Hiring family friends or relatives to shoot the wedding?

Nomer

I know it is common to try and save money by having a friend take the pics, etc... I am just curious what everyone's thoughts are on that. Just to get it started: I am leaning towards NOT having anyone I know do them (despite serious budget issues) because I feel like the pictures are the most important thing and the only thing that will last forever after the wedding is over. However, it is extremely tempting to try and save money any way I can.

AmberMarieTX

My personal experience with this: My brother asked me to video his wedding and all aspects of it (wedding and reception). I told him that I would do it! I was 19 or 20 at the time. I have learned that I will never ask someone that is close to the wedding party to do it. I was so stressed out the whole day that I was not capturing everything the way that they wanted. That is partially my fault because I put a lot of pressure on myself to do it. But the sad part is that I really have no recollection of the wedding because I was behind a camera and stressing about what the lens was capturing instead of living in the moment.

If the quality of pictures are not essential to you, I would recommend saving money by asking a friend of a friend to do it (or someone who would not even necessarily be invited otherwise). I would hate to put the burden on a friend or family member.

I'm having a small budget wedding, but I will definitely spend most of my budget on the photographer, most likely. That is one thing that I don't want to have to stress about. I'm an avid scrapbooker, so pictures are important to me

AmandalovesAl

I am having the same issues sort of...a family friend offered to shoot the photos for next to nothing, but he's an old age photographer and my FI and i really want the photo journalism style.  I'm trying to find a way to not hurt his feelings...i can't imagine how hard it would be if we went with him and we didn't like the way things turned out or the pictures he was taking...that would just be really awkward.  I know it's more money, but I am hiring out

Tikki 77

I'm with Amanda on this. Things could become very awkward between you and the family/friend who shot your wedding, if they turn out bad, which most likely will happen if you don't hire a photographer of some experience. At least some. Wedding photography is the hardest of all, and it's a huge challenge.

   IF at all possible, I'd vote for having you find at least a very inexpensive semi-pro off Craigslist or something.

Nomer

Thanks everyone.
To AmandalovesAl:
I did some research elsewhere on the same subject and the most important piece of advice I found is simply, friends and money don't mix. I would just tell the family friend those exact words, and that you thought it over carefully and would much rather hire someone who has no connections than risk damaging the friendship.

dmarinaro86

I am having the same thoughts.  I am inviting friends, who are photographers to my wedding, and am debating asking them to take pictures.  If i come out with a dozen nice pictures, ill be happy

lrowe70

I have some friends who are semi-pro photographers take photos, but I also found a photography student from a local university to take photos as well. In addition we got a couple disposable cameras for each table because we love candid shots.
The student will act as the "real" photographer doing pose shots and following our 'must have' list, while my 2 friends will take other great photos inbetween eating, dancing and having a good time.

shan87

I have a friend that is awesome with a camera and does weddings all the time. But I specifically didn't ask her because I wanted her to come as a guest not as a vendor- despite budget. A mutal friend brought up in front of both of us - "Why didn't you have Whit shot your wedding?'" and I said just that, I wanted her to be there as a guest not as a vendor and she was like THANK GOD I hate shooting friends weddings (even though she has done dozens)
Although we are still 11 months out (picked a photog but no talks about details) I am confident I made the right choice.

fuccisphotos

Just be careful when you still have friends shooting as well when you do hire someone that they don't get in the way of the person you hired.  Having them be right next to the hired person when doing the formals taking doubles of everything is a TERRIBLE idea.  You will get a bad case of the wandering eyes.  People in the photos won't know who to look at.  Even if the person says, no look at me, people won't.  Trust me on this.  If you get someone off of craigslist, make sure they have 2 camera bodies and a speedlite.  Someone just using the pop-up flash on their camera is NOT good enough to have taking the photos at your wedding.  Trust me on this one.  I'll be posting some tips for non-pro photographers shooting at weddings on my blog soon.  Feel free to check it out: http://fuccisomethingblue.blogspot.com/

chris8tine

We have a similar issue: One of our good friends (and incidentally my ex-boyfriend) is starting his own wedding photography business and could really use the money.  We decided, however, not to go with him.  Partially because of the "ex" factor, partially because of his lack of experience (the pictures are very important to us), and partially because we would rather have him enjoy the wedding.  We suggested that he bring his equipment and take photos as well, and that we would buy the good ones off of him.  I think he's a bit disappointed, because he could use the work, but he has the benefit of personally knowing the people who are really important and close to us and making sure he gets great candids of them, so I'm sure we'll be buying plenty off him, too.  It's also an awesome back-up plan - if anything happens to the real photographer, we've always got someone who knows what they're doing and will definitely be free that weekend!