could haggle a little bit off the photographers fee, especially if you think yours will be a cool wedding.

If it was me, I would do my best to find a way to make it happen. I know £400 is allot of money to find on a small budget, but it's something you will look back on for a very long time.

Have you thought about a photography student? They'd do it for half that if not less just to get experience!!!

I would be weary about asking on "photographers" forums, far better on here and the like.

Our photographer is costing £405 for 5 hours and with a second TOG. She is also travelling about 50 mile to our venue and is including 2 f2f meetings so we can go to both venues and see where pics can be taken and what we want.

I think 400 is a very doable budget but if photos are really important to you, is there somewhere else in your budget that could be cheapened or eliminated. Eg, we are not having wedding favours as we think they are an unnecessary expense. X

Have a look at the 'Journalist Seeking' section here on Hitched forums..

There's someone asking for couples who are having themed weddings to feature in a magazine..

They say they can pay!

What a good idea, hope it works out for you.

I think you have a couple of options

1. You do as rhys says and you find another £400 - selling stuff, christmas money etc

2. You wait till near your date before you book someone. This is a risky strategy but can work. Your wedding is in an off peak period (might even be on a weekday) 3 weeks before your wedding if you contact someone who normally charges £800 that you love and tell them you have £400 what can they do for you? If they are free 3 weeks before your wedding they are much more likely to take the job than a year in advance. If you asked me and I wasn't doing anything then I'd rather earn £400 than sit on my bum for the day if I was free. It's risky because you are narrowing the pool of potential photographers that will be free. But it could work out great, you have to assess that risk

3. You find a student photographer - there are some risks to this, especially an unexperienced student. Make sure they have public liability and professional indemnity insurance, backup cameras, backup cards. Again you are taking a risk here, but it can prove fruitfull

4. Look for one of those "Local stuff for sale" facebook groups. State what you want and what you have to spend and invite people to offer their work. You'll get people willing to do a full day for £400 but they may or may not be very good. Take care looking and selecting someone who can offer you a full day for £400, find out why they can offer you a full day for that price - it may be they are starting out and building their portfolio.

I've written a blog post about this in the past you may find interesting. It highlights some things you'll need to look out for when assessing your risk and some advice at the end on what to do about it

http://www.onelittledaisy.co.uk/looking-for-a-good-photographer-must-be-cheap/

good luck!

You could try looking for a semi-pro, someone who is just starting out and needs to get established?

I found mine for £120!

x

Our photographer is costing just under £500, as she is just starting out on her own so she is cheaper than established photographers. Just a case of shopping around really, ours is ideal for us because she is very alternative and will suit our wedding so we don't mind taking a risk on her experience (her work looks awesome from what we have seen anyway!). Good luck finding your photographer :-)

I'm sure you will find something :-) Have you contacted the photographer that you really really love? They may be able to cover just an hour or two for that price, especially as it is in an off peak month. Worth a try just telling them your budget and asking if there was anything they could provide to fit in with this.

If you are unable to increase your budget at all then a photographer student or someone starting out would be a great idea. Personally I'm still in my first year of full time photography business and the first bookings I took started at just £100, then quite a few for £250 this was for a full day and I felt like they got a really amazing deal, as I was really happy with the photos I delivered to them. I was happy to go to this price as I still wanted to build my portfolio. But at this stage, I also have to say that even though the results were great I didn't have the confidence I have now, and a year has brought a wealth of experience and improvement I didn't have at the beginning. So maybe newbies is something you could look into but choose carefully. I advertised on gumtree and Facebook so perhaps have a search around there.

Your theme sounds fab so it defiantly wouldn't be cheeky to ask photographers to give you a discount for an offbeat wedding. You never know if you don't ask! I have a bucket list of things I really want to photograph so offer a discount for these.

I would also recommend asking some questions about their work - if they have back up cameras and insurance? What their previous experience is? Have a really good look through their work and make sure it reflects your style and is consistent and look at a full wedding. I wouldn't hire someone unless they were able to show you at least one full wedding that I was happy with.

A cheeky little plug for myself as well if you would like to check out my site www.weddingphotographytolove.com I still have packages starting as low as £365 for the moment.

Best of luck :-)

Looking at rebeccaTovey's website and pics if I were you OP I would bite her hand off for an offer of £365 for the job! :-)

This has just popped up on my groupon might be worth taking a look on there.

Xx

Ooooh i would be wary of groupon's theres been some brides on her recently where the TOG just disappeared (jelly bean creatives i think?)

My advice is to keep looking. My budget was a lot lower than yours and we found someone at a local wedding fayre, saw her work and loved it, and it transpired in the end that she knows my OH from years back. We told her our budget quite apologetically and she is has agreed to ceremony and formal family pics. We are quite happy with this because my daughter is an amateur photographer and wanted to take informal pics and we have an awesome camera

Try out small local wedding fayres you may be surprised what you find

Thanks for all the replies! Love the word 'cwtch' DaffodilWaves so couldn't resist using it in my name - fab to find someone else with a Welsh-y name! I hadn't ever heard of the word before we moved to Wales and thought it was fantastic when I found out what it meant ?

We're trying to raise a bit extra for the wedding but don't have masses of stuff to ebay, don't have expensive magazine/Starbucks/etc habits to save money on and we're already calling in favours where we can. I'm asking for bits to go with my dress and to DIY decorations for birthday & christmas, my mum's making our cake, we're not doing wedding favours, we're DIYing what we can and we're bartering some of our 'day work', as we're self employed, for my bouquet. I'm hoping with all that we will have some spare room in the budget/to up the budget a bit, which would only go to photography or the reception but I'm wary of committing to too much now because we really can't go over budget as things stand now. Also, the £800 photographer is based some way from us so I'm assuming there'd be travel costs on top so it'd be even more than £400 - but you're completely right, the photos are so important to us that if we need to raise more to get good ones we'll have to do what we can.

Glad to see there's some good budget photographers around! Thanks for the advice Daisy, I'll have a good read of the blog post - I've never had any experience of finding/working with a TOG so all advice is very gratefully received ? I'm wary of using Groupon as I've heard some very negative stories and I've heard how much commission they charge so some businesses turn out not to be able to afford to honour their offers.

Very happy for the plug Rebecca, looked at your site and your photos are absolutely gorgeous - I'm not exaggerating at all to say they're some of the nicest I've seen so far, will email you asap. (Daisy - completely agree!!!)

Will have a look on the journalist threads, wouldn't have occurred to me at all to look there but anything extra for the wedding would be more than welcome if they wanted us. Thanks for all the help!

Thanks One Little Daisy!! :-D x

Hi,

I think you have got amazing idea for your wedding. It's great when couple is creative and make their Big Day very unique. There are many photographers who would give you a special discount if you tell them you having themed wedding. It's always very attractive for photographer to capture an offbeat wedding.

I wish you best of luck! I really like your idea!