It was the most horrifying thing we’ve ever seen during a wedding ceremony. During the ring exchange, the photographer, dressed sloppily, got up into the gazebo, shoved her way between the minister and the couple, and took photos of their hands while the bride’s ring was being slipped on. The shocked minister stumbled from the “photographer’s” shove, and after the “photographer” took her ten photos or so of the same thing, she exited the gazebo. During this exchange, Mark and I were in the audience, our mouths hanging open, and I said to him, loud enough for the guests around us to hear, “GET a ZOOM lens.” Everyone around us laughed.
That was, by far, the weirdest thing ever.
It was my friend Brooke’s wedding, a girl I’d known for years, but we weren’t hired to do the photos because her mother hired the photographer and Brooke didn’t really have a say in it. I photographed Brooke’s boudoir for their ten year anniversary, and during her consult in my office, she looked at the photos that hang on my walls and started to cry. Not ONE photo from her wedding was even descent. Not one made it to a wall. The plastic album is shoved in the back of a closet because if she even talks about it, ten years later, she cries. I told her, “Sweetie, I know it sucks. But you’re going to have to get over it eventually. There’s nothing you can do about it now.”
“I know but I CAN’T! Not ONE picture! I’m still mad at my mother.”
And she is. She brings it up to her mom every once in a while, starting a fight, saying, “I TOLD you we should’ve hired Dawn!”
Her mom says the same thing I do, that she’s got to get over it. “There’s no point crying over spilled milk.”
“But it’s MY MILK!” Brooke said. And she’s right. It is. I’ve already told her that I’m giving them an anniversary shoot this September as a gift. She’s so upset about the wedding, and I wanted to do something for her. She’s beyond grateful and super excited. We’ll make it the SECOND BEST anniversary shoot ever (next to mine and Mark’s)!
There is a moral to this story folks… Brides, pick out your own photographer. I’ve heard multiple horror stories of mother’s of the bride hiring “I dunno, some lady she works with,” and it ALWAYS goes badly. So make the decision together, as a family, and get everyone’s opinion, but the decision, ultimately, belongs to the bride and groom.