It is not uncommon for many brides and grooms to hire close friends or family members to shoot their wedding. WHY — well most of the time it is either very a cheap hire or free. It can save you thousands of dollars, take one to do off your massive list, but it can also be one of your biggest regrets. Weddings are not a simple day that can be redone or recaptured. Unless you are lucky enough to know a professional photographer that has the experience of shooting weddings (which 80% do not), you’ll want to pass up any offers your friends or family make to shoot your wedding for a low rate or even free. While the price might be amazing, the saying “you’ll get what you pay for” is more often the case.
Consider these three things before you hire your friends or family to shoot your big day!

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T HIRE FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO SHOOT YOUR BIG DAY

1. They Could Miss the Most Important Shots – and of course this is not a good situation at all.

It’s your wedding day and your friends and family will want to enjoy the celebration with you (or so you hope). When you hire your friends or family members to shoot your wedding it is more likely that they will be on the dance floor with you, enjoying a signature cocktail and simply having a good time. While they are enjoying themselves, they are missing out on some great moments that you’ll regret not having in the years to come. Also, consider they might not even show up. You’d be surprised how many people at the last minute may not even show at your wedding. While it is not something you want to imagine happening it does happen a lot and having to find a photographer at the last minute will cost you a lot more.

Many brides spend weeks even months viewing photographers around them and watching their style of work. This is because they want to ensure they are capturing the most important moments of a day they want to remember forever. You would rather remember those special memories than the memories of your family member laughing during your bouquet toss missing that important shot.

2. They Don’t Have the Skills – As much as this might be hurtful to say or even think about that dearly loved family member – it’s true!

Learning all the photography tricks to take the perfect portrait, shoot group shots, manipulate light, and how to properly use a camera can take years to master. And lets me honest, even the most skilled photographer who has been at it for years still is learning. You can always learn something new! However, when you have a nonprofessional photographer, you are running the risk of missing a lot of the details on your wedding day when you hire someone who doesn’t have the proper skills or knowledge to shoot.

They may be able to capture some great candid shots, but will they be able to get a clear image of you during your first dance? How about all the little details of your dress? What about shooting in the dim reception venue? There’s a big difference when it comes to just having pictures of your wedding day and having professional memories captured of your wedding day.

3. They Probably Won’t Have the Right Equipment

Photography is an expensive hobby that not many can afford, even many professional photographers have had to slowly stock up on the photography equipment over the years. Not having the right equipment will make a huge difference in the quality of the images. Using an on-camera flash as opposed to an off-camera flash seems like a small detail but makes a huge difference. Even if they have the right equipment, they may not have any backup equipment like most professional wedding photographers have. What happens if they scratch their lens? Do they have an extra battery? These are all things that a professional photographer will have already thought of and prepared for. Aside from having the right equipment will they even know where to get prints made of your wedding? What if you wanted albums done? Can they professionally edit the images? There are a lot of things that go into shooting a wedding aside from just taking the pictures and your friends or family members may not have any idea of these considerations.

While may feel pressured to hire someone close to you to shoot your wedding this is one of the most important days of your life and you will want to have beautiful images to remind you of the joy from that day. Why risk not having the beautiful images you’d be proud to show off or even worse, end up having no images at all?

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