4. photographer
We were very picky about photographers and their styles. There also seems to be a glut of photographers available for these things, and it would be extremely time consuming to go through them. So we outsourced it to a photography friend of ours who were in desperate need for work at the time, told him to look through all the photographers in the LA/OC/SD area with availability on our date and give us a list of 5 or so that may fit within our budget guideline. (we actually asked him if he was interested in the gig and he turned it down since his focus is more on portraits, not events) Along with 1 other recommendation of an award winning photographer, we had a short list of 6.
Immediately, we decided to not consider 2 of the 6 due to various reasons, and another one recently relocated out of town and wasn't available to meet. To us, a photographer's personality is almost every bit as important as their work, so not able to meet face-to-face and talk to them is a big no-no. Of the 3 remaining, we met with all of them, spent about 1 hour talking to each couple, and talked it over among ourselves about how we felt about them. The first one we chose was not very up-front and clear about their cost, and everything was a la carte, and would've cost close to $10k on photography alone if we used them. The thing that made me rather unhappy was that they didn't present us with a very clear price structure, we had to ask if a particular item we wanted was included, if not, how much. We decided that if we can't communicate well with the photographer, we don't want to do business with them. The second one we chose had a surprise for us. After we signed the contract, she realized that she had double-booked, and since we are already fairly late in the wedding planning process, she offered us another couple to help her husband for our event; while she'll be at the other event with another photographer. We were initially hesistant about their editing style, but after meeting them, our mind was at ease.
As an apology, the photographers gave us a free bridal session photoshoot, which turned out to be rather fun and relaxing =)
On our wedding day, the husband had a "once every 2 year" back problem suddenly come up. Couple hours into our getting ready process, he somehow was able to drive 1.5 hours and made it to our event! Much kudos to him.
One month after our event, we are still waiting on the photos... but otherwise, so far, so good ^_^
We were very picky about photographers and their styles. There also seems to be a glut of photographers available for these things, and it would be extremely time consuming to go through them. So we outsourced it to a photography friend of ours who were in desperate need for work at the time, told him to look through all the photographers in the LA/OC/SD area with availability on our date and give us a list of 5 or so that may fit within our budget guideline. (we actually asked him if he was interested in the gig and he turned it down since his focus is more on portraits, not events) Along with 1 other recommendation of an award winning photographer, we had a short list of 6.
Immediately, we decided to not consider 2 of the 6 due to various reasons, and another one recently relocated out of town and wasn't available to meet. To us, a photographer's personality is almost every bit as important as their work, so not able to meet face-to-face and talk to them is a big no-no. Of the 3 remaining, we met with all of them, spent about 1 hour talking to each couple, and talked it over among ourselves about how we felt about them. The first one we chose was not very up-front and clear about their cost, and everything was a la carte, and would've cost close to $10k on photography alone if we used them. The thing that made me rather unhappy was that they didn't present us with a very clear price structure, we had to ask if a particular item we wanted was included, if not, how much. We decided that if we can't communicate well with the photographer, we don't want to do business with them. The second one we chose had a surprise for us. After we signed the contract, she realized that she had double-booked, and since we are already fairly late in the wedding planning process, she offered us another couple to help her husband for our event; while she'll be at the other event with another photographer. We were initially hesistant about their editing style, but after meeting them, our mind was at ease.
As an apology, the photographers gave us a free bridal session photoshoot, which turned out to be rather fun and relaxing =)
On our wedding day, the husband had a "once every 2 year" back problem suddenly come up. Couple hours into our getting ready process, he somehow was able to drive 1.5 hours and made it to our event! Much kudos to him.
One month after our event, we are still waiting on the photos... but otherwise, so far, so good ^_^
5. officiant
Initially, we figure anyone would do, since we already tied the knot at city-hall a year prior to our wedding. But after hearing many people's advise, we decided that we might want to consider a professional. So we looked around and decided to meet up with 2 of them, one very traditional and one very open minded. We went with the latter, especially because she was an interesting character and we liked her world-view so-to-speak.
During our rehersal the day before, our wedding planner wanted to talk to her before rehersal started. Unfortunately, our planner (along with everyone from LA) had to suffer through horrific traffic and wasn't able to get there 'til late. In the mean time, our Officiant was getting bounced around by the Winery staff since nobody really know where to point her. Things got a littly testy, but fortunately didn't go nuclear ;-)
A couple of days before our wedding, we had edited our vowes with redlines, based on what she originally wrote for us. Unfortunately, our version of the vowes did not make it into the final event, which we weren't too happy about. Otherwise, I guess it was okay.
Initially, we figure anyone would do, since we already tied the knot at city-hall a year prior to our wedding. But after hearing many people's advise, we decided that we might want to consider a professional. So we looked around and decided to meet up with 2 of them, one very traditional and one very open minded. We went with the latter, especially because she was an interesting character and we liked her world-view so-to-speak.
During our rehersal the day before, our wedding planner wanted to talk to her before rehersal started. Unfortunately, our planner (along with everyone from LA) had to suffer through horrific traffic and wasn't able to get there 'til late. In the mean time, our Officiant was getting bounced around by the Winery staff since nobody really know where to point her. Things got a littly testy, but fortunately didn't go nuclear ;-)
A couple of days before our wedding, we had edited our vowes with redlines, based on what she originally wrote for us. Unfortunately, our version of the vowes did not make it into the final event, which we weren't too happy about. Otherwise, I guess it was okay.
