Before I start, some things you might need to know:
1. When I say our wedding is "budget" I mean very budget (trying to stay below $6,000, and so far we've actually been very successful doing that).
2. My fiancee and I are both very no-frills people. This is going to be a fairly casual wedding, and we are both very happy with that.
3. Please don't interpret what I'm about to say as a judgement of how other people choose to do their wedding. If your plans are totally different, that's ok. We're just doing what fits our personalities best.
Now...
We have had a very difficult time finding a photographer for our wedding. Everything in our area has so far been a huge package deal, but all we really want is pictures of our ceremony, and some pictures with our family immediately after. The ceremony is going to be super short (30 minutes max). We would really only need one photographer for one hour, two at most. I don't want to do a boudoir package, or pictures getting ready (my mother passed away, so this is touchy for me)... we don't even want professional pictures of the reception. I just want nice pictures of our ceremony with some pictures of our family together for the occasion. I don't need them to look like they came out of the pages of Vogue, but I would like them to look professional. We have yet to find a photographer who can accommodate this - the grand majority here have pre-set packages (most of which would cost over half our budget), and the simplest packages have way more things than we need or want.
Has anyone out there been in a similar predicament and was able to find a reasonably affordable photographer who was willing to work with your simple wedding? I don't want to just ask a friend or an amateur, and I'm willing to pay decent money -again, we'd love to have good, quality pictures of the ceremony - we just don't need two photographers for eight hours, and artsy pictures of my shoes, etc. for several thousand dollars. Has anyone found a good elopement deal, for instance?