Good wedding photography is a must
for
any successful wedding.
Choosing a wedding photographer
Choosing the right wedding photographer may be a quite difficult task in Romania because the wedding photography market is still in its infancy.
One of the reasons is the wrong perception that anyone can take pictures, so there is no need to hire a professional wedding photographer when most friends already have nice digital cameras.
Unfortunately, there are also 'photographers' that feel that it is enough to have a camera and call yourself a wedding photographer to successfully pursue wedding photography.
For this reason you should be very careful when you choose your wedding photographer.
The easiest way to find wedding photographers is by searching the Internet.
Than, you should look very close to the wedding photography samples they provide in their sites, because the low resolution images viewed on the screen are not the best way to assess the real quality of the pictures.
If possible, ask to see at least a complete wedding coverage, not just 'the best of the best' from that particular wedding photographer. You can see some complete weddings here.
Only after you are convinced with the photographic quality you should consider the prices.
If you are used to the USA or western Europe prices, you will consider Romanian wedding photography prices quite low, to the point of dismissing the wedding photographer as a scam.
The lower prices are due to the fact that the average salary in Romania is in the region of a few hundred Euros/month, so wedding budgets are correspondingly smaller here, and the wedding photographer has to make the right choice about the offer while keeping the prices down.
If you would like to get an idea, look at this wedding photography package.
What you should expect from a wedding in Romania
A typical Romanian wedding consists of
- the civil ceremony
- the religious service
- the reception
Most weddings take place on Saturday, and if not, on Sunday.
The civil ceremony
The civil ceremony is usually held in the same day as the wedding, Saturday being the first choice of most couples, so expect a really crowded environment, with several couples waiting their turn.
Most often than not, you will find local photographers willing to photograph the civil ceremony for a moderate fee.
The pictures are quite good, since they photograph tens of couples a month and had plenty of time to perfect their technique.
This is why it isn't mandatory to hire a more experienced (and expensive) wedding photographer to take the civil ceremony images, and to be honest, if the bride is not wearing the wedding dress, this is not real wedding photography.
The religious service
An important percentage of the Romanians are Orthodox Christians, so the chances are you will attend an Orthodox wedding service.
This have several important advantages:
- the service and the church itself are much more spectacular, with painted walls in the church, priests wearing elaborate ceremonial costumes and a lot of movement during the actual service.
- the priests usually allow flash photography and the photographer to move during the ceremony, which makes for very good quality images if the photographer know what he/she is doing. Some photographers even use separate lights to get better images.
Arrival and entrance
Because the preferred wedding days are Saturdays and if not, Sundays, there is a good chance that there will be several couples scheduled for wedding at the church.
So you should arrive at the appointed time, and keep in mind that the brides use to be late on their wedding day.
There is a custom that the bride should not see another bride, so appropriate measures should be taken at the church.
General images
Those are used to get a sense of the wedding size, the church interior and atmosphere, and the importance of the moment
Portraits
The bride and groom portraits are really important, especially when wearing the ceremonial crowns during the religious service.
Bride's dress
Since the bride's dress may be considered one of the most important symbols of the wedding, good images showing it in all it's splendor are a requirement.
Important moments
During the service there are some important moments not to be missed, especially exchanging of the rings, putting on the crowns, and especially circling the table at the end.
Group images
After the service, group shots are taken outside the church, and sometimes, but quite seldom, inside.
Bride and groom photo session
If weather and hour permits, the bride, groom and godparents are taken to a park or other suitable location for some group photography and portraits.
Those formal shots are, together with the church images, amongst the most important wedding pictures to be taken.
If the weather is bad or the hour too late, this photo session can be done at the restaurant, provided there is a suitable place to arrange the shots.
A good wedding photographer should have some kind of separate lights to be able to successfully complete the session indoors.
The reception
The wedding reception is usually held in a restaurant and lasts till midnight, if not to the next morning.
All the good restaurants are booked almost a year in advance, so careful planning becomes a necessity even in Romania.
At the reception there are several photo opportunities not to be missed:
The arrival and guest receiving
Usually this is a very crowded situation and is quite difficult to get shots of every guest coming.
But several good images can be done successfully.
Than is the time to see the newly weds and their godparent at their table, with the champagne glasses, during a toast.
First dance
After almost all the guests arrived - in Romania being late to a reception is common place - and the appetizers were served, it is time for the bride and groom to have the first dance.
For a few minutes they will be alone on the dancing floor so beautiful images should be taken.
Indoors photo session
Now it should be the time for another formal photo session. As I mentioned earlier, an indoor photo session is very important if the outdoor couldn't be held for various reasons.
Even if the outdoor seeding went great, at the reception some groups photos should be arranged with the family and important guests.
Dancing and the guests at tables
Those images are intended to both give a sense of the party's atmosphere and to photograph the guests which were not part of the group shots.
The best way for the photographer to get these shots is to go with the bride and groom when they visit all the tables. This way the bride and groom will be in all the images which will make the guests much happier.
Cake cutting
Another traditional and important moment of the wedding. As usual, no rehearsal or planning is done, so getting good images is up to the photographer's ability.
Fireworks
If a fireworks show was arranged, it may give a great photo opportunity, but at the expense of the bride and groom seeing the show in the photographs, since they will have to look at the photographer, not at the fireworks.
But this kind of images is a rare opportunity and the photos will be very appreciated afterwards.
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