We were really lucky - we came across and friend of a friend of my MIL who did professional photography (including lots of weddings) kind of as a hobby rather than full time career. She charged $400, and we were supposed to get 120 6x8 prints and a CD of all the photos, but we actually ended up with 180 photos (at no extra cost) because she said she couldn't part with so many of the photos.
We had photos of us getting ready before the ceremony, the actual ceremony, and then lots of photos afterward. She did the standard 'pretend to cut the cake photo', but apart from that she didn't do any photos at our reception.
We paid $2500 and I think it is the worst money we spent on our wedding day.
The person who was supposed to be doing our photos couldn't make it so he sent his partner, who had no people skills at all. She couldn't look us in the eye when speaking to us, she actually looked away when talking to us.
She took stupid pics of us hugging everyone after we got married. Just useless back-of-the-head shots. She was sitting down eating when we did the garter & bouquet throws. I had to ask her to take photos and she didn't get 1 shot of our wedding cars
If I had my time again I would probably spend the money on a good camera and have someone I trust to take the photos. Trust me, they would have come out better than the ones we paid for
I think about $3300? That included both of us getting ready, beautiful natural shots, massage for DH, and then he hung around at the reception for ages (only half an hour was included in the package, but I think he was having a good time!) and took some gorgeous shots there. We got a full set of regular photographic size prints, and $400 worth of enlarged prints.
The photos are amazing, and I don't regret spending the money for a second. That said, the photos that friends and rellies took are amazing too, and a wonderful complement.
I would go with the Fijian photographer, and get some family and friends to take their own photos as well. We had a BBQ the next day, and had a laptop there, so we got everyone's photos together and shared them.
Alternatively, what about flying a photography student over with you? Bit cheaper, and you'll still get amazing stuff. They're also often not as bound by copyright, and more open to sharing options.
our ceremony was a bit different to normal, so our photographer altered the price to suit us. It was a night and outside aswell so needed a really good photographer who could pull it off.
In saying that it only cost us $1500 for 2 hours of her time. and that included before hand, the ceremony photos afterwards and then moving to another location and havig more photos taken.
We got unlimited photos on a dvd - which she had colour version and b&w versions of them all (think there was over 2000 photos) and a few she edited extra.
it would have been extra to get prints/album though.
I was really really happy with the photography. if you want i can give you her details, or show you some of ours so you can see what a great job she did.
my best friend is a wedding photographer and i *think* her cheapest package starts at about $1900. she has told me that that is a very reasonable price and that most people would expect to pay upwards of $2000.
HTH
We got married in 2000, just before GST came in. Our photographer was a relative of my dad's, (well his wife was i think) so my parents got a discount. Our package was $2300 for our photo's and video from getting ready through to leaving reception. They gave us our music for free (Photographer was a well known person on local radio here, so knew his stuff)
We got all our photo's in a 4x6 size, then we chose which ones we wanted for our album, which was made from rosewood i think?
Also included a video for us, with photo's of DH and I from being babies through to a few early couple shots when we met, and another 2 copies, one for each of our parents.
We also got an enlargement as part of the package, but DH and I couldn't agree on which photo we wanted to enlarge for our wall, so we never did it I got all negatives from them a few years ago, so when we can decide, I plan on getting one done on canvas.
Oh one thing that i was picky about, and didnt realise till after we got married, was what type of clothing they show up in. A friend got married after us, and all her wedding photos have a 2nd photographer in the background somewhere, wearing jeans and a polo shirt with the business name on the back. It was then that i truly appreciated our photographers showing up wearing a nice pair of pants and shirt, and his wife wearing a beautiful skirt/top that looked very business like
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