We get tons of inquiries from brides-to-be on a regular basis. Once a bride contacts us, usually through email, it goes one of a few ways:
- They book us over email or a phone call – YAY! (Rarely happens, but YAY! nonetheless)
- They set-up a meeting with us to talk more about their wedding and how we might fit into their plans. – YAY!, maybe even more YAY! than #1 because it means we get to hang out with them over coffee or food.
- We get a response saying “I love your work but you are outside of our budget” or we never hear from them again. – not quite YAY! but we understand that we aren’t for everyone.
However, the most popular response by far is: “What can we take out of the package to make it cheaper?” My answer is almost always: “Nothing. Every aspect of a Fyrefly Wedding is there to make your wedding photography experience AMAZING! We have options that add to, but we don’t have any that take away from our experience.”
Sometimes we hear back, most of the time we don’t. I understand…I really do. Weddings are expensive, budgets are tighter now than they were two years ago and everyone is looking to save money wherever they can. Even knowing all that, we really do have reasons why our collections are structured the way they are. Email is a terrible way to tell people why we do what we do. Sometimes it can feel like I’m lecturing, and the last thing I want to be is a lecturer. So I thought, maybe a blog post would help…so here goes:
Here are the “anchors” of a Fyrefly Wedding and why they are so important to us…
UNLIMITED COVERAGE. Every wedding is a story. You hire us to tell your story in pictures, not just take your picture. The story starts with the bride getting ready in the morning and ends with the couple driving away pulling those annoying aluminum cans. We want to tell your complete story and if we aren’t there for the whole day your story will be incomplete.
At one of my very first weddings I got a picture of a groom whose pants fell down on the way to his car because he had lost some weight before the wedding day. Earlier the couple told us they didn't care about the "running out" pictures and that we could leave whenever we wanted. We decided to stay for the whole story and ended up with the most memorable shot of the wedding.
DIGITAL COPIES. We see the pictures we take of your wedding as yours, not ours. Remember, this is your story and we want you to have the whole story, not just the highlights. So we give you a couple DVD’s with all your images on them to keep and look at forever and ever…and ever.
ENGAGEMENT SESSION. In order to tell your complete story it’s important for us to know you. We’ve found that the engagement session is the absolute best way to get to know you as a couple. We’ll talk, laugh, make fun of each other, tell stories and I will learn how you best react to the camera. It makes the wedding day pictures soooooo much better. It also makes it less awkward when I walk into the room to take pictures of the bride putting on makeup on the wedding day. We even wrote an entire blog post on why we LOVE engagement sessions, which you can read here.
A GORGEOUS ALBUM. I love steak. Especially a medium rare filet. I’ll only order a filet at a decent restaurant because I know it’s going to be prepared and served the right way. If I was ever at J. Alexander’s and they brought me a filet on a clean trash can lid I would be grossed out and furious. The funny thing is that the steak would still have been prepared at the same restaurant, by the same chef with the same oils and spices but it just wouldn’t be appetizing.
Steak and wedding pictures? What? We believe your pictures should be prepared well and served well. The wedding album is the presentation of all the hard work and preparation you put into making your wedding unique. It is the coupe de gras. We want it to be something that a couple is proud to show their grandkids 30 years from now. In addition, we want to be extremely proud of the way our work is presented. So our wedding albums are GORGEOUS, the perfect presentation of your once-in-a-lifetime day. For a more in depth look into why we love our albums click here.
We know that a Fyrefly Wedding is not right for every couple. Whether its the budget or our style we probably won’t even be the right wedding photographer for most. We’re comfortable with that. Our clients structure their budget in such a way to make sure that their story is told in the most romantic, fun and engaging way…through amazing pictures! We love them for it.
So hopefully this helps you get an idea of where we’re coming from. At the end of it all we want you to have documented proof that your wedding was romantic, stylish, beautiful and fun. We want people to cry, giggle, oooh and ahhhh every time you pull out your album. We want you to have the fondest memories of your day. We truly believe the best way to tell your story is with a Fyrefly Wedding Collection.
*Our pricing starts at $2600 and includes everything discussed in this article. If you think we might be right for your wedding feel free to contact us for complete pricing including some of the most popular collections.
