Check this out...

"This interview starts calmly enough, with Wedding Channel Co-Founder and Bella Pictures Co-Founder, Jenny Lefcourt being interviewed by a Fox 5 Chicago TV Reporter.

The segment is purportedly about ’saving money on your wedding in today’s economy. It quickly degenerates into a badly conceived infomercial for Bella Pictures, accompanied by a mish-mash of largely bad advice and misinformation about a whole range of choices to be made by the bride.

The reporter overly credits Lefcourt’s association with the Wedding Channel. That is a past incarnation, no longer current at the time of the interview. Lefcourt never corrects her, leaving some uncertainty as to whether she is a neutral expert or representing Bella Pictures.

After this interview aired, the Wedding Channel had to issue a firm disclaimer, stating clearly that Lefcourt was no longer associated with their firm, and they were in no way endorsing her on-air comments.

I encourage you to view this two to three times to get the full effect of it. Please share this with every wedding professional you know. It is the worst kind of propaganda and disinformation. Things like this should never go unchallenged (more to follow).

Andy Ebon"

You can find the source and video clip here: http://weddingmarketing.net/blog/2009/05/28/worst-kind-wedding-disinformation/

It's jsut the first third or so that's really relevant to us.  

I only watched the first couple of minutes, but it didn't seem that bad. I sort of expected her to plug her own company that's the only reason people go on those types of shows.  Actors only visit talk shows to plug their movies, authors and doctors their books. She cofounded a photography place, of course she is going to mention it.  Plus, they did say on air who she was so there should be no preconceptions to her being a neutral party on the photography portion.

I just listened to the rest of the interview and again, it's not that bad.  I have been to many weddings where the bride's family have made up the flower arrangements themselves and served most of the reception from a sheet cake.  In fact, I've been to several receptions where the flowers and alcohol were purchased in bulk from Sam's Club. The flowers were no less pretty than florist ones and the alcohol tasted the same. It's just a little more time and trouble to save the money for other things.  I wasn't crazy about her opinion on an iPod instead of a DJ but that's sort of personal preference.  I definitely prefer a DJ over a live band and and way over an iPod. But for someone who is perhaps having a shorter reception or isn't as into music (again, I've attended weddings were dancing was not allowed) having an iPod hooked into the sound system would probably be acceptable for that couple.

I don't see what the fuss was all about. Is this your wife? I don't think there was a problem at all.

DonB316:

I saw something here a while back on one of the forums, maybe this one, if so, I apologize, that advised the B&G to just have disposable camera's at the tables and have the guests shoot the pictures. That just sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy joke in the making to me.

I think this was in referance to someone who had no experience doing weddings and was approached by a friend to do theirs for a small fee.  I believe the advice was do it for free or suggest they do it themselves with disposable cameras.  I could be wrong though. 

In regards to the OP I think it is something to look at pretty seriously.  I know of a couple that went looking for their wedding photog three years ago and only hired the ONE who would give them unedited RAW files.  Groom is a techy geek and loves to play with photoshop.  It is unfortunate in my opinion.  They didn't get their photographers best in fact, it was telling for me and them, The images they got were all well exposed but they didn't hae the "style" factor that this photographer had created to become a local icon.  WHY they ask, well he starts out with very acceptable and technically accurate images and then he PP them into something so much more.  The groom can't replicate it, can't even begin to.  So, the pics are sitting on a disk somewhere.  They don't even have an album. The mother of the bride, who paid a small fortune to aquire said RAW files, has nothing more than cheap  4x6 leaf album filled with 4x6's from Wally's World.  In addition, they tote they used said AWESOME photographer, and only have that to show people.....hmmm......What to do, give the B&G what they want, do they really know what they want?  To me she sorta sounded like any photographer but Bella's was just ripping people off.  IDK.

So so glad I am not good enough to shoot weddings:)  Well I take that back, wish I was good enough but choosing not too:)

On a different note, I kind of like the idea of handing out the cameras. It could be a great sale booster if they could be digital. I have seen Kodak make them I think. It is something that you would offer through the studio and offer seperately from your professional shots.

We are currently working on offering a photobooth for the wedding reception. But in combo with the disposable cameras there could be a lot of other potential.