A Green Wedding

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  What I am sharing today is based on a note  sent to me by Lucy Thomason who posts articles for the event planning careers blog. This is her personal hobby blog, focused on tips to help people  organize a green event, use less energy and reduce their carbon footprint.
  
  Lucy assures me that this wedding actually took place in August 2010, between Engel and Dyer, near the Huron River in Ann Arbor.
  
  A lot of people would like their wedding to be eco-friendly, and over recent times it has become increasingly practical and affordable. Still, it can be a challenge.... this is what Engel and Dyer did -
  
  Accepting that they wouldn't be able to keep everything totally green, Engel and Dyer decided they would try their best anyway, and to make the day fun as well as instructive  for their guests.
  
  They held their wedding at a science and nature center, where guests were offered tours in the hour before they walked down the aisle. The tours featured water and energy conservation methods used at the center, like solar-panel arrays for electricity, solar-powered heating and water heater systems, and no-flush compost toilets.
  
  Engel and Dyer say they focused on "little details" that make a big difference:
  
  • Dyer's dress was an heirloom - a vintage green dress that had been her great-grandmother's in the 1930s
  • Her ring was made with recycled gold and had a beryl instead of a diamond
  • Her makeup was certified organic
  • Instead of rice, guests were given local lavender buds to throw in celebration.
  • At the reception, the tables were covered with local wildflowers and the foods were locally sourced
  • Leftovers and unused food were recycled (by sending to local farms) or reused.
  • They found a solar powered generator to run the lights and the audio system for the band.
  
  Despite their commitment, not every choices they made was the most eco-friendly option. For instance, when they couldn't find a local red wine they liked, they used a burgundy from elsewhere in the USA - but still a domestic wine. They did serve (local) Michigan white wines sparkling cider, however.
  
  They could have used paperless Internet or txt invitations, but Dyer felt paper invitations were important - but on recycled paper, of course.
  
  Can you do something to 'green up' your wedding day? Does all this inspire you?  If it does (and I hope it does) I wouldn't want to give the impression that it is simple - but Engel and Dyer managed it, and if you are prepared to make as few compromises as possible, you can do something for the environment, too.
  
  The best way to scale back on an event's carbon footprint is to cut back on the number of guests. Fewer guests mean fewer meals, fewer needs for centerpieces and other decor and fewer miles travelled to reach the marriage. That doesn't mean people have to be excluded - consider the option of broadcasting parts of the wedding over the Internet!
  
  Once you have the guest list parred back, The best way to reduce the impact of any event is to look at the life cycle of the different elements you use: where is that food coming from, how much energy is expended to produce it, how does it get to your plate and where do the leftovers go?
  
  While meat might take more energy to produce than fruit and vegetables, considering how far some fruit and veggies need to travel might give them a larger carbon footprint.
  
  Finally, consider the wedding professionals you engage - do they need to travel far to participate or can you engage local photographers, musicians, celebrants and reception houses? Does your florist grow their blooms locally? Can you have your photoshoot at a local venue rather than travelling a long way to a special location, then back to the Reception Venue? How many cars do you actually need, and do they have to be petrol guzzlers? How many of those meetings really need to be face to face?
  
  There is a great deal that can be done towards having a greener wedding; it need not be more expensive, and it certainly does not have to be a second best affair. Quite the opposite.

What is a Reasonable Price for Wedding Photography?

This a question I have touched on before in these ramblings, but having just revised my own package costs and added an "a la carte" option, I thought it might be time to come back to the How Much question.

Unlike some photographers,  I am quite open about my fees (the curious can click here - I find a lot of "the curious" turn out to be other photographers!) - I prefer to be up-front about fees for a couple of reasons: it cuts down the number of inquiries that are never going to result in business, it gives people a basis for comparison, and it lets potential clients concentrate on my photography, rather than on whether or not they can afford my services.

You would be surprised how often customers walk away from shops or merchants who are not prepared to put the price on their products. My wife, Jean is really hot on this - she simply won't ask "how much?" and while I am prepared to ask, I generally won't if there is someone else who is forthcoming about their prices.

Why? Well, you can't help being a bit suspicious about hidden prices (I can't, anyway) and the nagging feeling  that if you have to ask, it is going to be expensive. Then there's that sort of anticipatory embarrassment that says, if I ask and then say it's too much, I am going to sound cheap, or poor, or maybe I'll offend the merchant, or be challenged to defend my opinion, or perhaps feel humiliated.

All foolish, perhaps, but not a position I ever want put a client into.

So, what dollar value should you anticipate for your wedding photographs? There are plenty of places where someone will offer a simple answer to that question. Wedding Magazines, Catalogues and Directories always plump for a percentage of the total cost of your wedding, typically 20%, although I see 10% cited now and then. On that basis if your budget is $20,000 then photography would cost between $2000 and $4000. That may be helpful if you actually have a clear idea of your budget far enough in advance. Really organised people will, but how can you budget until you have some figures to work with?

Very often the process is well advanced with a great deal of money outlayed before a realistic budget emerges - "we have spent $xxx - how much do we have left?" - and photographers are not often the first person on the bride's list; we are often paid for out of what is left after the "essentials" have been committed - the Church, Reception Hall, Catering....the Dress!

It's another problem if the couple have different fiscal priorities to the people footing the bill. It may be increasingly common for families to share wedding expenses, and for the groom and bride to bear part of the expense - even guests contribute in some circumstances (which is why I offer gift certificates), but photography is a very personal decision and it can be hard if your heart is set on a particular photographer and the bill-payer wants you to ask Uncle Phil or that fellow who advertises "Great wedding photography for $33 per hour"

Ten percent might be reasonable if your base is $20 or $30K, but what if your spend is $8000? A photographer's fixed costs are - well,  fixed. $800per wedding is not going to cover insurance, samples, lighting, cameras, computers, other equipment, maintenance, depreciation, travel, rental, assistants etc. let alone their time on the wedding day and after, which means  that, for $800 or less you are going to hire either an amateur trying to make some pocket money, a student, someone with no experience trying to build a portfolio or someone who took some nice pictures on holidays and thinks this is an easy way to make a living.

No, that doesn't guarantee a bad job - everything might work out fine, but these (so called) photographers don't carry the back-up camera bodies,additional fast lenses, dedicated lighting gear and other fail safes to be able to deal with dear old Murphy's Law. And if ever the rule applies, it is on a one-time only event like a wedding. So part of what you are paying for is experience and resilience to deal competently - invisibly -with what might otherwise be a disaster in the hands of a week-end warrior. Should something go wrong you do not want to be left on your own - like the lass who phoned me last Friday looking for someone to replace the wedding photographer who let her down one day before her wedding. When something goes wrong, a professional has the resources and the contacts to rescue the situation (and yes, I was able to find her a competent photographer.... but I wish she hadn't hired on the basis of cheap and cheerful in the first place).

Another simple (simplistic?) approach to working out how much you should pay is to look for an hourly rate. While you will commonly see $50 or even $30 per hour quoted, the appropriate rate is currently $150 per hour. Be careful, though. Do not be tempted to say "I have $600 left, so I will hire the photographer for 4 hours." Which 4 hours? The ceremony is an obvious place for the photographer (that is about 90 minutes from when the groom arrives until the time the greetings, congratulations and group photos are done. Travel directly to the reception venue, spend 15 of 20 minutes prior to the formal entrance and you have roughly 2 hours left of the photographer's time. Unless you have your speeches, first dance, etc all clumped together at the very start, your photographer will have finished before the cake is cut or the bouquet thrown! No bridal party photos, no preparations, and a lot of the time shooting very little.

The other problem with working out what to pay on an hourly rate is that much of the photographer's work happens after the wedding day, and if you pay a bargain basement price, you offer no incentive to the photographer to invest the many hours necessary to complete the work. In fact, a pert-time photographer with a "real" job will not have the time to finish your photos properly - for every hour spent shooting, there is another three required to get you files to a professional, print-ready standard.

You need to be sure that the photographer will make a real investment in this post-production aspect of the work. It is where most of the "magic" happens - really, the photos taken on the day are only the raw material that a photographer uses to produce your wedding memories: $150 per hour over a typical 10 hour wedding day is really just short of $40 per hour over the entire period spent working on your behalf. A $50 per hour photographer finishes as soon as he gets home and burns your photos to a disk.

There has to be a better way of working out what you should expect to spend for the only aspect of the whole wedding day that lasts as long as your rings. Coming from the other side of the equation, this is how I figure it out what I think you should pay ...but  do I know what you can afford? Well actually, I do in a way....

We have been living through a period when people have been very careful about their finances. This should be reflected in careful decisions about just what my clients decide they really want in their wedding packages. I think that should give an insight into what is not just available, but both desirable and affordable.

So I reviewed all the weddings I have photographed over the last two years of the Global Financial Crisis, and listed the most sought-after products - the most popular combinations and types of albums, multimedia productions, enlargements and so on. I looked at the average spend, and the typical spend, which turned out to be quite similar. I was really interested to see what brides and grooms actually wanted.... what were their most valued products based on where they allocated their dollars. Since all of my packages are flexible (you can add or remove anything you want), that gave me a pretty clear picture of what people wanted and made sure they could afford. I also took the time to compare my experience with those of my colleagues. I discovered some items that I considered as "special orders" were actually becoming something of a trend...Hybrid albums, for instance.

And then I took this information  and translated it into new packages, returned to my suppliers, looking at what they and their competitors were able to offer that people really wanted.

Thankfully, I found that my main suppliers were already the best at what they did and great value, but I had to add a few new suppliers  to my vendor list and one has, sadly, been dropped - I have had to set up a new review system, too, to make sure I don't lose touch with the trends, the standards or the prices.

So, what should you be paying? I can offer my current package list as a good starting point for working out what you should expect to pay and what you should expect to receive. Not too many working photographers will have lower overheads, so cheaper is not likely to be better, and a lot of very reputable wedding photographers, especially those with high-cost studios to maintain and staff to pay, will naturally need to charge more - but not a lot more, I hope.

I am NOT saying that people who charge more than I do are overcharging, just that my fees may offer useful guidelines. And  I am certainly not suggesting anyone should drop their present photographer and come to me instead - I can handle only so many weddings or portrait sessions in a year; and besides, wedding photography should never be just about money It's about reputation, style, personality and your relationship with your wedding photographer. Those qualities  are worth a very great deal...something I have not been able to cost!

New Packages, New Pricing

Toward the start of the notorious Financial Melt Down, a lot of wedding photographers were anxiously wondering why their businesses still doing well. As the years dragged forward, many noticed that their clients were leaving it later to book and ordering a little less in prints and albums, but it was not a real problem for well established and respected photographers.

For more marginal photographers things were different. They started to lower their prices as business started to fall away, and we saw the rise of the "shoot and burn" brigade... it sounds like a bargain to clients not "in the know"  because it is so cheap. Which is also why it is easy for inexperienced and even second rate camera people to get into the market. Take the picture, burn the CD, go on to the next job - all care, but no responsibility taken.

Those of you who follow these rantings will know that I am not a fan - not because the service is automatically going to mean bad photos or even poor photography, but because the  photographer has no commitment to the final output - there is no quality guarantee and there is a lot that should make a bride or groom very nervous about just what is going to be on those CDs.

You will also know that I include Hi-Res files in my packages, which sounds like I am having a bit of a two way bet. Not so, as a glance here will demonstrate (Designer Pack).

From now on, as a way to encourage people to print their photos, were including $200 worth of prints in selected packages. In fact, all of our offerings have been revised. At the budget end, the price has dropped and free prints have been added, but the number of files provided on disk has been limited to 500 hi-res files.

All our packages have been radically revised and new products have been added - there's even an A la Carte Menu with clear descriptions and prices to help you build your own.

All the changes have been driven by what our clients have been asking for over the last couple of years. Our most popular collection of files, prints and album has now become a package in its own right. I don't think it will still be the most popular this time next year - the newer products are really beautiful, and compared with other vendors, relatively economical, and while the recession of the last 3 years might not have pulled business back, I suspect that growing confidence and good economic performances are likely to help brides and grooms decide they are gong to have the very best! After all, this is once and  forever.

Bride of the Moment - Bride of the Month

Love and Pride - Jenny on her Dad's Arm

It was a pleasant surprise, when, last April, weddingsnsw.com asked for permission to publish my photos of Ben and Jenny's wedding in their Bride of the Month section. Nice for Ben and Jenny, encouraging for me - apart from this blog and a little Facebook promotion, I don't advertise much. I have space on a few wedding directories, but most of my referrals come direct or by word of mouth. So an unsolicited approach like this is very welcome, and the exposure it generates for my photography can't hurt, now can it.

So...I am very pleased to share that the same honour  has just been extended to Sam and Angela (well, Angela, I suppose: Sam is hardly a bride!) Congratulations Angela, you are to be the NSW Bride of the Month - I haven't been told for which month yet (is is never in the month the couple weds - it obviously happens after the photos have been published). As soon as I am notified I will post a link here.

I wonder what it is that makes someone say "there is our bride of the month". It could be outstanding photography, or the great settings that we use for our pictures, or the efforts we make to avoid clichéd pictures and ensure each couple's unique day doesn't come out looking like every other couple's wedding.

Sam and Angela Go to Town

The truth is, it is probably something about the bride herself. What does the photographer contribute to that joyful, serene, anxious, elated, proud, worried, carefree vibe that is a bride's persona on her day? 

For us, it is about capturing those emotions without getting in the way, following the day without interfering with it's natural evolution, being carried along by its flow, directing without altering, highlighting it without changing who the bride IS and what she is experiencing.

Forget style and technique - what do they mean if you don't notice; and noticing is not worth much if you don't understand; understanding is useless if your don't have the temperament and the knowledge to interpret and present the essence of what you see, without trying to impose your photographic style on the couple's reality. Only then does technique comes into play, along with experience and the right equipment; but first things first: our Brides' images are special  because we do notice, not just how wonderful they are, but just how they are wonderful. 

Thank you Angela: enjoy your preview.

Sam and Angela at the QVB