Thread: Torn:Photography Post

My fiancée and I are set to marry @ CSA June 13th. A few months ago I inquired about photography with Stacey Clarke and she sent me some of her packages. While her photography is nice I'm not 100% sure I want to spend all that money on getting videography and photos. My fiancée and I have both been married before and have both had pictures and videos that have sat on shelves and in drawers even while we were married to our previous spouses. I am not sure if it is worth $1400 that for video and pictures if most of the time the pictures will be in an album and not even being looked at.

Initially we wanted to go with the resort photographer but I am not scared that the pictures aren't going to be that great of quality. Anyone have resort pictures that I could browse?

It's the second wedding for my fiancée and I as well and I had the same dilemma a few days ago. We are skipping the video, for that reason...I doubt we'd watch it more than a few times. However, I did decide that Stacey Clarke was worth the money for her gorgeous photos. Plus, if you really think about it, the only reason the resort photographers are so inexpensive is because you only get precious few pictures. Plus, you get printed photos and a CD with ONLY the 24/36 you choose to print. First, I don't need the printed photos, for the exact reason you mention. An album will sit on the shelf and collect dust. With a non-copy righted CD, I can print the couple that I really want to frame and that's it (SnapFish does great work). With Stacey, you get a CD with every picture taken 300-400. The resort photographer takes nearly as many and you have to struggle with which 24/36 you want to narrow it down to and the rest are gone forever--I don't like that. So, for $600 you get 36 photos with the resort photographer, but if you wanted all 300 he/she took, it would cost nearly $5,000 if you do the math!! Stacey pays half the resort fee and her least expensive package under $1,200. Obviously, my vote is to go with her!! lol

Plus, if you and your fiancee are like Chris and I....your second marriage will be better than the first and you want as many happy images as possible to remember your awesome weddingmoon!

For sure!! Just got back. We had friends do photos, the resort do photos and Stacey do photos. We have not seen Stacey's photos yet but were very happy with the resort photos and the photos are friends took. We did a photo package from the photo booth and not the wedding office- manager's special- 20 wedding photos and 30 resort photos for $350. We paid $100 for the sunset photo shoot that turned out awesome. Our photography is at www.paynephotoltd.com. Just click on our wedding and the resort pics taken by resort photographer start on page 7 (last 3) and then page 9 and 10. This was a 2nd wedding for both of us as well.

Kim

@Kim...is that 30 photos of the resort, or you around the resort? Beautiful wedding pictures!

I am still at CSA and the resort photos they took were honestly not good. Sorry. We had Stacey and she was INCREDIBLE. She showed me a few as she took and I knowwww she took like 600 lol.. They were incredible. Will post as soon as I can. Sorry about the resort comment but you can for SURE see a difference in my book. Maybe it was me though. Had a wonderful and still having a wonderful time.

I have noticed from looking at the resort photogrphs that they basically look the same as what a friend would take. Stacey does blow everyone out of the water. I plan on working her into our budget (even though I probably shouldn't, LOL) because she really does the best job.

I am super jealous! I really wanted to book Stacey but I really didn't want to pay the 1300 for pictures. I wonder if she has any other packages? I really don't need that many pictures. Plus, my wedding is June 13th...next Monday.

Amanda- email her and ask, I've heard of her doing custom packages based on budget.

I finally set what we are going to do. We are using the resort photographer at CSS for our wedding photos ($450) and then when we move to Negril for the honeymoon we are going to do a TDD with Stacey at $300/hr (off resort so no $500 fee). This way I get Stacey gorgeous pictures but I don't have to pay $1300 (plus the $250 plus the $100 for her to travel to CSS). So even if we do 2 hours with her (which I doubt, future hubby is not a fan of taking pictures) I will only be paying $1050 as opposed to $1650.

Do email her though, she has answered so many of my questions and is very, very helpful! With you being at CSA you don't have to worry about the travel fee either!

So, I emailed Stacey to see if I could do a custom package and she said that the cheapest one would be 1200. Which...I think I'm going to go a head and take my chances with the resort photographer. I went to Barnes and Noble today and grabbed a wedding magazine and dog eared pages of pictures that I want taken. I'm crossing my fingers that I can find at least 18 photos that I like.

@ Becky...That sounds like a great idea. Her TDD pix are awesome too!

@Amanda...I don't think I'd worry about finding photos you like. I agree with what Becky said above and that is even what my fiancée said when we discussed it....they look like a wedding guest with a good camera took them. I like the artsy kind of photos, so I want the editing. On the other hand, I have tons of cruise photos that weren't edited and I love them.

We used the resort photographer at CN last week (Andrew Vassell) for our wedding and everyone thought that the pictures looked great. He took around 200 pictures and we did the package where we picked 60 and got the CD. We actually picked 50 the first go through and then just added 10 others from the group to get our 60. I don't want to sound negative but I can not ever see myself spending $1,200 for pictures. With todays cameras you do not have to be an expert to take good photographs. Not one of our pictures where out of focus. There may have been a few that looked like something was brighter than it should have been, but we had plenty of pictures to choose from. If you want a specific pose, tell them, they'll do it for you. I liked our pictures better when they were not telling us how to pose, like during the cermony and paperwork signing. I'll try to maybe get a picture or two posted up for you all to look at a resort photograph.

With Stacey we got about 300 pics. She stayed an hour and 45 minutes. Photos and resort fee total = 1000. Our friends got married one day after us. Used the resort photographer (at CTI) They ended up getting 36 photos for $400. Both of our pictures were very nice. I agree, that if you tell the resort photographer what to do, they will do it. I just wanted more pictures than 36 - even though it was the second wedding for both us. SO for an extra $600 , I got an additional 250 pictures. I made a super cute shutterfly photo book and used about -100 of Stacy's pictures. I have the photo book out on the coffee table, so it gets looked at every day. I think the whold thing is just a matter of opinion.