I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but John and I ended up paying for the photographer. And with paying for the photographer came choosing a photographer. And with the choice came finding one.
I never thought it would be as difficult as it turned out to be, but in the end it was worth ALL the effort.
I had a couple of requirements: price (under $5,000--the price that Allison's mom's photographer was charging), ability to travel (considering we would be moving around a lot on the wedding day), and artistic vision. Besides the traditional photos of family and venue, I wanted some beautiful, creative photos from the day. Photos which would capture the fun and love of Allison and Mark.
Does that seem like too much to ask? Let me tell you, it almost was.
I started with Emma Koide. She is a girl who grew up with the boys in State College (and her mother happens to be one of my dearest friends). She got her degree in photography from BYU, so needless to say, she takes amazing photos. However, I never really liked her, and she treated my boys like poop, so it was a rather hard pill to swallow to go begging her to come out and take the photos. However, she agreed! But within a week, she said she had prayed about it, and she didn't feel right coming. And amid my frustration, Ethan reminded me of several times as a teenager that she had "flaked"--he wasn't surprised at all that she had done it again.
So then I started contacting some photographers that Emma had recommended, some from Utah, and some from Michigan.
I kid you not, I could not find one person from Utah who would come out (more about that later), despite the fact that they all say on their websites that they are "location" photographers. Yeah, right.
So then I started hearing back from people here in Michigan. Several of them couldn't help me either, and the ones who could? Holy smokes, they sure weren't meeting my price point.
One woman I found sounded good and her pictures looked great. We had set up a meeting for 5:30 on a Tuesday, and according to the GPS, she was an hour away...except (as I discovered too late) at rush hour. As I plugged in the address as we took off, it was going to take us TWO STINKING HOURS to get to her, and I had a date with Survivor and friends that night. So I did everything I could to contact her to set up an appointment to reschedule.
At this point, she responded to me via email and told me that she didn't get a good feeling from me and wouldn't be able to help me. I then called her back, explaining that I just couldn't drive two hours to meet her, and basically begged her to reconsider...all over voicemail.
So Allison, Mark and I met with another photographer in Ann Arbor. She had a studio and everything! She wasn't the friendliest person, but she was definitely willing. However, all of her wedding packages maxed out at eight hours of coverage with each additional hour costing upwards of $200 per hour. Looking at the day, we figured we would need 15 hours of coverage with a three hour break in the middle of the day (so 12 hours of coverage). She told us though that she would still charge us for those three hours, making the total cost over $4,000. I wanted to die.
I was getting desperate by this point. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?
I typed "Orem photographers" into Google. Breanna White came up first. She said she was a destination photographer, and although she is high-priced for Utah, at $3,000, she was a bargain for Michigan. And best thing on her website? She said she didn't charge extra for travel.
I dashed off an email to her, and she responded within minutes. And that night, Mark and I were on speaker phone with her for over an hour, and with each minute, she got better and better.
The photos on her website were to die for. And yes, it would be $3,000 total. And after we told her about how crazy the day was (temple, log cutting, Vinsetta Garage, reception), she didn't even bat an eye. In fact, when I mentioned that several photographers had already told us they wouldn't help us, she couldn't understand why not. THANK YOU!
She did explain though that there was some large bridal event happening in Salt Lake City the Saturday of the wedding, and she guessed that that was why so many had turned us away. She, on the other hand, had rented a booth the previous year...and had not gotten one client from it. So, she had been feeling rather unsure about her decision to not return...until we called. If we're talking about prayer here, she felt like WE were an answer to her prayers, providing a business opportunity when she had decided not to return to the bridal event. And how nice it was, after talking to so many non-member Michigan photographers, to be able to explain about Allison's family not being members, and not needing to explain about a temple wedding.
And let me tell you, she is a brilliant business woman. In order to keep her costs down, she asked if we had somewhere she could stay and did we have a car she could borrow (or better yet, just tag along with someone)? She found a ticket on Southwest Airlines for $250 which was her only cost (since she ate everywhere we did, and we paid for her).
I couldn't sign the contract fast enough since I was worried that, once again, a photographer would back out on me. She was so professional and reliable.
And let me tell you, you was a genius on the wedding day. She was firm with everyone, but still so friendly. And she was everywhere and yet we never saw her. She didn't need us telling her what to do or when to do it (a la Ethan and Rebecca's photographer), but sneaked off and took care of both mine and Allison's mom's wishes.
Mark came up to me during the reception and told me that I need to "nail her down" for the girls' weddings now...before she becomes too well-known or busy. I'm totally up for it, except for one problem: we don't have husbands yet :-)
Two words: Breanna White. Three words: Yes, she can.
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