Why did and didn't you do the MK photo shoot?

[amyy]

We are planning on doing a MK photo shoot the day after our wedding. I think it is at least $1,000 and I am not sure with tax. Plus I would have to have my hair and make up redone which would be around another $200+.

The what do you do with your wedding photos thread got me thinking. Will we spend this much money and have the memories and 1 photo up somewhere? I look at others pictures and just drool. I do think it would be something I would remember forever. But with this money we could upgrade our hotel room, get a bit of flowers for the wedding site etc.....

Our budget from our moms is $14,000. We are having an Escape wedding at SBP, lunch at the Napa room and a dessert party at Sago Cay (thinking of changing to an illuminations dessert party). We are also having Mickey and Minnie and Randy Chapman. The $14,000 needs to cover our air tickets and hotel rooms plus my mom's ticket and room.

Thoughts and thanks for your help.

 

[PrincessShea]

We didn't do it due to cost and due to the fact that a lot of people have posted pictures here that are not good. We paid for photos of the ceremony and dessert party and have plenty of pictures of our day from those. My wedding also had nothing to do with Magic Kingdom, so I thought it would be kind of pointless to get portraits there.

However, if I had money to burn, I would have done it. But I don't regret cutting it to do other things.

 

[Pirate's Princess]

We are planning on it, 100% def. We love the idea of getting the pics there and it's one of those things that's specific to Disney and special to us. We're doing an Epcot wedding and we'd love to include the other parks. We're hoping to add DHS as well. I know it's a lot, but in the scheme of things I doubt I'll miss it that much but I know I'd regret NOT getting them. Neither my parents nor we are made of money, but pictures last forever and I really feel it's worth it.

 

[amyy]

Thank you both for your opinions. It give me some ideas to think about.

 

[dhay]

Ditto princess shea exactly.

 

[ChocoKat]

Well photos are on the top of the list for us. we really mulled it over about the MK photo shoot, and decided we would go for it and hope for the best.

We figured we are having a VR at Disney, sure our theme is not Disney at all, but we are having our ceremony at the WP, plus we never had professional nor nice photos of us together for our civil ceremony, so why not?

Plus we love the MK, we have hired outside photogs we adore for the ceremony and reception itself so we are well covered for that, we are paying for everything without any help whatsoever and making our budget work so we can afford it all. I am sure it is going to be wonderful.

 

[Ember]

I went for the arguments of it being once in a lifetime, only Disney brides get the chance to do it, it's a special memory of the wedding... And the fact that it was a gift from my mother which helped ease the worries of cost.

Truthfully, I'm not sure I would do it again. I was quite disappointed in the photos. They were standard and very uncreative and not post processed or touched up at all. On top of that, prints are expensive and we're only this year going to get the high res images at anything resembling a reasonable price.

We had Ty, who everyone seems to rave about... First he scolded us for not using Disney Photography for our wedding (not just casually mentioning it, he all out scolded us like we were children), then he wouldn't wait until my bouquet arrived because they delivered the wrong one. He was very perfunctory and seemed to want the photos over with as quickly as possible.

All that said, I've seen other couples who got beautiful MK photos. I think it was a stretch of bad sessions as several other brides also had disappointing results around the same time. The recent ones I've seen have been much better.

 

[honey2741]

We are going to do it. It doesn't fit into our theme whatsoever. However, the experience is what I want to remember and document. Even if the pictures come out bad...who gets to take pictures by themselves IN THEIR WEDDING DRESS in front of the castle...

 

[amyy]

Thanks everyone for giving me more ideas to weigh out.

 

[dallastxcpa]

well, we were married 6 years ago and had Mike Strickland. we absolutely love our pictures. I have one of those divider screens that has three panels with 15 8x10 pictures. Half of those pictures are of our wedding and the other half are family portraits taken by Randy from a stay at the board walk a year later.

I also have several 16X20 photos hanging throughout my house.

I believe it was worth every penny we paid.

Here is one of my favorites:

 

[Bridie1996]

We're doing MK and Epcot and neither fit into our wedding theme in any way at all. When we first discussed the wedding, we made a priority list and photography was at the top of mine, and Main St. is one of my all-time favorite places in the parks so it was no surprise that we're doing it. I've put in extra hours at work to make the $$ needed to add both parks plus extra time with Randy for after ceremony pictures.

I've also been going over other brides' pictures and when DF and I were in MK and Epcot last week we scoped out spots where we'd like to have pictures taken, not all of them the "traditional" places that you usually see from portrait sessions. I'll also be going with examples of pictures I like and have requested Amy or Regina as our photographer.

You should also know that you don't HAVE to do the portrait session on the same trip as your wedding. If you don't/can't do it at your wedding, you can change your mind and do it at a later time, which might give you a chance to save up the $$ to do it, and could give you something to look forward to along with another reason to wear your dress.

 

[dhay]

I went for the arguments of it being once in a lifetime, only Disney brides get the chance to do it, it's a special memory of the wedding... And the fact that it was a gift from my mother which helped ease the worries of cost.

Truthfully, I'm not sure I would do it again. I was quite disappointed in the photos. They were standard and very uncreative and not post processed or touched up at all. On top of that, prints are expensive and we're only this year going to get the high res images at anything resembling a reasonable price.

We had Ty, who everyone seems to rave about... First he scolded us for not using Disney Photography for our wedding (not just casually mentioning it, he all out scolded us like we were children), then he wouldn't wait until my bouquet arrived because they delivered the wrong one. He was very perfunctory and seemed to want the photos over with as quickly as possible.

All that said, I've seen other couples who got beautiful MK photos. I think it was a stretch of bad sessions as several other brides also had disappointing results around the same time. The recent ones I've seen have been much better.

I heard aout him doing that to someone else too Ember.

 

[ffmf]

We are doing it. We also went weren't sure if we wanted to do it due to the photos and reviews we had heard there but then we thought... when are we ever going to get another chance to be in MK by ourselves. I think its as much for the experience as it is for the photos.

 

[Ember]

I heard aout him doing that to someone else too Ember.

Really? I'm glad we weren't just "special" and he didn't like us, but I'm sorry to hear others were made to feel bad. It's suppose to be such a unique and extraordinary experience. . . I hope Disney sees this and addresses the issue. Their photographers should have a higher level of professionalism and you ought to get the same quality of product regardless of who you choose to photograph your wedding.

You know, now that I think of it, the couples who do go with Disney Photography for their whole event do seem to have much nicer in park pictures...

 

[TinkLoverSam]

I would love to but we can't afford it. I am holding out hope for doing the MK shoot later... as long as I still fit in my dress

 

[pezaddict231]

While I have seen some really beautiful photos, we decided not to do it. The results have just been too hit or miss for us to spend that kind of money on a few photos. We decided to focus the money on the wedding day photography and videography instead. If we had an unlimited budget, I would definitely do it, right along with Cinderella's Coach! It is nice to dream sometimes! I do like the fact that you can do them at any time after the wedding, so if I do end up regretting it I can try to squeeze myself back into my dress later on!

 

[beatlesblonde]

We didn't do it because while I love the MK, getting shots in front of the castle wasn't big in my book, guess it's the anti-princess in me (no offence to all those princesses out there ) That's why we did the EPCOT shoot instead, we got very unique pictures that are definitely Disney at a lower price.

 

[MegKate]

We didn't do it and I don't regret it for a minute. I was so exhausted after the wedding - I'm so glad I didn't have to get up early! In my mind what killed it was the expense and the fact of having to get back into the dress and go through the hair and makeup routine again!

It's a personal decision, and I've seen some beautiful ones, but I've also seen some horrible ones.

We had Ty, who everyone seems to rave about... First he scolded us for not using Disney Photography for our wedding (not just casually mentioning it, he all out scolded us like we were children).

This happened to us too! Our photographers at the DP scolded us for using the Roots and the DP pictures are horrible!! I mean the scolding was so bad one of my guests came up afterwards and asked if the photographer was just kidding.

 

[JandJ]

We were married 4 years ago and didn't do it. Absolutely zero regrets! I've seen some beautiful pictures from MK shoots, but I don't have any regrets in not doing it. It was presented to me as an option and I mentioned it to DH but we were both like "we'd have to get up at what time??" It wasn't even the cost, we just didn't like the idea of getting up the crack of dawn and getting into our wedding clothes again, hair again, makeup again, etc. Plus, like PPs have said, it just didn't go with our theme.

 

[MainStMandy]

We didn't do it and I don't regret it for a minute. I was so exhausted after the wedding - I'm so glad I didn't have to get up early! In my mind what killed it was the expense and the fact of having to get back into the dress and go through the hair and makeup routine again!

This was our thought for not doing it. I really would LOVE to have my picture taken in front of the Castle...but #1 Df is NOT a morning person. I figure the two days of wedding events will be exhausting enough. Plus it didn't fit in our budget. We ended up choosing things like Mickey and Minnie over the photo shoot.

Plus I heard we can go back at a later date and still do the shoot. One more excuse to wear my dress maybe on an anniversary.