Breathing a confident sigh of relief

It's very rare that JC, King of Data (clinical trial manager for life-altering medical studies), finds something he likes and says, "I want it." I like to think I'm one of those exceptional phenomenons but I doubt it. This has happened 2x during our wedding planning process. The first was during our venue search, which was so daunting we haven't even attempted to blog about it yet. The second was after one of our photographer interviews. You would think I'd be the supporting fian-cée and say, "Great! Let's do it!" Fortunately, I am Queen of Data (MBA in statistics), so I'm not.

We researched as many, if not more, photographers as we did venues. I don't know how many people have told us that the photographer is one of the most important vendors we'll hire because their images will be the only tangible memories we'll have after the wedding is over. For our lifetime. That's for-e-ver. We ruled out quite a few referrals after looking at the photographers' websites because we were looking for something special.

The first photographer we met with was great. She was referred to us by one of my clients and JC liked her website and images so much we set up an appointment right away. After meeting with her, JC said, "She's perfect. Let's just book her." Wouldn't you assume I'd want to make the process as easy as possible? Nope. I told him we should wait to meet w/ the other photogs.

The last photographers we met with were AWESOME. We'd been referred to the husband and wife team by a florist (actually, the florist we did not hire). When JC & I checked out out their website and blog we were blown away. Their work was clearly of a higher caliber than any other photographer we reviewed. Would they be too expensive for us?? Yep.

Ok, so out-of-our-budget, cream of the crop photographer or reasonably-priced, really great photographer? Hmmm...

I can't believe how difficult this decision is. I actually lost a little sleep over this one. While JC snored away, I debated on whether it was worth it to pay more than we wanted for photography, and potentially blow our budget, or hire a really great photographer that we almost hired anyway.

More expensive, creatively stylish or affordable, classic style? Oh man...

I called both photographers to get their bottom lines in terms of inclusions (engagement sessions, cd's/dvd's with our images, albums) and total package prices. To work with the more expensive duo we'd need to cut out some of the extras we were hoping for.

Tastes great, less filling? AARRGHH!!!

Finally JC & I decided that our priority was the quality of the work and it was worth exceeding this portion of our budget because we'd always wonder what our album could have looked like. Then, the other night, I get an email from the husband/wife team that completely put me at ease in our decision. They were recently married themselves and they said they totally appreciate our situation and are willing to give us the images from our engagement shoot, which will save us a pretty penny. YAY! I think more than the savings, I'm happy because I feel comfortable that they understand what we're going through and are sensitive to the stresses of planning a wedding.

So meet Justin and Mary! They are fantastic and fun and you'll be seeing them soon at a wedding near you...