July 08, 2004

Weimar economics

Does anyone actually like their wedding album ? Ours sits in a box under the sofa, and would never move at all if it wsn't for the wife hauling it out to torment visitors. To be fair, most female visitors can feign some degree of interest, but most of my froends would rather go out and cut turf than leaf through a bunch of wedding snaps. When Herself and myself were organizing our wedding a few years ago, I was only given one task to do - hire the photographer. Naturally, I kept meaning to do it, but in the end, my mother lost patience and booked a local guy. As it turned out, he was excellent. The secret of being a really good wedding photographer is not just technical skill but also an ability to put people at their ease. Our photographer excelled in both departments.


At the time of booking, nearly four years ago now, his prices ranged from around 550 pounds to about a grand. The difference in price depended on the cover of the album (you could choose leather or wood) and the number of enlargements. I went for the cheap one since I figured a leather cover would gather dust just as efficiently as an oak one, and we still haven't hung up the one enlargement we did order (OK, I'm just a tightwad).


A friend is getting married next year and has just booked the same photographer. The price? Between 1600 and 2000 euro. Yikes! Now that's inflation…


Posted by Monasette at July 8, 2004 11:50 PM
Comments

Do not talk to me about wedding photographers, got married last year 1100 Euro for 24 pic's, the mother in-law decided the album didn't look filled enough and upped the number to 36 pics. Extra 200 euro to develop 12 pics.
The guy had the cheek to ask for the money when he took the last shot. We had no pic's obviously at this stage and a deposit of 200 had already being forked out. If we want copies we have to go to him as he has put a digital imprint on the negatives which only he can take off.

The pics were fine, but I think this whole industry is way overpriced.
We hired a guy to play guitar at the church and he turned up with a partner and demanded double the pay. People should just go to a register office..

Anyway that's my little rant...

Posted by: todd at July 9, 2004 02:59 AM

funny you should mention it - a neighbour had a similar experience. When the photographer should up at the church on the day, he demanded his entire fee up front or there would be no photographs. The best man had to go to some of the guests to pull together that much cash at short notice....

Posted by: John at July 9, 2004 08:36 AM

A bit like the racketeers that move in every time there's a conferring ceremony on here in the Uni... sometimes they even do things like pretend someone's number has been called out so they can collar them for pix.

As for matrimony, if I ever tie the knot myself, it's the registry office or bust. As a former wedding musician (never again!) I've seen enough Celtic Tiger weddings to put anyone off. Weddings are important days, and everyone wants things to go without a hitch, and money is no object, and naturally the vultures start circling. Don't get me started...

Posted by: brendan at July 9, 2004 10:55 AM

My daughter was married last January and she and her husband paid for most of it themselves. Although we all had a great time, it is extraordinarily expensive. It seems that wedding costs bear little resemblance to similar goods and services in the real world. I guess we're in the wrong business!

Posted by: P. Brady at July 9, 2004 06:27 PM

All I remember from our wedding is the photographer reducing most of us to tears. He roared and shouted so much that a few of my family were so incensed they wanted to stay out of the pictures, he told my father-in-law he was not dressed appropiately and to fasten his jacket! Then this photographer had the nerve to ask for the balance of the money before he left the grounds. As a result any copies we wanted to order, we gave up on, sooner than give him more money!

Posted by: Mary at July 10, 2004 02:00 AM

Do you also notice, that going to a wedding now as a guest that you have to give a certain amount as a present.
And if you want to hire a car, I was quoted 500 euro (Is that insane or what)

Here in Australia, they have another custom where the couple provide a free bar all night to the guests.

Could you imagine doing that in Ireland.....

Posted by: Todd at July 12, 2004 03:18 AM