Why Wedding Photography Is Like A $95.00 Quesadilla

As I’ve mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I am a bit of a foodie. I love different types of cuisine, and I’m lucky to live in a region of the country where I can get pretty much anything I like in the way of international food – even if it looks like the ice planet Hoth at present. There’s this little Mexican restaurant that makes the best quesadillas ever. I get them when I want to treat myself, but they’re roughly $10.00 a pop. When I was putting away dishes, I found a quesadilla maker that I had bought a number of years ago. “Ooo!,” I thought to myself, “I forgot I had this! I can make my own quesadilla! It’s two tortillas and some cheese. I’ll just go to the grocery store. Plus it’s cheaper than buying it!”

Before I go any further, let me tell you how my favorite restaurant does it. This isn’t a chain, but is owned independently by a chef that is an artist in Mexican food. He starts out with a warm, supple wheat tortilla so light it practically floats off the counter, but sturdy enough to contain anything he puts inside. He spreads it with a hand-shredded mix of monterey jack cheese and a cheddar cheese so sharp it would sound like a razor-tongued schoolmarm if it could talk. You want meat in there? Take your pick of any succulent, spicy or mild ground beef, shredded beef, shredded pork, or chicken, or you can have veggies, rice, or beans in there if you’d like. Since the tortilla is a large one, there’s no need for two; he just folds it over and puts it between a press just hot enough to sear it a golden brown and release all the quesadilla’s wonderful aroma as it seals the edges. It is a thing of beauty too wonderful to eat, but to not do so would be a sacrilege. It is just that good.

So, off I go to the store, secure in the knowledge that I can do all of the above by myself with my little electric quesadilla maker and store bought supplies. Riiiggghhht.

You can see where this is headed, right? The grocery store sucked me in like a spaceship into a black hole and $95.00 later, I went home with quesadilla fixin’s and some other food items. (It seems another impending snow and ice storm is enough to bring out the hoarder in the best of us.) I get home, unload the groceries, fire up the spunky Little Quesadilla Maker That Could, and here’s the end result. Behold the $95.00 quesadilla!

Behold the $95.00 quesadilla!

Quite honestly, there aren’t words in any modern or ancient lexicon that can accurately describe just how horrible it tasted. A picture may be worth a thousand words but trust me, none of the words are good. It was a very disappointing lunch.

So now we get to how wedding photography is like a $95.00 quesadilla. This can be broken down in a number of ways:

Experts are experts for a reason, and they don’t come cheap

A large part of what I pay for when I go to my favorite Mexican takeaway is the chef’s expertise in preparing the dish. I also pay for the convenience of not having to shop for my own ingredients and for not having to cook the meal myself. I also pay for the time that chef takes in preparing the dish. It’s just like this with your wedding images. You cannot take your own wedding pictures, plus there’s a lot of time, expertise, and expense that goes into creating something that is more than just a picture.

If you try to cut corners on price, it can cost you more than expected in the long run

It’s true that if the quesadilla were that awful I could have just thrown it away and made another one, but then I’m spending twice the money and time I thought I was saving by making it myself. If I’m going to do that, I might as well have gone to the restaurant and had the expert do it. I’ve spoken to couples who have had the misfortune of not liking their images because they cut corners, and who come to me to have them retaken. So then they’ve spent more than they originally anticipated for their wedding images, and those magical moments at the wedding are gone because they didn’t use an expert.

DIY doesn’t always mean D-I-Right, and you won’t always like the results

The quesadilla was a big disappointment, even with the heroic efforts of the Little Quesadilla Maker That Could. It wasn’t the experience I had anticipated, nor was it the appetizing taste I wanted. It’s the same with your wedding images. Yes, you can have your friend or relative with a camera shoot your wedding to save some money, but can you be sure you’ll be happy with the results? And unlike a quesadilla, you can’t redo your wedding again.

There’s a lot to think about with this post, but if I can leave you with one thought, then let it be this: your wedding images are too important to not give them the consideration they deserve. They are the one thing left from your wedding that is permanent, and you need to be happy with the results. Hiring an expert for your wedding images means you won’t get stuck with the photographic equivalent of a $95.00 quesadilla.