Wedding Photographer Thoughts and Reviews
February 4, 2024
Top tips for someone who’s planning their wedding (and for myself if I could redo my wedding)
(1) When choosing your photo & video, definitely start with what kind of shots you have in mind (bright & happy, cinematic, moody etc). This will allow you to quickly narrow down the suppliers to choose from. I highly recommend going bridal fairs too so you get a chance to talk to the photo video owners themselves
When doing an outdoor garden wedding with barongs, maybe don’t go with a light and bright photographer, because I realized later on that the barongs all look rather washed out in the outdoor photos especially when it was still sunny and bright outside.
(2) Have a photo prenup (if the budget allows)! This is helpful in giving you a sneak peek into your photographer’s personality and capability. Make sure to ask for the output after. You can also use these to give feedback to your photographer on what you like and dont like PRIOR to the wedding. On my end, I was glad I only did a photo prenup and wala ng video prenup – tbh, having a video team during the prenup would have added more time and I was soo tired already from just the photo prenup (we did three outfit changes and I was sooo ready to call it a day)
And I know one reason why couples don’t do a photo prenup is becaused added expense and added effort. But I just want to say – it doesn’t have to expensive. You can choose a cheap venue, and a cheap(er) HMUA and just curate your own outfit. But the purpose of the prenup is to really help you get comfy with your photographer so that he knows you and vice versa, and you aren’t just working together for the first time on your wedding day.
(3) Make sure call times are clearly communicated so that you aren’t waiting in vain. In our case, the groom photographer arrived late! So the groom and his groomsmen were just twiddling their thumbs.
(4) Clarify specific shots you want taken. Josh & I were both super chill, but we really wanted our family to be in the photos – not necessarily the staged shots, but even the candid shots. So we were pretty sad when we looked through and saw konti lang footage, esp of our grandparents! In retrospect, this made sense coz the photog and videog team really tail the bride and groom. Eh syempre, the old relatives, they don’t really rush to be with the couple right? They just chill, stay seated sa side.
But that meant, they were barely in our photos. If I could redo, I’d request to include time to snap pics with older relatives (for me, more impt than entourage even, coz these guys are old already. So it could be our last few memories together), as well as request the coordinator to really set aside seats in front for grandparents. Coz during the ceremony, it was so full! Our grandparents kind of just sat wherever nalang. Then there was just so much chaos post-ceremony and we went straight to post-nup, then everyone wanted photos etc, I never got the chance to take another photo with them. So the only photo I have with them was the post-ceremony family photo. And trust me, on the day, there will be a gazillion things competing for your attention, you want to delegate all the thinking to your team as much as possible.
Bottomline: I 100% recommend you go through a set list of photos you want them to capture (entrust this list to the coordinator too so they can help follow up!).
(5) Request for shots of the set-up! Especially of the lobby, the food stalls etc. I don’t know. As the bride, I poured in blood, sweat and tears to plan this wedding, and yet 50% of the time, I’m cloistered away! Like pre-ceremony, I wasn’t at the lobby receiving guests… so I didn’t see the registration setup. During the cocktails, Josh & I were having our post-nup taken, so also didn’t see the cocktail setup, etc etc. I just want to see how everything came to life you know?
(6) If you want candid shots of your guests, make sure to really really specify this to your photographer (because in the Philippines, photographers have these shots they feel they have to take of the bride and groom and they kind of ignore everyone else in order to ensure they capture these shots).
Or better yet, hire an additional amateur photographer for the candid photo-taking. In our case, we had explicitly told the photographer that we wanted more candid shots of guests because we really wanted to see their reactions and feel their emotions from our wedding. We actually asked if he could add one more photographer to his team for this task. Unfortunately, we made this request too late and he couldn’t manage to add another photographer anymore. Ending? I’d say 90% of the shots were of me and the groom. That’s not a bad thing really, but honestly, I don’t need to see a gazillion photos of myself. I see myself everyday in the mirror (although I must say, I looked especially nice on my wedding day haha). Thankfully our photoman did snap a lot of photos of our guests! Most of them were posed (ofc, since they were getting these as souvenirs), but better than nothing.
(7) Definitely clarify timelines – when do you get what deliverable. For example, I knew we’d only get to see our prenup SDE on our wedding day, but I requested access to the edited prenup shots ~1month after the prenup. For the photos and videos, our coordinator handed over a hard drive post-event so we could get all the raw footage (note: best to have 2 hard drive so you speed up the file transfer). Actually, Ghe (our videographer) requested to bring home one of the hard drive pa kasi ang lalaki ng files! We ended up getting back the harddrive a week later
(8) For the wedding album, I highly recommend giving detailed feedback on what you want to see in the album. For example – as you choose the photos, already think through which photos should be together, because the photographer has a tendency to just mishmash the photos together (or at least our photographer did), and the layout can be a bit all over the place.Tbh, in the end, for the wedding album, we ended up using some photoman photos also, and just asking the photographer to apply their pre-set filters so that they would look the same. So, bottomline, don’t feel constrained by just your photographer’s edited photos. Open up those raw photo files too. And if those still aren’t enough, open up the photoman files too!
Other thoughts ~ tbh, if you have a clearcut idea on what you want to see in a wedding album, you might be better off just creating your own using Photobook. Actually, I ended up creating my own album again on Photobook with the following specifications (12×12 Square Imagewrap Layflat Hardcover Photobook) as gifts for both our parents. Downside here is if you’re limited to using just edited photos only, otherwise the photo “look” won’t be the same
Link to Photobook: https://www.photobook.com.ph/
My Photographer: GJ Esguerra Photography
Peso Power (Booked February 2023): Php 75,000 (Deluxe Package) + Php 5,000 (Prenup) + Php 5,000 (Tagaytay OOTF)
Inclusions:
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3 photographers, 1 assistant, 1 driver
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Edited images and all images of the day (couple to provide hard drive)
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Onsite Wedding SDE (slideshow)
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4 hours prenup shoot
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Prenup Slideshow (shown on wedding day)
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10×10 40 pages wedding album (around 100-120 photos)
Going into the supplier search, the only thing I knew was I wanted bright & happy photos – none of those dramatic shots as it just didn’t reflect the personality of both of us as a couple. We wanted our photos to capture the essence of who we are and the essence of our marriage – something that brings joy! We were considering a couple of photographers, but in the end, we went with GJ on the basis of friend referrals.
Prenup day: First time to work with GJ, and he’s really a very affable guy. Initially we were rather awkward, coz it’s weird having people be around you and just.. stare at you? But GJ gave us some directions then he left it up to us to get comfortable. It was pretty chill. I think it also helped that we chose a venue (Meteora Tagaytay) that GJ had shot in prior so he already had ideas on the angles etc. We also sent him a moodboard of his previous works at Meteora, highlighting what we liked and didn’t like
On the wedding day: GJ and his team arrived promptly on the bride side, but they were ~45mins delayed on the groom side. Initially they told us the groom photographer would be there by 9PM, as they’d drop him off first before going to Arocarria (where I was), but they changed plans and didn’t inform us! So the groom and his groomsmen were waiting around, without realizing the photographer would arrive later… I think lack of communication talaga – both on the photographer and on the coordinator side.
During the prep shoot, quick shots lang. In hindsight, I should have just done entourage shoot in gown already – wala ng prep shots. Instead, I could have used this time to take photos (candid and staged) with my relatives instead.
During the wedding ceremony, I barely noticed them. Too focused on getting married haha. But nice shots naman! Post-nup was quick lang din – 30minutes in the garden, then GJ cloistered himself off to start working on the wedding phot SDE!
For the reception, we went table hopping so we’d have photos with every table and all our guests. Medyo nawawala photographer namin minsan (not GJ, but someone from his team). Good thing I had a photoman (from M&M with us also), so for some tables, photoman shots nalang kami! Medyo fail. I think nag CR kasi iyong photographer? Pero ang tagal, and ideally, he got someone to sub for him because we really didn’t know where he was 😅
Post event, we got all the shots – raw and edited. Overall, GJ was very chill to work with. Just very chill.
For the photo album, I had to remind him 6 months after the fact to follow up on our album. Turned out he forgot (?) that we had already sent him the 100 photos we had chosen a few months prior. Honestly, the photo album making was pretty painful. I think because we had a specific idea on how we wanted it to look and the flow of the photos, and it just felt that his editor and us didn’t have the same vision. In the end, we gave super detailed feedback and essentially just told his editor specifically which photos to place where and the rough “look” we wanted from it. Not sure who was the problem here tbh – us for being too Type A? Or them for not editing nicely? Anyway, I think my best advice here is to… just give detailed feedback. Don’t be shy. That wedding album is something you’ll keep and show your future kids and even grandkids!
In the end, I also remade it on Photobook and gave them as Christmas gifts to our respective in-laws hehe.