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Photographer in Sacramento

parisashleymuirparisashleymuir member
First Anniversary First Comment
in California-Northern
Hello!

So I know a girl from high school who is now a professional wedding photographer, and I love her work! I have been thinking that I'd love for her to do my wedding, but the problem is that we'd have to pay for her to travel to Sacramento, from Seattle.

I'm not sure what wedding photographers cost, as I haven't set time aside to really dig deep, so I wanted any opinions I could get!

She would need for us to pay her flight from SEA to SMF, and then $200 for food/hotel. Her wedding package is normally $800 but she is having a discount of $200, so the package is $600. This includes an engagement session (which we would just move to doing a session the day before the wedding or something), a DVD of images, not watermarked, and a full day of photography on the wedding day.

I think that sounds great, and cheap...am I right? Should I snag it right up? It looks like, with travel stuff included, our total out the door would be like $1100...

Any opinion/advice would be much appreciated! Thanks!
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Paris & Joel/Began Dating: 2/16/2011/ Engaged: 8/19/2012/ Wedding Date: 8/17/2013
SURPRISE! Due Date: 10/15/2013
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Re: Photographer in Sacramento

  • QueerFemmeQueerFemme member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its First Comment
    I think it's a decent deal... but it really depends on how good she really is.  Is she just starting out... is she very experienced?  that will determine if $1100.00 is a good deal

    image

    Websites/blogs where our wedding has been featured:

    http://www.dapperq.com/2013/11/a-very-dapper-wedding/

    http://www.onabicyclebuiltfortwo.com/2013/10/wedding-christina-g.html

    http://4realequalityweddings.com/2014/05/16/g-christina/

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  • mandasandmandasand
    First Comment First Anniversary
    If you decide to use her because she's a friend, I would have someone else do your engagement sessions. They usually run around $150-300. That way you don't have to feel pressured to get your engagement pics done the day before the wedding.
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  • erinlin25erinlin25 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer First Comment
    Sounds like a good plan, if you like her work, it does seem like a great deal!  If you want engagement pics done before the wedding, I'm doing mine through Magical Moments Productions.  They work out of Roseville but will travel to a destination for pics.  They do beautiful work!  Check them out at   http://www.magicalmomentproductions.com/
    image

    Anniversary
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  • cshweddingcshwedding
    First Comment
    edited September 2012
    If you're looking for a photographer in the Reno/Tahoe area, look no further. Courtney Aaron (http://www.courtneyaaron.com) photographed our August 2012 wedding, and we couldn't have been happier with our choice. We had been scoping out photographers in the Tahoe area for a while, and she was the most forthcoming, responsive person we worked with. We loved her style of photography and the flexibility of her pricing options based on email and web information, but we knew we needed to have a photographer that fit us personally.

    We had scheduled a week of appointments booked with various vendors, including Courtney, so it was a packed week... but as soon as we met her, we knew we wanted her to be our photographer. We met with her on a Tuesday, got a great feeling from her, but wanted to follow through on our other appointments as well. By the time we called her on Thursday to confirm that we wanted to book her for our wedding date, she had already scouted our location, gotten some feedback about our possible caterer (who was new to wedding catering) from a wedding planner friend, and given us some pricing options that worked for us. This was even before she knew we were going to go with her!

    Between booking her and our wedding day (about 10 months), Courtney checked in with us several times, even though we knew from her blog that she was keeping very busy - these were all little touches that made us feel special! Before our wedding day, Courtney made a point to find out who all of our VIPs were, what their relationship to us was, and some fun little stories about us to get to know us better. We were not able to do an engagement session with her, so she found other ways to make us more comfortable with her being around us on a stressful day.

    On the day of our wedding, Courtney showed up early, checked in with the wedding party right away, and then went to work! She knew the names of our wedding party and VIPs, and made a point to find out right away who those folks were (and remembered who everyone was!). While photographing the bride getting ready, Courtney noticed that we were struggling a little because we didn't have professionals helping with the details, and she jumped right in with suggestions and bits of non-photography wedding expertise. Throughout the evening, she was always around for the "moments," but was never obtrusive in any way. In fact, most of the time, we didn't even realize she was there! She made sure the wedding moments were being captured without ever making us feel like we were on camera, posing, etc. (except for the purposely posed family photographs, of course!) She was extremely friendly and engaging towards our guests, and a number of people commented to us afterwards about how much they liked her. My dad even asked if we planned to stay friends with her :)

    We have such a rave review of Courtney, and we haven't even talked about her photographs yet... which of course are amazing! We wanted to have the family photographs, of course, but we really wanted her to capture the atmosphere of the party with candid shots--which she definitely did. We love all of the incredible memories she caught on camera, and have loved looking through them and sharing them with our friends and family. Her turnaround time is also pretty quick, which we liked.

    All in all, Courtney was our favorite vendor for our wedding, and the easiest choice we made. We have already recommended her to others, and hope/plan to use her services again in the future!
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  • amyisgettingmarriedahhhhamyisgettingmarriedahhhh
    First Comment
    Yea if you like her photography and trust in her abilities take it! That's a really good deal.

    We ended up going with Hayley Anne Photography, awesome photos, super nice, (also) great deals.
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  • JazzieLJazzieL member
    First Comment

    Honey, as long as she has experience it's a steal! We are paying over $6k and other vendors that were recommended weren’t less than $2,500 and that was for bare bones stuff... make sure you trust your photographer that was the main grip from my friends were that they wish they would have invested more in their photographer and got someone with more experience because they hated their pictures! They kept saying the memories will last a lifetime... and so will the pictures make sure that those pictures will reflect your memories! 

     Best of luck & congrats!!!

     

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