Wedding Journal: April
The task
for April was to find a photographer. How to go about doing this...no one I asked
seemed to want to recommend theirs. Hmmm...how about the internet? I went to
Yahoo and typed in Boston+photographer. I got some pretty decent matches. One
of the ones I liked was Legend Photography in
Medford. There were some great pictures and testimonials on the site, not to mention
I was impressed with the photographer, Carl Chow's, background and that he had done some
shows at the Tisch Center at Tufts. Called to set up an appointment for Tuesday.
The other photographer's site that I really liked was Kim Case's. The layout of the site was very
appealing as was the composition of her work. I called her for some information and
the instant I spoke with her I felt comfortable - she was a new bride so knew what I was
going through, plus she had gone to Tufts and graduated the same year as Michael.
Instant bonding. We set up an appointment to meet in two weeks on a Thursday.
When I had been reading one of the Boston wedding mags, a story caught my eye that detailed a wedding on the North Shore. The bride raved about her photographers - a tow person team out of Danvers called The Candid View. Based on this article, I called to set an appointment up with them as well for this Thursday. As an aside, being new to planning and organization, I inadvertently scheduled photography appointments on a night we had plans with our friends Mark and Liron - TWICE! Liron, a very organized person, was not happy with me. Now I have a huge wedding planner binder contraption (thanks Therese!) so this will not happen again!
Ok, so first we met with Carl Chow in his home studio in Medford. He was very professional and you could tell he was really an artist when it came to framing the pictures (with the lens not a frame) and had some "really neat" equipment such as a fish lens that got Michael the gadget guy hooked. I liked when he said I could call him to discuss my flowers and dress so that everything complimented each other in the photos - such as no conflicting warm and cool tones! He does a combination of Black & White and color which is what we really wanted. And his package looked more than reasonable. He would give us all day service, consultations at our sites beforehand, we could travel anywhere in Boston to have pictures taken (he recommends the Arboretum), not to mention proof books, an album for us and smaller ones for our parents. Michael liked the fact that he explained everything to us, such as cropping the photos a certain way, adjusting the light to get them developed the best way possible. Hmmm..so this left us with a lot to think on, and as much as we liked him we thought we should still go see the other photographers.
That very very rainy Thursday, I boogied home form work and picked up Michael and we boogied back up to Danvers to meet with Candid View photographers. This meeting went well as well. We really liked their style as well, they listened to what we were looking for and told us how their services compared. The woman we met with (whose name I can't remember, so embarrassing) was really helpful and showed us the different quality ranges for albums and about archival quality, etc. We really liked the fact that it would be tow photographers working as a team - one shooting the front of the church, one shooting from the back - two different perspectives. Their price was a little higher than Carl's, which pretty much seemed to reflect the 2nd photographer, everything else was very comparable...except they don't have a fish lens....So we decide we like Candid View as well.
Finally the following week, we go to meet with Kim Case. She works out of her apartment in the South End - an area of Boston I totally love! Michael and I meet after work and take the T into town as driving is too much of a nightmare. After taking a wrong turn or two we arrive at her house. Unfortunately she thought it was next Thursday! Luckily she was home though and could meet with us, though I felt bad that we shocked her! She is very much more a photojournalist and has done some fantastic photo essays which she showed to us. Because she is pretty much a freelance photographer, weddings are not her specialty though she said she enjoys doing them. Because of this she does not offer a wedding package per say, but all items are ala carte. This might work for some people who don't want the whole shebang, but for us it looked like the costs would add up quickly! Then she said she doesn't like to work more than 8 hours in a row...hmm...that would put us right at the end of dinner I believe since I need those shots of me getting ready...so, this may not be working out after all. And that's what we decided. As much as we both liked Kim and her work was fantastic, we decide it was better to go with the all encompassing package deal.
We were leaning towards going with Carl at Legend Photography for several reasons - he was artistic, he had the fish lens, and he was slightly less than Candid View - I know we shouldn't be too worried about a few dollars when it comes to our wedding photos, but I truly think the price difference was solely because he was located in Medford and Candid View serviced mostly North Shore clients. But we really like the idea of two photographers. So we set up a second appointment with Carl and his associate Bill who would actually be doing our wedding. We liked Bill and were impressed with him as well. When we asked if we could have an extra photographer in the morning (one to take me and the other to take Michael getting ready) and for the ceremony it was not a problem and the fee seemed nominal. They were also able to accommodate us for the whole weekend - they could do our rehearsal dinner and Sunday brunch as well - something Candid View would not do as they would rather do another wedding. So that was it, we signed the contract and we had a photographer! Another hurdle overcome, another box to check off in my planner, another step closer to the wedding!
I must say I really enjoyed looking at the photographers' work, seeing all those brides, their dresses, their flowers, the reception sites, gave me lots of great ideas :-)
BTW - I am very impressed if you have read this far and you are not my parents or Michael's parents!
