Say cheese...

It sounds cheesy, but it's true: After your wedding, there really is nothing left but the pictures. Literally the first wedding nightmare I had was that I hated every single one of my wedding photos, and there was nothing I could do. Choosing a photographer would have to be done very carefully.

Like with everything else in my life, I have a very distinct style. Nothing pains me more than to think my wedding album would be filled with shots like these.

This photo is just breathtaking (Seinfeld reference: Ugly Baby). 

I mean wow. We are all standing in a posed line with out hands folded, and we are even all wearing the same color family. Alright, this is definitely NOT my style.

Your wedding day is the happiest day of your life. You shouldn't need to be posed. I wanted a photographer who could stay on the sidelines and just capture everything that happened naturally.

perfect. photojournalism.

The type of photos I like are more photojournalism, less "put your cheeks together and say cheese". 

The naturalness (word?) of this picture is exactly what I want. The photographer has captured everything about this moment, and it is ORIGINAL. They are the only ones with this exact wedding photo. 

And so the search was on. I knew that  I wanted a younger photographer who was organized and could handle my level of OCD. I also knew that I did not want someone who was exclusively a "wedding photographer".

I just feel like if all you do is weddings, eventually everything starts looking the same. Some might argue that an exclusive wedding photographer will know all the right shots, but for me, not what I wanted.

I was also very conscious of our budget. And so we started meeting with potential photographers.

One guy I met with because he was a preferred vendor of our venue, and on the phone he boasted about how unique and original he was.

When i got there I was in for a different story. Ryan had some sort of work function (not surprising) that night, so I brought my mom to the appointment.

When I told this guy what I wanted, he proceeded to show me cookie cutter, posed, wedding albums. The quality of these photos were good. Very good in fact. But not what I wanted. I explained to him again that I wouldn't want any of these shots, but I would want more photojournalistic shots.

And I kid you not. He said to me.....

"Yeah I can do the photojournalism. But I need to get my standard shots in first. There might not be time for many of the shots you want, depending on how long it takes me to get my shots."

At this point I was losing my cool with his arrogant personality. I'm sorry. You need to get "your" shots? Are you putting these into an album and keeping them to show your kids? No wait, thats us.

In a way I was happy that I knew our personalities didn't match. Saved me the trouble of booking a photographer I absolutely hated. And it's only slightly awkward when I see him at my venue's Bridal Showcases...On to the next.

And the next was perfect. We met with the owner of the small company, who, after talking to us, told us he knew which photographer would be perfect for us. He showed us a few albums from that photographer, and we (mostly me) were elated.

It was everything I wanted. But personality is also important to me, and the owner was more than willing to set up a meeting for us before we booked. When we met our photographer I knew instantly he was the one (Am I booking a photographer, or getting engaged again?)

He's young, modern, not afraid to take risks and (gasp!) skip on some of the cheek-to-cheek shots to be creative. And best of all, he doesn't only do weddings.

This was probably one of my biggest reliefs to check off the list. I was happy, and Ryan was happy that I was happy (a general theme to our wedding planning).

How did you choose your wedding photographer?