It usually costs at least $300 to hire a professional photographer to come take pictures at your wedding, and the longer you need the photographer for, the more it will cost. On top of this, you have the cost of getting prints of the pictures once the wedding is over, which will probably cost more than hiring the photographer to come take the pictures. Since the price of photography varies so widely depending on where you live, it is impossible to give a listing of what you might pay for different services; the amount of photography you can get for $800 in a small town might cost $3000 in a big city.
With a professional photographer, you will usually need to go back to them every time you want additional prints of your wedding pictures. Some photographers will release the negatives to you, either for an additional fee or after a certain time period. There are a very few professional photographers who will shoot your wedding in 35mm film and let you have the negatives. If you can get the negatives, it is usually much cheaper to have pictures developed.
Disposable cameras can be a fun way for your guests to amuse themselves, and you may get some memorable photos out of them. They work better with brighter lighting. This is not a substitute for hiring a professional photographer or having a friend or relative with a good camera take pictures. An alternative to disposable cameras is to buy regular 35mm film and cheap 35mm cameras for people to take pictures with at the reception; this will provide better picture quality. Some people ask their guests to bring their own cameras and provide 35mm film for the guests to use. The problem with this idea is that many guests prefer to take pictures for their own use, as well as pictures for the couple to have, and asking them to use their own cameras to take pictures for you will probably deprive them of the ability to take pictures for themselves.
You should appoint someone, such as a friend or relative who has asked if there's anything they can do to help, to collect the cameras at the end.
You really need to develope a list of the minimum particular pictures that you would like to have as memories of your special event. Although photographers are good about knowing what kinds of pictures should be taken, they cannot read your mind and know any special shots that would interest you unless they are provided with a list upfront.
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