Photography and invitation at your wedding

Photography at your wedding is probably one of the most important items, as you are going to want to capture the memories of your wedding day. In my experience there are a variety of ways that photographers charge for their time and for the photos they produce.

Some will charge a fee for their time on the day, with an additional fee if they are required at the reception. They then charge a price per photograph so you can choose as many photographs as you wish. Others will charge a package price which includes their time and a certain number of photographs. The more expensive the package, the more photographs they will supply.

Wedding photographers have acquired their skill over many years. As well as the actual photography, they also need to be able to organise the guests into appropriate groups and so people management skills are also very important.

A lot of responsibility lies with the wedding photographer to get it right as once the moment has passed, it is not going to be possible to recapture it. In addition, as with chauffeuring, the wedding photographer is only likely to be able to book one wedding per day. As mentioned before, peak times for weddings tend to be on Saturdays during the summer so there is only a limited number of days the wedding photographer can cover. Wedding photography is one of the most difficult areas to save money as there is usually so much importance attached to wedding photographs. Here are a few ideas on how to get the best deal.

Start searching for your wedding photographer very early. Wedding photographers get booked up many months in advance and if your wedding is only a couple of months away you are very unlikely to be able to negotiate a better price for your photography package. Ask all your family members, friends and colleagues to see if anyone can recommend a good photographer from their own experiences of any weddings they may have attended recently.

It may be possible for you to choose a basic photography package with your photographer for a lower price which contains the main photographs you require for the day. You could then supplement this by asking a friend or a member of the family to take more pictures at the same time so you end up with a mixture of ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ photographs. Make sure this person is reliable and confident or ask a couple of people to take on this role.

Search for photographers/photographic companies who do not necessarily specialise in wedding photography. You may be able to find a photographer who makes a living doing other types of photography during the week, but might be willing to photograph your wedding as a one off. There are some companies that offer a wedding photography service where you pay per hour for the photographer’s time. The photographs are then displayed on the company website so that you and your guests can choose which images you want to buy and download.

Whether you choose to have an official photographer or not, a good way to get lots of photographs is to put out disposable cameras on tables for your guests to take pictures. If you attach a label to each camera with instructions asking guests to use up the film and telling them where to leave the camera at the end of the reception, you can send these off for developing and are likely to get a very varied set of photographs. It is also a good idea to give out verbal reminders about the cameras throughout the reception so that people do not forget to use them. You will also need to let people know where to leave the cameras at the end of the night.

If your photographer charges for their time and for the photograph prints separately, ask him/her whether they can supply gift vouchers. You could then include these on your gift list if you decide to have one.

Having covered the venue, food, transport and photography, you also need to consider how you are going to let your guests know they are invited. With some hand-made invitations retailing from £2.50 to £3.75 each, the cost of the invitations alone could amount to several hundred pounds and that doesn’t even include the postage!

Hand-made invitations tend to be more expensive than other options as they are individually made and therefore the price reflects the materials used as well as the time taken to make them.

Invitations that are printed specifically for the bride and groom also tend to be a more expensive option as the printer will need to create the design and produce only a short print run. However, with new developments in printing technology, smaller print runs tend to be cheaper now than in the past. If you do decide to have your invitations printed for you, here are some of the things you may want to consider asking the printer.

Remember that once your guests know about the wedding and have attended, most of the invitations will end up in the bin so is it really worth spending a lot of money on them? By using a little creativity it is possible to find a solution that looks great but will not cost a fortune.

When researching the wedding industry for my business I found that it was quite easy to find ideas for simple but elegant cards. Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction.

If you are interested in hand-made invitations, find a design that you like and then use it as inspiration to create your own design. Supplies of card, paper, ribbon, glitter and other accessories can be bought from most craft paper shops. The shops local to me also offer advice or short classes on craft techniques, making it possible for you to create the invitations yourself. Using a PC, it is also possible to create and print your own wording for the inside of the card.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own hand-crafted cards, perhaps you can design something suitable on the PC and print it. Look around for ideas in magazines and in craft paper shops. Creating something simple can still look very elegant and effective. For example, your invitation can be typed and printed on cream paper, but if you add a small amount of confetti into the envelope, the wedding theme will still be set when the invitation arrives.

Standard design invitations are available at many stationery and card shops. These are usually sold in packets of 10 or 15 and will have standard text inside with blank spaces to fill in appropriate details. This is likely to be a cheaper option compared to handmade or printed invitations, but has the draw-back of being mass produced and therefore not unique for your wedding.

More recently, with advances in technology, another option is to send out invitations by email which saves on printing costs. However, you would need to decide whether this option would work for you and your guests as some people still do not have access to email.

Other things you may want to include with your invitations

As well as the design and the important information such as the date and time of your wedding and wedding reception, there are a number of other pieces of information you may want to include with your invitation.

Gift list

Deciding whether or not to have a gift list is a very personal choice for each bride and groom. However, if you are considering this, it will need to be organised before you send out your invitations. If you decide against a gift list and do not want guests to pay for presents, it may be a good idea to include ‘no gifts please’ on the invitations.

Menu options

If your catering option requires guests to choose what they would like to eat beforehand, you will need to include this with the invitation, to avoid having to call all your guests up. It may be possible for you or the caterer to create a simple reply form to make it easy for your guests to respond.

Dietary requirements

Even if your guests do not need to pre-order food, it is a good idea to ask guests to inform you of any allergies or food requirements they may have. If you pass this information on to your caterers, it will enable them to make necessary arrangements to cater for your guests’ dietary requirements whilst at the same time reducing the risk of any claims against you or the caterers.

Directions/maps

If many of your guests are travelling from out-of-town, it may be useful for you to provide them with some directions for the wedding ceremony venue and the reception venue. Alternatively, you could mention on your invitation that if they require directions, to contact you.

Accommodation

If many of your guests are travelling from out-of-town, you could help them by supplying contact details of local hotels or guest houses that are near (or at) the reception venue. An idea of price per night would also be helpful.

Programme

Wedding invitations are notoriously vague when it comes to the programme for the day and when guests can expect to eat. It may be useful to consider including some information with the invitation so guests know what will be happening during the day and also what type of food (finger buffet or three-course dinner) will be served and when.

When deciding upon your invitations, you may also need to think about your order of service and thank you cards for after your wedding. If you think about these at the outset, you can ensure they are designed in the same way as your invitations to carry on the theme you are going to set.