Photographer Meeting #1

Today I had a meeting with one of the photographers recommended from theknot.com. Stephanie was a little out of our budget but we had been emailing back and forth and she said that everyone should have photography that they love regardless of the price.

T didn't want to come with me. He thinks photographers are boring and they won't ever show you bad photographs so whats the point. I tried explaining that you need to like the personality of the photographer, but he doesn't get it. So my mom came with me.

I was not expecting Stephanie to be my age. Her work is amazing for someone that young. One of the first questions she asked me was where we were having the wedding. When I said the name of the winery she got really excited and said that she's photographed weddings there before and loved it. That was a huge selling point for me. I looked through a sample book of hers that was actually from the winery.

We went over my huge list of questions and I found out that she's really good friends with similar photographers that if she ended up being sick that day we would get someone with the same style. She said she's never been sick before but its always great to have a back up like that. And if she was to be sick, we would be the first people to find out. Pretty comforting. All of her photos are taken in high resolution in color and then she chooses which ones look better in black and white but we can also tell her to change them if we want.

T doesn't want us to be on the internet so I thought finding a photographer to agree to that would be difficult. Stephanie said that she doesn't have any problems with it and she would ask our permission before putting any pictures online.

Here's what we can get:
4-6 hours of coverage
online password protected gallery of all edited images
a high resolution DVD with all images that we can have printed anywhere or order from her
engagement session
high resolution DVD of the engagement pictures

...and the price....$1050.

Then I found out something else thats also really great. We would pay her a 50% deposit when we sign the contract that seals us in for the date. The remaining balance isn't due intil 3-6 weeks after the wedding when we receive a CD of the pictures. I haven't found any other photographers who let you pay them after the wedding, so thats great with being on a budget.

We talked about photos I like and don't like and she really seemed to get all of it. I could describe a photo to her and she knew exactly what I meant. There was definitely a connection with her.

I met with another photographer today that I found on craigslist. I didn't feel the same connection with her as I did with Stephanie. Her pictures are great but not 100% what I'm looking for. She's a little bit more reasonable price wise, $950 for up to 9 hours of coverage, high res DVD of all of the photos, and a free engagement session.

I have a meeting with another photographer that I found through http://www.ppa.com/ which is a national photographers website. We're meeting on November 1st. She is a little bit more expensive, $1300 for 4 hours but she has the same style as Stephanie and we've had a lot of great email conversations.

So, in case anyone reading is in the area and still needs a photographer, here is their contact information:

smillerphotography.net  - Stephanie Miller
kilkerphotography.com - Gail Kilker (the one I didn't really like)
meadowsmoments.com - Stacy Meadows (meeting on 11/1)