This was said recently by a bride to a photographer regarding the importance of wedding photography: “You’re not just a wedding photographer . . .
You’re a historian . . You’re an archivist . . You leave a permanent addition in this world when you’re no longer around.. You’re telling the beginning of a family’s HISTORY.” I loved that. Make sure to have pictures of your family, from the beginning and throughout the years.
There is a time of day that is called ‘the golden hour’, which is technically an hour before sunset. Sunlight is no longer harsh; photographs taken during this time are usually the most flattering. These things are normally not taken into consideration when planning a wedding.
Consider creating your wedding day, if possible, to have the one hour of photography that typically is right after the ceremony, of the family, the bridal party, then just the couple. Even doing this hour two hours before sunset is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than doing these pictures in the middle of the day.
Winter weddings can create an opposite problem with timing. A bride might decide to have her wedding at 4:30, without considering that sunset is before 5. All the ambient light, the best light of the day, is GONE. If this case, consider having your ceremony start about an hour and a half or two hours before sunset. This will make that hour of photography after the ceremony with the sweetest light of the day. Optimize your wedding photography with sunset in mind!
Although this has been out for 4 years on youtube, I only just saw it for the first time today. It’s a lot of fun and obviously, they thought so, too!
This one is too good not to share! From a blog by a bridal blogger named Stephanie Herbst, on Huffington Post, March 30, 2013:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-herbst/7-ways-to-ruin-a-wedding-_b_2975552.html
I think I would add one more: Don’t stand in the aisle to take a picture of the procession or stand in front of the photographer during the ceremony. If you have family member who thinks they’re going to ‘discreetly’ take their snapshots during the ceremony, think about how that’s going to look in your pro pictures. Here is a great example by Bob Sigler.
According to the website, www.costofwedding.com, the average wedding cost in the San Francisco and Santa Clara counties is about $34,000; average wedding cost in the Napa and Livermore areas is about $32,000; average wedding cost in Monterey County is $30,000. If you do a Google search on the subject of wedding photography cost, the general answer is 10%. Depending on how DIY your wedding is, or how important wedding photography is to you, 10% is not necessarily what you want or need.
If your wedding budget is the average bay area cost or higher, likely this is a high-end affair with attention to detail. Usually a couple in this range often devote a higher percentage of their budget on photography, and include fine art albums or fine art reprints. If your wedding budget is lower than average ($15,000 or less), then likely you are a young couple making decisions based on making the most of your budget. It can be difficult choosing a photographer because usually talent and experience is proportional to price. Another reason that it can be difficult is that many couples simply want more coverage than their budget will allow for or think that they need 8 to 12 hours of coverage when that’s more than is necessary. (See question, “How much coverage do I need?” in our Tips & Resourses section)
Decide how important wedding photography is to you and your fiance. (A good indication is if you are looking for a photographer right after you’ve booked your venue, or if you realize that it’s a month before the wedding and you haven’t looked for a photographer yet) Decide if 10% is enough to cover the type of quality that you want or adjust the amount to cover the quality of your documented memories. Decide what that percentage is from your budget. Decide if you are going to have photography only or photography AND videography and understand that your budget percentage should cover whichever of those that you chose.
As tempting as it is to save on wedding costs by minimizing your photography budget, don’t.
Keep in mind that there are no wedding day “do-overs.” A less experienced, less expensive photographer may not be able to skillfully and artfully capture the mood, emotion, and all-important, never-to-be repeated moments of your wedding. What’s worse, you’re bound to experience some post-wedding day regrets if you choose a wedding photographer just because their rates are the lowest.
Let’s face it. Spending money on wedding photography is like spending money on anything else: you get what you pay for. The less you spend, the less value you’ll almost certainly receive—and the more likely you’ll be disappointed in the end.
So what should you spend on a wedding photographer? By all means, realistically assess your wedding budget. But don’t put photography at the end of your list of priorities. After choosing your guy, your gown, and your venue, choosing your wedding photographer is the most important choice you’ll make, because everything else from the wedding day will just fade into distant memory. You’ll want to live ‘happily ever after’ with your pictures, too!
Instead of compromising by hiring a photographer on the low end, find a photographer whose work you love. Hiring that kind of photographer for 4 hours will give you much more memorable photographs than hiring someone who will shoot cheap for 12 hours. Besides considering hiring a great photographer for fewer hours, consider that almost all of your wedding expenses will be reduced if you decide to host your wedding on a weekday instead of a weekend. Being realistic with the number of guests to have is the biggest help.
The bottom line: Let quality, not cost, determine your final decision. It’s a little like researching a fine restaurant online or over the phone. Just knowing the prices beforehand isn’t going to tell you much about how great the food is. You want a wonderful, memorable experience with a restaurant. And you will want that with your wedding photos. The investment you make in your wedding photos is an investment in memories that will keep paying off long after you’ve walked down the aisle.
I would have to say that after doing quite literally HUNDREDS of weddings, that there has been maybe less than 10 weddings that there was cake smashing in the face. (I’m not talking about putting a dab of frosting on the nose) Even at weddings that have no cake smashing, we inevitably hear at least a couple of guys saying, “DUDE!! GET HER!! SMASH IT IN HER FACE.” Usually, the groom has the good sense to ignore this advice because after all, HE is the one that is going to be with her through the night, not the others.
However, I thought I would share some information regarding the cake smashing. If you have already decided that this is something that you’re going to do, that’s a personal decision. It’s always good to know the origin of a tradition.
Cake smashing, “Dear Abby”, June 26, 2011
The cake-in-the-face custom should have been retired at least 50 years ago. The significance of the “ritual” is extremely demeaning to women. According to the book “Curious Customs” by Tad Tuleja (Stonesong Press, 1987): “The cake-cutting at modern weddings is a four-step comedic ritual that sustains masculine prerogatives in the very act of supposedly subverting them.
“… in the first step of the comedy, the groom helps direct the bride’s hand—a symbolic demonstration of male control that was unnecessary in the days of more tractable women. She accepts this gesture and, as a further proof of submissiveness, performs the second step of the ritual, offering him the first bite of cake, the gustatory equivalent of her body, which he will have the right to ‘partake of’ later.
“In the third step, the master-servant relationship is temporarily upset, as the bride mischievously pushes the cake into her new husband’s face. … Significantly, this act of revolt is performed in a childish fashion, and the groom is able to endure it without losing face because it ironically demonstrates his superiority: His bride is an imp needing supervision.
“That the bride herself accepts this view of this is demonstrated in the ritual’s final step, in which she wipes the goo apologetically from his face. This brings the play back to the beginning, as she is once again obedient to his wiser judgment. Thus, the entire tableau may be seen as a dramatization of the tensions in favor of the dominance of the male.”
Jessica & Paul, who are both huge sports fans, met at a Super Bowl party. Almost four years later, Jessica predicted to Paul that the NY Giants and the Patriots would go to the Super Bowl again and that the Giants would win again like they did at the Super Bowl Party when Jessica & Paul first met. “It’s fate. They’re gonna repeat 2008 and it will be a sign that we were meant to be getting married 4 years after we met at that party.” The NY Giants DID win that second Super Bowl. And Jessica & Paul DID get married shortly after that!
Jessica decided to choose the 24th of that month. She told Paul that 24 was Kobe Bryant’s jersey number so he’d never forget their anniversary, then he was totally on board for the date!
Jessica & Paul had their San Jose wedding at the Corinthian Event Center. The ballroom is wonderful, with a forties-type ambiance. The gorgeous flowers from from Nona Tai from Floral Design Studio and their cake was from Bijan Bakery. The Art of Emotion was their San Jose wedding photographer.
Being San Francisco wedding photographer actually takes our work all over the bay area. San Jose is a great place to get married!
Tava’s love story is one of my very favorites! Tava and Kyle started dating when she was only fourteen. After a couple of years, they parted. As the years passed by, Tava decided that if she EVER got married, it would only be to Kyle ans since they weren’t together, she was obviously NEVER going to get married!
Thirteen years passed and they ran in to each other. Then they did lunch. Then never parted. Although Kyle hadn’t proposed yet, she started making some tentative wedding plans and found our magazine ad, deciding that when Kyle proposed, she was definitely contacting us! He did finally propose and we were Tava & Kyle’s wedding photographers!
Tava & Kyle chose Neumanali, a great restaurant in a restored Victorian house in the east bay area, for their small, intimate wedding.
In the foreseeable future, we are going to have a couple of Youtube videos and one of them with be just the long version of their story because it’s that good!
Sabah & Shaka are an urban professional couple who decided after 6 years, to get married. They chose the very edgy W Hotel in San Francisco and it was a beautiful event!
Also part of the event were the amazing flowers by Bunch Studios and a gorgeous cake by the Cakemaker! 
