You’ve been planning your wedding and you are getting down to the fine details of hiring a professional wedding photographer vs. your uncle with a camera. This is a decision that could potentially save some of your budget for other things, but is this really the right decision to make considering everything that needs to get done? After all, this is your uncle with a camera verses a professional that does this type of photography for a living. Yes it’s your uncle, but he has a single camera, and you need a lot of pictures taken in different settings, lighting, and situations.

To begin with, this is not a fare comparison and the reason is, your uncle is not a professional. Now, I am not saying anything bad about your uncle, I know you love him and he’s part of the family, but that is an even better reason not to use him, and here’s why. Your uncle may feel that he is doing an excellent service for you, but the fact is, he’s doing a disservice and this will not be realised until the wedding starts and after it finishes. You see, a professional wedding photographer has everything that is needed to take professional quality photographs for your wedding. This is what they do and they know what they are doing.

You uncle on the other hand may own a camera and probably knows how to use it, the problem is what if the photos aren’t what you expected? What if the lighting, the setting, and the situations that present themselves aren’t taken advantage of? A professional wedding photographer is trained to handle these events, and they have experience at getting the right shots at the right time. They know when to take pictures of emotion as well as expression. They have been trained to take complete advantage of situations that other people wouldn’t even notice.

Your uncle will do his best, but his best isn’t even close to a professionals’ worst. You see, even if the professional photographer does snap a picture that isn’t a perfect shot they have the tools to take that picture and develop it into something incredible. These tools cost quite a lot of money, and chances are your uncle doesn’t own any of this equipment and software. The other item of concern is, all the time that is required to take good quality photographs. Will you have your uncle miss your wedding so he can try to do the best he can and take pictures of your wedding?

Now comes the worst part and this is not to hurt any ones feelings, but when the wedding is over and your uncle has taken all those pictures but something malfunctioned, and the pictures didn’t come out as planned. Some of the pictures were too dark and others were to light, some of them were blurred, and others were of arms and elbows. He will apologise and it would be heart breaking if you decided to be angry with him. After all, he did his best with the tools he had, but now the wedding is over and the blame will fall somewhere – you or him, or the weather, or the camera.

For what it’s worth, many people have gone down this road only to never travel it again. If you love your uncle, unless he is a professional wedding photographer with his very own studio and all the equipment needed to take professional photographs of your wedding, do not allow him to take the place of a professional wedding photographer. If something goes wrong, and 90% of the time it does, you will be angry at him and this is not the way to spend your wedding day. Take the time to find a professional wedding photographer, and spend your allotted wedding budget to do it. The resulting photographs you will receive will be worth every single cent. They will last for years and you will be able to reflect on this day in a positive manor instead of a negative, wishing you had never enlisted the help of your uncle. Make the right choice and bring in a professional, you will thank yourself for making the right decision.

What most couples do is look at their wedding day, a day before and day after. This way you have covered all your basis.

Just recently Event Weather got a big contract and I though it would be worth a mention to reconfirm the validity and how good the system is.  Here is a link to the article on Perth Now.

If you would like to know what the weather will be on your wedding day, you can go to www.eventweather.com.au, but use the promo code of “absolutealive” which will give you double the credits. I recommend this service; the weather forecast is pretty spot on each time, and I’ve had excellent reviews from previous brides.

If you would like to know the current weather in Perth, you can go to this Perth Weather Forecast.