Why choose professional over 'semi-professional' or amateur?

A dear friend of mine was married a little over two years ago. They had a gorgeous wedding. It seems two sisters were marrying two roommates who both happened to have fathers who were pastors. It was like a wedding in stereo. The sisters are from Israel are Arab and Christians. When their father walked them down the aisle it was to the sounds of Middle Eastern music. It was simply one of the most unique ceremonies I had ever witnessed.

Before they moved from Hampton Roads we had them over for lunch and naturally the topic of their wedding photographs came up. Jonathan made several observations that I later asked him to write down so I could share them. Here's what he sent me. I think his comments speak for themselves.


Why choose professional over 'semi-professional' or amateur?


I was married in August of 2006. I had a double wedding with one of my best friends. We decided to go with someone who was a bit cheaper than the professionals we had looked up, and we figured, hey, it's just a camera. What could go wrong with a semi-pro who has a camera?


We went to see him, and he showed us his work. Looked pretty good. My friend is a photographer himself, and he even vouched for him. The guy was really nice, but he didn't have any of the fancy equipment that I've seen 'real' photographers use, but who needs all that? Don't you just need a nice camera with a flash?


On the day of the wedding, he took group photos in the church, and during the ceremony, and of course, at the reception. He was a really nice guy, but you could tell he hadn't been doing this long. I mean, he said he'd been taking pictures professional for about 5 years, and that sounded good enough to me. But guess what? The 'semi-professional' photographer DID NOT use FLASH indoors. Didn't even use the flash. I didn't notice, and neither did any of the wedding party until we got the photos back. And then, it was TOO LATE. No flash, no professional equipment, no professional photographer equals poor quality and poor results.


My wedding day was a fantastic memory, but that's pretty much all we have. That and a little video from one of our friends. Out of the few hundred snaps he took, all we have are about 10 pictures that we can use for the album. The rest, all 190 of them (I'm guessing) are BLURRY. That's what we get for opting to save a few bucks on the most important occasion of my young married life.


What I wouldn't give to shell out the extra $ and have the real quality photos we deserved. Is it worth it to hire a REAL photographer? Someone who has dedicated their entire life to his profession? Someone who knows the 'ins and outs' of photography? Someone who uses REAL equipment as opposed to the cheaper alternatives that 'just about anyone' has?


A resounding YES. Don't make the same mistake we did. Opt for the real deal. Just imagine this:


Every time someone looks at our album I shy away and let my wife do the explaining. Why? I guess I'm a bit ashamed that it was my decision to choose budget over quality.

“I LOVE WADE STUDIOS!!”

Thanks to Michael Wade and his associate Michael Hiser I will have more than memories to remind me of one of the most important days of my life. I wanted to share our story: Our names are Jessica & Kris. We met seven years ago and definitely did not expect to end up married with two children. During our journey of dating, moving in together and creating a wonderful family we have endured many hardships and had to overcome many obstacles to get here. Due to some personal issues we had to marry unexpectedly at the Justice of the Peace. There was no romance and it was definitely not the “dream” day we had in mind. We attempted at first to keep our marriage a secret from our families because we still wanted to have a traditional wedding day. We were unable to keep that secret and once the cat was out of the bag, there went any support and no guarantee of financial assistance from our families for a traditional wedding celebration. We were going to have to stick to a very strict LOW budget.

So, I started asking around for advice on how to have a “grand” wedding on a low budget. But the most important thing to me was having “THAT” portrait hanging on our wall when we are 80. When I started asking around in regards to budgets and finding a photographer, the first thing people would suggest to me is cutting that expense all together and going with a friend or amateur to photograph our day. I almost considered doing this except every time someone suggested this to me they would also mention how much they disliked their own photographs. But, I was torn and knew we had to pull this off on a very tight budget. Then one day when I was about to call it all off, I ran into a friend who had been in the same financial situation as us and she highly recommended Wade Studios. When I met with Michael Wade he was not only knowledgeable but HONEST. He explained every aspect of wedding planning, and he was not a “salesman” he gave me genuine advice, he was not pressuring and fake like many of the other photographers that I had spoken with. He even worked with my budget. Thanks to him and his associate I have the most wonderful photographs.

My advice to other brides is to make sure you really meet Michael Wade before meeting any other photographer, because I assure you it’s not a waste of your time or money. To be honest, we never even ate that night and we had a very simple buffet and everyone loved it, so don’t waste your money of food. If you are going to spend money spend it wisely on an investment like your wedding photographs…because those are the tangible memories you will cherish and who knows, generations to come may as well. I would like to thank everyone who made our day happen for us as well as recommend every vendor we used for anyone else may be on a budget like us.

Our Reception Hall: Fraternal Order of Police Lodge- contact Janet Oliveri #620-6728

Our DJ- Luke Barton #817-5344

My MakeUp Artist- Mint Collective: Summer McCarley email: summermccarley@hotmail.com #462-0753.

Our Cake - Plaza Bakery: 340-3931

I also recommend using AC Moore for floral arrangements; they will do them for free if you purchase the materials from there and keep your receipt. (Just a cost saving tip) And to put it out there we had our dream day, everyone had a great time and we did it for under $5,000.00.

Thanks,

Jessica & Kris