Should I Get Disposable Cameras for My Wedding?

Weddings have so much potential for creativity and fun! And one of the best ways to make a wedding amazing is to make it interactive. Games, dancing, toasts, even the wedding cake are part of an interactive event. But the wedding photography still remains somewhat exclusive. Sure, you can use your phone, but it’s not really something that you can share with the happy couple. At least, not easily…

This has led a lot of couples to choose disposable cameras for their wedding. Everyone can grab a camera and document the event from their own perspective! In theory, it’s an amazing and fun idea, but we have to ask ourselves - is it a good idea to have disposable cameras at your wedding? Let’s look at the pros and cons of having disposable cameras and figure out if they are the best choice for you!

Wedding Disposable Cameras: The Good

There are so many good reasons to have disposable cameras at your wedding. While this list is not exhaustive, it does give you an idea of how having disposable cameras available for guests at your wedding might be a great idea!

Disposable Cameras are fun!

Cameras are fun, but there’s just something about a disposable camera that brings out the best and sometimes worst (in a good way) in people. Their simplicity means that anyone can pick up a disposable camera and start shooting. Everyone can be a photographer and it can inspire some people to create some really cute and fun poses while making great memories for you and your spouse. Plus, having disposable cameras available just seems to really liven up the reception crowd! The fun factor of a disposable camera is a major pro when considering whether or not to buy disposable cameras for your wedding.

Disposable Cameras are Cheap!

I’ve seen couples try to use instant cameras at their weddings. Fuji Instax and Polaroid cameras can range from $60 to $120 each and then you have to purchase the film which roughly costs between $ and $3 per photo depending on which format you are using. Couples choosing to go with instant cameras at their weddings often discover that people have to wait around to have a turn and they can burn through a lot of film really quickly. Disposable cameras range between $10 and $20 per camera many times (though you can buy them in bulk cheaper) and come with 27 exposures. You’re getting the camera and the film at a fraction of the cost of instant.

Disposable Cameras are Easy to Use!

A shutter button, a flash charge button, and a winding wheel are all that make up a disposable camera. You charge the flash, press the shutter release, and then wind the film to the next stop and that’s it! If you buy regular consumer disposable cameras for your wedding, you’ll find the instructions are even printed right on the camera. If you purchase decorative cameras from Etsy or Amazon, those may be covered up, but the cameras are still ridiculously easy to use!

Disposable Cameras are Super Durable

Let’s be honest, many of your guests are going to be feeling pretty good once the open bar starts pouring at your reception. You wouldn’t want them handing your Instax or Polaroid cameras in that condition. One drop could send your $100 investment right into the trash when the camera breaks. While disposable cameras are cheap, they are surprisingly durable thanks to the extremely simple design and their plastic lens. You can drop them repeatedly and often the only thing that might happen is the flash stops working. Which doesn’t render the camera completely useless, merely limited in its function.

Disposable cameras are easy to buy

Cheap, durable, and they are still EVERYWHERE! Walmart, Target, and many pharmacies still carry disposable cameras. And you can easily purchase them online! Amazon carries them as well as Etsy and many other online retailers. If you’re looking for info on where you can buy a disposable camera, check out THIS ARTICLE.

You can also check out our Disposable Camera Packages for Weddings! We offer disposable camera packages in 5, 10 or even 20 and the price includes developing and digital delivery through an online gallery. All of our wedding disposable camera packages come with brand-new Kodak cameras loaded with the best film for shooting in darker areas like reception halls or at night. Of course, you should still always use your flash!

Wedding Disposable Cameras: The Bad

While there are a lot of pros to having disposable cameras at your wedding, there are a few things you should be aware of. The good news is that being aware of them can make your disposable camera experience much more enjoyable! Here are the things you should watch out for:

Your Guests may get crazy

I recently developed, processed, and scanned disposable camera film for a customer who had used these disposable cameras at a wedding. While there were many many amazing photos of family and friends, one particular individual decided to walk around and take photos of everyone’s crotches. He even snapped photos under the table. It was an entire roll, 27 exposures, of crotch shots. The customer/bride was extremely upset. I doubt any of those photos made it into the wedding album!

There may be a lot of Finger Photos…

Because you are looking through a viewfinder on a disposable camera, you aren’t actually seeing what is coming through the lens. Combine that with the smooth design (no protruding lens) of a disposable camera and you’re going to end up with a lot of people’s fingers drifting into the picture. I process a lot of wedding disposable cameras and I see a lot of fingers in pictures. Well, you can’t really tell it’s a finger, just a skin-colored blurry blob on the right side of the frame. Fortunately, many of the images can be cropped down to get rid of the finger, but sometimes, it just takes up too much of the image.

To Flash or Not to Flash

The biggest issue I see with disposable cameras that come back from weddings is that the images are always very very dark. People forget to activate the flash button or fail to understand that it has to be pushed each time you’re about to use the camera in most cases. The dark nature of most reception halls makes the flash absolutely necessary and even then, you have to understand that the flash is only good for so many feet. When indoors at the reception, guests should use the flash every single time! When outdoors and in the shade, there’s a good chance you should still use the flash. For most disposable cameras, the only time that you absolutely do not need the flash is when your subject is standing in very bright daylight. So if you have the opportunity to inform through an announcement or making a sign or whatever, make sure your guests know about using the flash!

Without flash…

With flash…

The Cost of Developing

Many couples come back from their honeymoon and discover a large box filled with all of the disposables they had at their wedding and are often sticker-shocked when they discover the cost of developing! Film processing prices are on the rise to get your film processed and scanned could cost as much as $20 or more per roll. When you have 20 or 30 cameras, that adds up to a lot of money and is a somewhat hidden cost and problematic for many who choose to use disposable cameras.

The good news is that WE PROCESS DISPOSABLE CAMERAS! We can develop, scan, process, and even print your images for you at an extremely reasonable price! We provide special care for our wedding customers and give extra attention to detail and image processing to make sure your images turn out beautifully! For orders of 30 cameras and up we even offer a special bulk discount! Message us to find out more!

Is it a good idea to have disposable cameras at my wedding?

While you have to weigh the pros and cons of wedding disposable cameras and consider your guests and your budget, we think it’s a fantastic idea to use such fun and interactive media at your wedding. Communicate with your guests and assume they have no idea how to use a disposable camera. You can use social media to hype the presence of disposable cameras while using it to inform your guests how to properly use the cameras. And, don’t forget to budget for the cost of developing your disposables. We have a new product offering coming soon that will allow for you to buy a package of cameras AND includes developing/scanning/prints!

Wedding Albums: Are They Really Necessary?

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We live in the golden age of digitalization. So it only makes sense that most of what was physical before are now finding their way to the digital world. This includes wedding photos and albums. 

Nowadays, most brides and grooms prefer receiving digital copies of their wedding photos. Not just because these files are more compact and portable than physical albums, but they are also much easier to share and brag about on social media. 

So, this begs the question:

Are wedding albums really necessary in 2021 and beyond? 

The answer is, well, it depends. 

Let’s take a look at a couple of factors that may influence a couple’s decision to get a wedding album for their special day. 

Professional- vs Consumer-Grade Wedding Albums

There are two main types of wedding albums available for soon-to-be-married couples — and these are your professional- and consumer-grade wedding albums.

Consumer-grade wedding albums are often made of low-end materials, which is why they aren’t the best option if you’re looking for high-value and high-quality printouts. They often use a default album design for every client and lack personalization options across the board. 

If you don’t want your wedding album looking generic and common, working with professional-grade producers is your best option. They offer customizable album designs and layouts that fit the preferences of each client/couple. Additionally, you get to enjoy high-quality images printed on premium materials. 

Pricing and Budgeting

One more thing about digital wedding photos that make them so attractive is that they are more cost-effective than traditional printed albums. 

Printed albums require a couple to shell out at least $500 to $800 on top of their photographer’s fee, which normally costs around $1000 to $2000, depending on the photographer’s level of expertise. 

Some couples may not like the idea of spending a couple of extra hundred dollars for a wedding album. However, others may find a way to fit the costs into their overall budget. 

Hard Drive Failure and Physical Backups

Hard drive failures happen every day, and when they do, hundreds even thousands of pieces of data are lost or damaged in the process. You can read dozens of stories on the internet of people wishing they had a physical copy of lost memories they stored on their phone or computer. 

Albums can act as a sort of physical backup for precious memories and milestones. Physical printed photos can last more than a lifetime and can be an incredibly “romantic” way of passing down memories to future generations. There’s something about the feeling of paper in your hands that makes you feel more connected to the photos you’re looking at. 

You can’t duplicate that feeling by handing your grandchildren a thumb drive. 

If you want something you can physically pass down as an heirloom to your grandkids, then a wedding album is a great choice.

Professional Photography

Weddings are already one of the biggest investments you will ever make in your life (apart from buying a home and getting a mortgage). Might as well go all out on this area of your wedding budget and hire someone who will make you, your spouse, and your guests all look good in your wedding photos. 

While we have nothing against hiring novice or amateur photographers, there is value in hiring a professional to capture the moments of your special day. 

A wedding album should be more than just a collection of photos compiled in one book. 

Professional photographers can work with you in designing your album. They can help you decide on a theme, a color scheme, as well as costumes — if you’re aiming for that vibe and feel. 

So, Are Wedding Albums Necessary?

While wedding albums are nice to have, they technically aren’t necessary, especially if you don’t have the extra resources to spend. As we said, wedding albums aren’t the cheapest memorabilia. They cost anywhere between $500 to $800 dollars, and those are just the numbers before adding the editing, layout, and designing fees.

You don’t want your wedding day to be the reason you go into debt, after all. 

If you’re only feeling pressured to get a wedding album because it’s the current “trend,” it’s probably best to sit that one out. As long as you have a solid backup plan in place for your wedding photos, you should be fine without a wedding album. 

On the flip side, if you have the budget for a professional-grade wedding album that is shot and designed by an expert photographer, then you should definitely consider getting one. 

Not only is it a great way to look back on important events and memories, but it also ensures that you have a high-quality backup to pass on to future generations — in case your files get lost in the cloud or your device’s hard drive fails and loses your data.

We hope this article helps you with your decision on whether to get a wedding album or not!

If you’re looking for a Wedding Photographer that will fill your wedding album with absolutely beautiful images, CLICK HERE to see our work and find out more!

by Sophia Young - Sophia Young Content Studio

Why are Wedding Photographers So Expensive?

You’ve just spent $8,000 on the venue, $2000 on the cake, $2800 on the wedding dress, the flower cost is going up every minute, you’re thinking about serving chicken nuggets and kool-aid at the wedding reception to save money and then you start getting pricing information back from the photographers you reached out to…

Why are wedding photographers so expensive?

Just like the cake and the dress and the catering and the flowers, the wedding photos require skill, specialized equipment, time, and expertise to create. While most couples only see the photographer working the day of the wedding, the photographer actually spends significant time prepping their equipment, loading and unloading, photographing, paying assistants and second shooters, before the ceremony even starts. After the happy couple has departed, the photographer has to sort and cull images, edit and touch-up the keepers, create galleries, upload images, communicate constantly and keep the process moving. Outside of the wedding day, a photographer might spend 40 to 120 additional hours working on photos for each wedding.

Here are a few things to consider when asking yourself “why do wedding photographers charge so much?”

• A professional camera is usually around $4000

• Lenses run around $2000 to $3000 each

• Data cards to hold pictures often cost $100 to $150 each

• Flashes and transmitters can cost as much as $1000-$2000 each

• Batteries for all of this equipment isn’t cheap either - usually costing around $100 per battery

• Photographers need higher end computers to edit, as well as lots of storage space for photos

• There are several software services that photographers have to use to manage projects and communicate with clients. These often run anywhere from $20 to $100 per month

• The software the photographer uses costs between $20 to $50 per month

• 8 hours to shoot the wedding, 2 hours minimum prep, at least 40 hours to edit and sort. Photographers spend anywhere from 50 to 120 hours per wedding in labor.

• Assistants and second shooters cost hundreds of dollars per day to hire and are completely necessary for medium to large weddings.

This is not an exhaustive list of expenses, but it does give you an idea of the investment in equipment and time that each photographer makes when booking a wedding.

Let’s Approach Wedding Photography Sticker Shock Differently

As a photographer myself, I knew what to expect when it came to pricing for my wedding a few years ago. But I still found myself begrudging the photographer because we had already spent so much money on everything else. One more expense in the thousands of dollars range was the last thing I needed. But once I began to think of things a little differently.

Besides the Rings, the Wedding Photos are the Only Things That are Going to Last

The cake will be eaten, the flowers will die, you’ll never wear that wedding dress again, and once your scheduled time is up at the venue, you’ll never be allowed to have the run of the place again. But those photos are going to last forever! You’ll see them for the rest of your life and its worth investing more and being happy about knowing that the photography is going to bless you for years and years to come. Think about it, when you die, people will be looking at these wedding photos are your funeral! In 2173, your descendants will be posting on whatever social media exists at the time “look at my great great great grandparents on their wedding day!”. You shouldn’t question the necessity to spend some money on these photos!

Don’t Be Wowed by the Portfolio, Determine what Value Your Photographer is Bringing for Their Fees

I had a friend who booked a very popular wedding photographer and paid $10,000 for their services. The pictures were beautiful, but they only got a few prints and a small photo book for their investment. The very popular photographer then upsold them for another $3000 to get more prints and a few digital images. Most of what they paid went to the photographer rather than giving the newlyweds photo products they could actually enjoy.

Part of the value resides in the skill and craft of the photographer, but they should also provide a product. You as the client/customer have to evaluate if you are getting value that equals the photographer’s fees. We paid $3000 to our wedding photographer and we were given prints, a photobook, all of the digitals on a cute custom flash drive, and the images were beautiful. The value we received was definitely worth the price we paid.

How Much Should I Spend on My Wedding Photos?

It is really going to come down to a balancing act. There are a few factors that are going to have a direct effect on the price you are going to end up paying.

1. The Reputation of/Demand for the Photographer

2. The Time/Date of Your Wedding

3. The Size of Your Wedding

4. The Products You want to Receive (Prints, digitals, photo books, etc)

All photographers are taking these items into account when they determine pricing. Photographers cannot charge more than the market will bear, so often they decrease products if they are more in demand. Less popular/in demand photographers will often offer more products for a similar price. If you’re absolutely in love with a certain photographer, understand that you may not receive as many prints or copies of the digitals. Or that you might have to buy those after the fact. If you’re more interested in the quantity or products you receive, don’t try to compare a prestigious photographer’s pricing and products with someone who is trying to be in a similar price range by providing more value in their products they offer.

Wedding season gets crazy and the date and time of your wedding might come at a premium if you don’t book in advance. An intimate 10 person wedding is also not going to be as much work as a wedding with 250 guests. There is significantly more work involved in larger weddings, so don’t be surprised if you are having a large wedding and ask for a discount and don’t receive one.

It also helps to know what products you’re wanting once the photographer is done with their work. Most couples just take what the photographer is offering but it can be very helpful to have an idea of what kinds of prints you want, how many copies of the photo book you want. You can often negotiate those extras upfront and possibly get them cheaper than purchasing them after the fact. If you know what you want, communicate that to your photographer and negotiate the price at the beginning. It might save you quite a bit of money!

Photos are Forever

Don’t be a grump about the price you have to pay for your wedding photos! Take charge and know what style of photos you want, the products you want, and the coverage you’ll need and shop around just like you did for the cake and the dress and the catering and everything else. And once you decide, just remember that those images are going to be around for a long time. Probably longer than you will be so rather than begrudging the amount you have to pay for pictures, celebrate the fact you have secured a professional to document your beautiful day and that you will be left with beautiful images to last for generations to come!

Shameless Plug Time

If you’re in the Northeast Texas area and looking for a wedding photographer, check out our Wedding Photography Price List and contact us to see if we can help you with your big day!

A Great Way to Add Value and Attract New Wedding Clients!

I’d only had my camera for about a month when a broke and desperate family member asked me to photograph their wedding. “Sure” I said, being eager for the experience. I took photos all day long, honestly most of them were terrible, but I loved every second of it. Weddings are amazing and magical events. Editing the photos is so much fun too, creating beautiful images for a couple at the start of their lives together. I decided that I LOVED WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY and that I should definitely try to do more of it.

But I was very soon to learn a hard lesson…

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY IS A TIGHT MARKET!

Let’s be honest, wedding photography is a tough market to get into. It isn’t really the photography that difficult, its attracting the clients. I spend more time marketing and beating the bushes than I do actually taking photos and its exhausting!

But in the middle of the pandemic, I learned a pretty valuable lesson. If you give a little, you will get a lot!

I was so desperate to keep business coming in, at least for future dates that I was willing to try anything. I started throwing in free shoots, or discounts. Those didn’t work. Still wasn’t getting much interest. One of my friends showed me a new product he had see and just out of pure desperation, I decided to give one away as part of a promotion to book clients. Which got me several bookings, even in the middle of the pandemic. In fact, I ended up booking MORE WEDDINGS than I had before the pandemic and a little $100 item was to thank for my success!

What Was I Giving Away That Made Such a Difference?

Its honestly so trivial I didn’t really think about it, but the brides and their families loved it. It was a simple little video guest book that I found on Amazon. I loaded up images and occasionally some video that I had taken on their engagement photo shoot and just let it play as people signed in.

The brides and their families ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. It cost me around $100 but that’s a drop in the bucket when you’re booking a $2500 wedding and have the possibility of upscale later!

If you’re a wedding photographer - check out this link below or head out and find something similar that could possibly entice your almost-clients into booking with you!

Check out our wedding photography packages and get more info by clicking here!