Putting the cart before the horse

Or, how we booked our wedding photographer before meeting them. The majority of my sources for wedding planning came by searching [vendor] in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Websites like The Knot and Weddingbee helped me by giving me an idea of what was available in our area and an assortment of reviews. One day, I decided to check out photographers. I soon stumbled across Carolina MediaStar. It’s a family operation (father, two of his kids, one’s hubby) based literally five minutes away from my house. The dad started the business and taught the younger generation how to shoot. He personally edits all the photos, so a certain continuity naturally occurs. I honestly can’t see any differences in shooting styles. Then again, I know nothing about photography. I poked around a bit more and found one bad review for them out of dozens (the bride said she didn’t get her photos back quickly enough).

I know some brides find the generic piano music on photographer sites annoying, but I’m a sucker for a good piano solo. I clicked through their online albums and was quite impressed by what I saw. I loved their dreamy use of light and filtering. I contacted them to get a quote. Sarah, one of the photographers and general business manager, responded quite quickly. Their prices seemed reasonable (like I had any idea what a good price was) and our date was available, so I asked to set up a meeting. They didn’t have any meeting times that I could make for a few weeks. Sarah mentioned that they were going to a few weekend bridal shows and would start booking summer 2012 weddings. I freaked out and started panicking that some bride would poach my vendor. In a moment of sheer rationality, I told Sarah that I wanted to book them. She sent a me contract, I mailed a deposit, and Bob’s your uncle, Fanny’s your aunt, we had a photographer.

Now it may seem a bit rash to book a photographer before meeting them, but I haven’t found another photographer in Fayetteville whose style is as artistic. We have a fair number of talented photographers here in town, but none of their photos made me want to book them. Carolina MediaStar’s did. The other ones I found had a generic wedding photo feel to them. Nice shots, but no “it” factor.

The middle photo has a sneak peek of Mac’s wedding day look 🙂

I did set up a meeting with Sarah and her dad to finalize our contract details. We went with the Vienna package: two shooters for seven hours. I don’t want or need a photographer following me around sans make-up, body shaper, or hair styling. They’re going to show up at the Botanical Garden when we arrive, we’ll do formals and photos before the ceremony, and go from there. We also aren’t planning a grandiose send-off, so we don’t need them to stay until the end of the evening. For the reception, they’re going to shoot the big stuff (toasts, dances, stuff like that).