So, why was it so frustrating, you ask? Well, maybe you don't ask, but if you are bored at work and still reading, then you'll find out anyways! It all pretty much comes down to money. Or rather, having champagne tastes with a beer budget. And I'm not talking about good beer---more like Natty Ice.
I know that the photos we get of the wedding really are one of the few 'tangible' things that come out of the wedding. (Ya know, other than Mr. Rocks and I actually getting married!) And I know that when asked what they should have spent more money on, most brides, more often than not, will say that they wished they had spent more money and gotten a better photographer. I know all this. I really do.
Mr. Rocks and I at the Jimmy Buffet Concert.
I am hoping our pro-photographer will take better pictures than this.
(personal photo)
But we are on a budget. And when push comes to shove, Mr. Rocks and I would rather spend the money on booze and food for everyone to have a good time. But, see the paragraph above - I knew that we had to have at least some type of professional photographer there. And I wanted 2 photographers....one to take pics of Mr. Rocks getting ready, and one for me getting ready. And I wanted them there all day - getting ready, ceremony, formal pics after, and reception.
So, knowing what I wanted, I jumped headfirst into searching for photographer last February. (Yes, 5 months ago. It has taken me 5 months to find a photographer. Like I said, annoying!) And the first problem I ran into was that my venue could not recommend a photographer. A DJ? Cake? Yep - they had lots of recommendations, but they would not recommend a single photographer from alllll of the weddings that had come and gone through the Key Colony Inn. Which sucks. So, I searched and searched and searched....and what I came up with was split into 3 categories....
(1) The photographers cost anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of our ENTIRE wedding budget. WTF? SERIOUSLY?
(2) I could get 1 photographer for only 1/2 of the day
(3) I could get 1 really sketchy photographer for the whole day, but his pictures were really pretty bad (and considering my lack of artistic talent, they would have to be really bad if I thought so!)
Which led me to just flat-out ignoring the problem for a while (cuz that always works out, right?) But after I got back from New Zealand, I started attacking the problem with a renewed sense of purpose. Luckily, I found a photographer in Key Largo. After sending emails back and forth a few times, this guys quickly moved up to my #1 photographer spot on my imaginary list. He has (1) shot a lot of weddings and knows his stuff, (2) we like his photos (check out his website), (3) he is (mostly) within our budget, and will include a second photographer!
So, I can rest easy now, we have a photographer - the deposit has been paid and the date is set in his book. Yay!!! Now, onto the 8 million other things on the list.
ok, now i'm worried. i'm in the same boat as you... except beer budget and only 2 months until the big day... found dream wedding foto through craigslist and have gotten vague correspondence from sheppard requesting 50% down and a contract. i wanted to see some reviews before i went ahead with anything, so i googled him and yours was the only page to come up. i was under the assumption that this guy was based out of connecticut. have you met with him at all?
ReplyDeleteWell, we are meeting with him next week when we are in the Keys. We exchanged ~20(ish) emails, and then had an hour-long phone interview with him before we decided to sign a contract with him. We also put down a 50% deposit - from what I understand, that is not unusual.
ReplyDeleteThe business address on our contract is from Key Largo, however, my impression is that Scott travels a bit for weddings. If you look at the pictures on his website, he seems to cover a large geographic region - i.e. he travels a lot to shoot weddings.
I suggest seeing if you can give him a call and talk to him. Also, check out http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/advice-for-photographer-shopping . This link gives a comprehensive list of questions to ask photographers - I basically sent Scott a list of 29 questions and he answered each one in depth.
I will post an update later next week after we meet with him, but so far all I have gotten are "good vibes" from him! Good luck!
oh that's a good sign then... i've just talked to several photographers in the last month and his replies just seemed a bit off (very brief, not too many details). he didn't mention to me at all that he traveled, and for $599 (the economy package, as he described it) i can't imagine that he would travel to CT from too far off.
ReplyDeletei'll definitely check back with you after next week though! i hope i'm just being overly paranoid/leary of the internet, haha!
I just found Scott as well and am considering him for my wedding photography. I have a couple concerns like heather such as not being able to find any reviews and the location he is based out of (which I'm still not really sure where that is.) How did your meeting with him go?
ReplyDeleteOur photographer had some personal stuff going on (I don't want to talk about his personal life on here since this is not his blog, but trust me, it was legit and nothing shady), so we have not met with him yet. We are supposed to meet with him in a few weeks when he shoots a wedding near our hometown, so I will post a comment after we meet with him!
ReplyDeletedid this photographer work out? I'm curious because I've had some conversations with him that just didn't add up.... thanks!
ReplyDeleteSo, just FYI - i have deleted any posts about Scott and what he did or did not do. This is my blog, folks, not yours. If you want to leave an opinion online, do it through yelp or start your own blog.
ReplyDeleteBut for those of you who asked me if he worked out: I have an update.
We ended up canceling Scott as our photographer due to personal financial reasons. So, I cannot make any comments on how he does at weddings.
HOWEVER - He cancelled meeting with us three times (once in the Keys and twice he was supposed to meet with us near where we live). For all three planned meetings, he either reschedule or canceled at the last minute -- all meetings ended up ultimately with him canceling on us.
When we ended our contract with Dream Wedding Photography in October. Per our contract, we are supposed to get part or all of our deposit back if they can book another wedding on our date. We are getting married on a Saturday in June.....I am hopeful that they will be able to book someone and send us back our rather sizable deposit.
However, at this point (late March) - we have not received our deposit back. If we do, I will post an update.
So - the bottom line - I can't review Scott Sheppard of Dream Wedding Photography for our wedding since we had to cancel for personal reasons, but prior to us canceling the contract, Scott was supposed to meet with us 3 times he was the one who canceled each meeting.
Buyer beware, I guess.