10 reasons why Lifetime Images is a great choice for wedding photography

• You're protected
• 700 dress rehearsals before your big day.  (Wedding photography isn't a hobby)
• A solid action plan
• Emphasis on making you look great
• Wide selection of albums
• Affordable Excellence
• JET Album Design Process
• In house album designs
• Committed and professional.
• Word of mouth
• Written guarantee

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• You're protected

  A few things going through your mind when hiring a wedding photographer are  "Will they show up to my wedding?"  "What if something goes wrong on the wedding day?"  "What happens if they promise one thing and change their tune?"    With Lifetime Images, you won't have to worry.  We have over a dozen years of saying what we do, and doing what we say.  We  spell everything out in our contracts, and it's abundantly clear.   If you feel something is missing, or needs clarification you will have an opportunity to put it into the contract.   For those who worry about the worst case scenario all we can say is that we have a premium insurance plan that covers you in the unlikely event of disaster.     You can rest assured that you're in good hands with a professional, ethical, and  responsible company. 

   

• 700 dress rehearsals before your big day.  (Wedding photography isn't a hobby)

  If you were to have an acting gig  which would air live on national television, would you feel more comfortable with one rehearsal, or perhaps 700?   You could think of our experience as having gone through 700 dress rehearsals prior to your big day.    We believe that each wedding we photograph makes us ten percent better.  Thus with over 700 weddings we've  had a lot of opportunity to hone our skill, expand our repertoire, establish our style, and make a positive track record.  

   

  We understand that there are a lot of new wedding photographers with a lot of ambition and passion for wedding photography.  Just like every season there are stadiums full of people with ambition and passion for singing who audition for American Idol.   Many of them are shown  walking away crying.   As for the up and coming wedding photographers, many of them learn the very hard way that  wedding photography isn't a hobby.  Ambition and passion simply doesn't cut it.  Simply having a good photographic eye doesn't cut it either.   A wedding photographer needs a lot more, like skills, proper equipment, training, and one other thing .  .  .  Experience!  Your wedding Is far too important to let someone who isn't up to snuff do their damage on it.   If wedding photography is truly important to you let the newbies learn on some other brides expense.

   

• A solid action plan

   

  Every nightmare wedding photography story we've ever heard  revolves around  a poor plan.  Failing to plan isn't just planning to fail, it's nearly a guarantee!   Good planning is based not only on experience, but also how fast a photographer can think on their feet.    Things often go wrong on a wedding day, and the ability for a photographer to not only think about the possibility of it happening but also a good solid plan B is crucial. 

   

  On your end you are doing a lot of planning.  Not only do you worry about the things you should worry about, you worry about the things you shouldn't worry about because you have no control over them.   At first when you look for a photographer you think about styles, and your budget and albums, and other issues.  Yet as you get closer the wedding date and all the little details start pouring in, you worry about your wedding photographer keeping up with your day.   Are you going to have one of those weddings where you show up to your wedding reception  very unfashionably late?

   

  Planning is the part we excel at.   We listen to what you want, and what your desires are for your wedding day.   Then we listen to your initial plan  and develop the photography plan to work with your ideas. We can figure out the possible  problems well in advance of your wedding day and develop strategies to work around  them.   A good example is right after the ceremony.  There are a lot of photos that need to be done between the ceremony and reception.   This is the exact moment you're day will fall apart.  This is where you will waste a ton of time, get annoyed beyond belief, and if you are going to lose it, this is when it will happen.  If you do lose it, one thing is for certain, you didn't hire us.  That's because  we take control of this situation, it doesn't take control of us.  We get people to participate and have a good time.  We believe at this time of day, we need to be brief, be brilliant, and be gone.

   

   

   

• Emphasis on making you look great!

   

  Have you ever seen a purple sky?  No?  They have to exist because you've seen so many of them all over the internet on wedding photography websites.  They are s

  tuning the first time you see it.   It's neat and artistic to have this type of image in your wedding album, at first.    When you've seen the effect 1000 times since your wedding, it's not so neat anymore.   When you're parents show you pictures of the Eiffel Tower from their recent vacation with a purple sky, well, it's passé.    Yet, your wedding album that was once full of artistic, forward thinking, hot, trendy images suddenly is passé  as well.    It will forever be a testament back to an era when the over utilization of Photoshop filters and actions were all the rage as your hot and trendy album is suddenly old and very dated looking. 

   

  Our belief is  that  strong, simple, and well executed image are  timeless.  Instead of masking average  images with artistic filters  to give the illusion of art, we instead have a simple goal.    Why not put the time and attention into making the subjects look great?   Instead of trying to make us look good or different, we instead focus on making our clients look good.    We want people to look through your bridal album and say to you "Wow, you looked great!"  "It looked like you had a wonderful day."  "You two look so in love." We want you to feel happy to grab your album and show it off proudly years after your dress goes out of style.   After all fashions come and go, truly remarkable images are timeless.

   

• Wide selection of albums

   

  Years ago most of our brides were happy with one particular album style.  Today, we offer many different albums with widely different styles and page capacities because each of our bridal couples are different.    It's really interesting to see how each bride respond to  choices.    There really are no generalizations other than in most cases one particular album stands out in the bride or groom's mind and they fall in love with it.     We've got large albums that are 12x16 inches, it's certainly a great way to make a big impression.   The more popular ones are smaller albums.  12" square magazine albums and 10" square magazine albums tend to be the most popular.   You can get them with photo covers, in  leather, with steel covers, with acrylic covers, etc.    Instead of showing you pictures in a brochure, or pointing something out online we have nearly every style of album for you to come and see, and feel.   There's nothing like seeing it firsthand, and best of all, there is nothing like choices!

   

• Affordable Excellence

   

  Many years ago the term "Affordable Excellence" became our second slogan along with "Memories of a Lifetime."     What does "

  affordable excellence"  mean to us?   The clients we attract all consider wedding photography to be very important to them.   They are selective and have discriminating tastes.   They can tell good quality wedding photography from the stuff their friends with new cameras will do for a couple of cases of beer.   The funny thing about wedding photography is that the people who believe they do a great job at it tend to ask for top dollar.  Occasionally you find people who demand  premium rates without the goods to back it up.   It's their slant on "art' along with their effervescent personality that demands these rates.   As for the guys who insist on being the low price leader, they all thave the same thing in common, they are in various stages of going out of business.   All the ones we knew of from years back, with large banners hung at bridal shows proudly proclaiming how cheap they were are not only out of business, but the only memories they left behind were painful ones.   There very much is such a thing as under-spending on your wedding photography. Sometimes it's better to spend more than you want to than less than you should have.

  The first word "Affordable" doesn't mean cheap, or free, or anxious to be the lowest priced wedding photographer you can find.    What it means is that  if you are having an average wedding with an average wedding budget you will be able to afford exceptional wedding photography. 

   

  So, summing it all up, affordable excellence means that it's better wedding photography than your friends can do.     It's photography that  perfectly showcases your wedding day.  Your friends and family will be impressed.  Can you see yourself now?   Sitting around with your friends, taking  your time and go over every page and elaborate on the story the images tell.  Your wedding was more than a huge financial investment, it was a ton of work, and a labor of love.   And now you will have something that commensurate to the effort and investment.      In the end you'll have great memories of your wedding day.  Best of all, this  album of your dreams will be at a price you can afford. 

   

• JET Album Design Process

   

   

  Wedding planning tends to go in phases.  There is the initial euphoria  of the engagement.  Your friends and family are so excited!  You get all your favorite girlfriends and go dress shopping and its all fun.  A couple months in the  dress is bought, and the mundane details of wedding planning start weighing you down.   Do you really want your boss sitting next to crazy aunt Carol?   She's fine, most of the time, except when she discusses her hemorrhoids when you're eating.  Yikes!    So many decisions, so little time.  We've seen people break up because of the stress that planning a wedding causes them.   

   

  When your wedding day is behind you if you're like most people  you look forward to the rest of your life to begin    You've got thank you cards to write, and an entire season of your favorite reality TV show to catch up on.    Are you really going to sit down and figure out which  80 images out of twenty two  hundred are going to be the best selection for your wedding album?  Really?

  Your friends and family are excited to see your wedding album close to the wedding.  Yet  the excitement dying by 50 percent each month after.  So, by three years later,  when you show your album off you'll get comments like "Nice pictures, say wasn't this wedding a long time ago?"  Yes, yes it was.  The flower girl is in medical school, and your  best friends who was single at your wedding hooked up with a groomsman, got married to him, and  got their wedding album back a year ago! 

  We want our clients to have an amazing album, at  a time when the wedding is still fresh in peoples' memories.  We've done the 2200 images on a website thing before.    Here's the net/net.  It doesn't work.  The images aren't large enough, too hard to compare, and who knows what combination of images look best?

   

  With the JET album design option we go ahead and design your wedding album for you, very soon after the weddings.  We give you the opportunity to change around images.  You'd think we would have control freaks that would change their images around?  Strangely this doesn't happen very much.  The people who make the most changes to their albums are the ones who pick the images themselves.  It's not easy to find the right combination of images to tell your day, but we've done this hundreds of times, thus we're pretty good at it.     Compared to clients picking their images themselves the people who have the JET album design service get their albums back much closer to their wedding date, and are ultimately much happier with their album. 

   

• In house album designs

 

We don't believe in having outside companies or services design your album.  They often come off looking too generic and the chain of communication often insures that you won't be able to get exactly what you want.    Along with the extra level of bureaucracy are the extra fees  that go along with it.  Often simple changes have costs associated with them.    The process often takes longer.

 

With Lifetime Images, you'll be talking with the designer because it's in house.  No 'lost in translation' issues, no wasted time, no extra fees.  This will save you not only time, but a lot of frustration.  You'll be getting your album sooner and with a lot less hassle.

 

• Committed and professional.

   

  Professionalism isn't something you can take for granted  when finding a wedding photographer.   In fact it may be in limited supply.   A few years back things got so bad with all the new photographers entering the field  that some churches and reception sites had to show photos of what some photographers wore to weddings  to their brides.     They had picture of photographers wearing sweats, t -shirts, blue jeans.    If someone is going to make poor decisions with attire, what other bad decisions are they going to make? 

   

  To us, professionalism means that  we save the drama for our mommas.   On your wedding day, you're the client and we focus on you and your problems.     Thus we leave all drama at home.  We also  know how to keep low key and cool so that  your family or friends won't be giving you an earful about something we said or did.  We also don't treat your wedding as hunting grounds for our single friends to score dates.    All your interactions with Lifetime images are professional, yet personable.

   

  We are committed to the field of professional wedding photography.   We see the field as something larger than ourselves, our talents, and our work.   Though it was difficult we really have gotten over ourselves long ago and feel honored and blessed to be selected to come to one of the most crucial days  of two people's life and document it in our own unique style.  Wedding photography is a profession we are committed to  and we continue to invest and grow in the field.  

   

• Word of mouth

  

  To make a long story very short we had a chance meeting back in 1998 in a Home Depot parking lot.  Some mother had a daughter getting married and saw our business sign on our vehicle.  We did this gals wedding, and  a few of her friends.  Then we started watching the chain, and kept track.  11 years later we are still booking weddings from this one meeting.    The people don't know each other from  one end to the other end of the chain.

   

  There was this neat story we heard from one of our original shooters who now shoots for Arizona Highway magazine.  He was eating lunch somewhere with a friend going over photography, and he told this guy he apprenticed for Lifetime Images Photography.  The gal at the next table head the name and asked "Did you way Lifetime Images Photography? "  Karl  (our previous shooter) says "Yes."  The gal said "Those guys shot my cousin's wedding and did a wonderful job!" 

   

  A couple neat stories?   We'd be happy with one or two, but amazingly we've got many more to share.   The thing we find interesting is that many industry insiders select us to cover their weddings.  These are the people in the know.    Our name gets spread around from friend to friend, or by people who take their albums into work and show them off.  Before long someone says "Hey my sister is getting married and needs a photographer, who did this album, it's fabulous?"    Our name gets passed around in the small talk at church before the service.  We've done so many wedding for families where we get shared  between siblings and cousins. 

   

  If you just happened to find our website by chance, and are liking what you see thus far.  Thank you.  We're glad you found us, but believe us, there a lot of people who will give us the thumbs up if you just ask.  We can put you into contact with these people.    What you will find missing from our site is are the grand standing stories.    You won't see

   us in pictures eating lunch with other photographers, or talking about where we got our work published.  More than anything, we just stay behind the computer and do our work.    Maybe we have the formulas wrong.   Maybe we should be spending 80 percent of our time grand standing, and 20 percent dong work.   Yet, it's our work that makes happy clients, and happy clients have helped keep us busy even in down economic times.   Talk is cheap, we've got the goods .  Come by and see for yourself!

   

   

   

• Written Guarantee

 

Lifetime Images is accountable for the work it produces .  We will work hard to understand you and your unique needs.  We will answer your questions directly, help establish realistic expectations, and put the entire scope of our offering into  writing in  your contract.    We will work hard to establish a positive relationship where you will feel comfortable discussing anything with us.   If you have any concerns we consider it a personal favor if you communicate them with us.  We will do what we can to make you happy.   We want to ensure that you are treated fairly, responsibly,  and professionally.  More than giving you outstanding photography, we want you to be one of our happy clients who enthusiastically recommends Lifetime Images to their friends and family!