Confessions of a Former Bride #14

Uncategorized

October 3, 2013

I have thought long and hard about bringing this series back…in some ways I feel like I’ve said all I can say about my own wedding. I mean, it’s been two years. Maybe it’s time to hang up my veil and call it a day? I still feel like I have a few topics left to write about though, so as long as I have things to blog about and advice to share, I’ll keep going! But if there are any specific topics you’d like to hear my perspective on, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email with whatever’s on your mind!

Today I wanted to write a little bit about what happens AFTER the wedding. Specifically when it comes to your pictures. I know I’ve mentioned a few other times that our photographers were a bit out of our budget and we ended up making some sacrifices to splurge on them. We absolutely LOVED our wedding day images, but when it comes down to it, we paid $$$ for a fancy Facebook album. Come on, let’s be real. We don’t have an album (and it’s been TWO YEARS), we have three or four prints hanging on our walls, and I uploaded 1/3 of the images to Facebook, which is where I go when I want to reminisce on the day. Isn’t that sad??? I know I’m not the only one who does this either, because I’ve heard from many of my past clients who say they still haven’t gotten around to ordering albums or canvases or even PRINTS. And I’m definitely not knocking sharing wedding images on Facebook or social media…I think that’s awesome! But isn’t it just a little bit sad that all of my memories are housed on Facebook (and my backup hard drives, but still)?? Is that the way I plan to share these pictures with our adorable blasian (Black and Asian if you don’t know what that means) grandchildren one day?? That’s just sad. For all we know, Facebook might not even exist in 5, 10, 20+ years! Do you guys remember MySpace? Still use it every day? I didn’t think so.

Wedding Photo

(Photo by Jodi Miller Photography)

A huge part of the reason we don’t have an album? We didn’t go ahead and get one back when the wedding had just happened! I’m going to be real with you guys…the farther and farther you get from your wedding? The less and less you care about it. That’s not to say you don’t have fond memories of the day and it wasn’t one of the most important days of your life…but in all honesty, the farther you get from your wedding, you are much less likely to get an album or do anything with your wedding pictures because the wedding starts to become a smaller part of a much bigger picture. Things that bothered me on my wedding day (like an out of place chalkboard, or how I wish I had gotten a picture with just my mom, etc) became small potatoes. Things that didn’t matter. And some of the things that DID matter to me (like an album) just sat on the back burner as real life caught up to us. It’s actually kind of sad when I think about it, because at the time we were planning our wedding, a $1k album was just a small percentage of our wedding budget. A drop in the bucket. Of course now, the album feels like it costs us so much more when we have to use our real everyday money. My advice? Try to purchase an album if you can as close to your wedding. If you can order one BEFORE? Great! If you have to wait and use the gift money you received as wedding gifts? That’s awesome too! If an album is important to you like it was/is important to me, make room for it somewhere in the budget and figure out a way to make it happen before life gets in the way!

The reason I’m sharing my sad story with you guys today is because I don’t want you to be like me! Don’t be the photographer with no album. I’m the veritable shoemaker whose children don’t even have shoes. Your wedding day memories are so important and precious and hiring me (or another professional photographer) to capture them for you is truly an investment. What you do with the images, how you display for them and care for them is just as important as making sure you hire a professional to document your wedding!

Leave a Comment

  1. Great tip! We’ve been highly encouraging our brides to get albums upfront or at least within the first year and a lot of them are doing it and I love it!

  2. Emilia Jane says:

    Totally agree with you! We’re in a similar boat. (and I LOVE that image)

  3. Maria says:

    Guilty of this as well! I swear, by Christmas!…I think, haha.

  4. jennifer says:

    I totally regret not getting an album… 10 years later and we still don’t have one. I always remind my clients of this and thankfully, almost all of them chose to purchase an album.

  5. Erin Wheeler says:

    Such great advice! We are in the same boat- no album and hardly any photos and well I’ve been married forever! lol!

  6. Brea says:

    I totally agree with you! I have a friend who said basically exactly what you did to me word for word once. How she regretted not getting it during the wedding because it was a drop in the bucket for the wedding budget, but now it’s a HUGE LIFE EXPENSE. Uncool.

    We have an album and it gets looked at every single time someone new comes into our house and I love to flip through it! The farther away we are from the wedding itself the less frequently I look at it, admittedly. But it’s out and open on our built in so I do see it every day 🙂

  7. Lyn says:

    So true. Been married 23 years. Somewhere in the closet in the living room is a box of prints, an empty album and mounting ‘stuff’ (this is back when photos were printed and mounted in an album instead of printed like a book). Certainly no time to take care of it now (in my case its only time, not even $ – I have everything!) It would be nice to be able to show my kids our wedding photos. Maybe someday……hopefully before my kids get married……

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *