Asking a friend who is a photographer to do your wedding?

Tone1979

Tone1979

Tone1979

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So I have a mate who is awesome when it comes to wedding photography. We'd really like to ask him to do ours but we're worried about asking a mate to spend the day taking photos of a day that they should be enjoying.

we're happy to pay just not sure how he'd take being asked.

Anyone here had a mate do the photos for your wedding?

Thanks
T
 
We decided the best course of action was to split the load. We had a relative who covered the evening (and whatever he wanted to cover during the ceremony and sit-down meal), but hired a local professional to cover the ceremony and meal.

Best of both worlds, and the cost for a few hours of a photographers time was FAR cheaper than having him there for the whole day!
 
If he is a professional then he will act professional.

No drinking. No socialising. Just work.

It should not be a problem.

Don't feel bad he is there "working", he has agreed to it.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Don't feel bad he is there "working", he has agreed to it.
Click to expand...

Presumably the problem is more that he will feel obliged to say yes if he is asked, even if he'd rather not do it. He'd then feel even worse if he said no and the alternative pro took crap photos.

Personally I'd try to find an alternative but ask your friend to take informal supplementary photos.
 
Raymond is doing my wedding. I plan on getting him drunk and accusing him of being unprofessional so I can save some cash.
 
If he's a friend and wedding guest, don't. You're not inviting him to your wedding, you're hiring him to do a job.
 
I've been the wedding photographer at a friend's wedding. Treated it like a normal job, although I found I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have if I was a guest.

Didn't really ruin the occasion for me and the couple loved the images, but since that I've been reluctant to accept jobs from friends. YMMV.
 
Skully said:
Raymond is doing my wedding. I plan on getting him drunk and accusing him of being unprofessional so I can save some cash.
Click to expand...

Note to self, bring own water in car.

I've even shot my sister's wedding, I didn't think "I can't do it because it's my sister's wedding or I felt obliged to say yes" it's more of whether I think I can separate it and be professional.
 
My dad used to friends' weddings when they asked. They would always complain about how much it was costing, even though he done it on materials basis only. This was back in the day of film so everything was expensive. He stopped doing it and stuck to paid, non-friend work only.
 
Personally while I have no experience of this myself (unmarried and I don't have any good friends who are photographers - although I do occasionally employ a photographer at work who also covered weddings, so I'm covered there), I'd feel a bit weird asking a friend (who would otherwise be invited) to be the photographer.

I'd just ask someone else. If it all goes boobies up, you won't just get rubbish photos, you'll lose a mate.
 
I've shot many friends weddings, and I'm doing our best friends in July.

I'll be eating with the guests/friends but everything else is work.
 
Ask him on the lines of "would you like to" or "would you prefer to be a guest"

Theres flip sides to both sides of the coin, so why not ask him his preference.
 
me and my partner did our friends wedding at their request. we weren't overly sure it was a good idea but caved in.

don't mix friends and business, we don't speak any more due to a falling out over what we agreed to do for them. we don't actually remember any of the day from a personal point of view because we spent it all looking through a camera.

he won't be able to enjoy the occasion if working.

if your friend does decide to do it, make sure you do it all by the book with contracts etc.
 
The truth is chap, no-one wants to go to your wedding. No-one enjoys them, and he'd rather spend his day off sitting about relaxing.

So with that said, he'll be more than happy to get paid to shoot it, I would imagine. Should make the whole thing much more bearable.
 
I would steer clear - if he wants to enjoy your wedding from a personal view point (I presume he does), then he most likely won't be able to achieve that if he becomes your employee for the day.
 
Wouldn't ask tbh, if it was a friend of a friend then fair enough, but if it was someone that would be at the wedding it's got too much potential for everyone getting annoyed with it - sit down and explain to him so you don't really pee him off!
 
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