1) Not hiring a professional wedding planner.

Planning a wedding is not easy and having it run smoothly is even harder. A professional wedding planner will be able to help you avoid some of the little mistakes that they have seen at other weddings. They will also help ensure that the day goes smoothly. Your mom is awesome but she probably doesn't have a lot of experience planning weddings (however some moms do an awesome job with this). If you have the money in your budget, hire a wedding planner and let mom relax and enjoy the day. I have seen many weddings that are total chaos because nobody has the knowledge and experience to run it properly. A good wedding planner will also make sure we (the photographers) have adequate time in the schedule to get you some amazing photos! Yep, you knew I had a photographic motive, didn't you! ;) If you don't hire a wedding planner it's a good idea to consult with your photographer about the schedule and how much time is needed for photos.  

2) Not hiring a professional (experienced) wedding photographer.

Even if you don't hire me, make sure you hire a real photographer! Photographing a wedding is not an easy task. You have to know where to be, when to be there, and know how to use that fancy camera. Your uncle is an awesome guy! Fun to be around, makes you laugh, and has a "real camera", but he's probably not an experienced wedding photographer. Having a nice camera doesn't make you a professional photographer, no more than having a fast car makes you a professional race car driver. These days, anyone can buy a DSLR camera, but not all DSLR's will give you the same results, and even if you do have a high-end DSLR, you need the knowledge and experience to use it properly. You won't get professional results shooting in auto! You need to be able to walk into any situation and know what lens, what aperture, what shutter-speed, what ISO, you would shoot it at and why... and lastly, I can't say this enough - you need to have experience shooting weddings!!!

3) Allowing cell phone usage during the ceremony.

You hired a professional photographer because you want a beautiful professional pictures of yourself as you walk down the aisle on your wedding day, NOT because you want a professional picture of 13 cell phones protruding into the aisle blocking you and your face as you walk down! And thats just 1 example! I can't tell you how many wedding pictures I have seen ruined by guests with their cell phones. If you hired a professional (see #2) photographer, he knows where to be, and he's going to get the perfect picture... unless your aunt jumps out in front of him with her cell phone and ruins it. If you want grainy, low resolution pictures not suitable for printing, then save your money and don't hire a professional photographer, but if that's not what you want, then ask your guests to keep their cell phones put away and let your photographer(s) do their job. If you need help on how to do this, I will be glad to help.

4) Not booking the right venue.

A good photographer will get you good pictures wherever your wedding is, but the venue you choose is important! Choose a venue that has the look and feel you want. Don't book a venue that has memorabilia all over the walls unless you want that in the background of your wedding pictures. It also may not be a good idea to book a venue with boldly colored walls, because as light bounces around, the color on the walls gives the light a color cast. A good photographer can overcome this, but it's not easy. Wood ceilings and walls also do this, but sometimes it can't be avoided and your photographer will just have to custom white balance or overpower the ambient with off-camera lighting. A nicely lit room with 12-20 foot white ceilings is a photographers dream :) Also, make sure there's a nice, clean, well lit, and hopefully light colored room for the getting ready photos. 

5) Not buying a wedding album.

Ok again, even if you don't hire me, hire a photographer who is going to make you a wedding album! Look at it like this, what if I shoot your wedding and I give you your pictures on a 3.5" floppy disk, or a 5.25" floppy disk, or a tape drive, or even a CD rom or DVD? Would you be able to view them? Who says that in 10 years you will be able to view images on a USB drive? Who knows if jpg's will even still be used in 10 or 15 years? Or what if your hard drive crashes, that could happen tomorrow! The only form of media that doesn't become outdated and obsolete is the printed media (IE a wedding album). Don't leave all your precious memories in digital form where they most likely rarely get seen or worse could disappear forever.

For more information on these topics or to make sure you have #2 covered contact me at [email protected] or 615-712-1898