Cheap wedding photos?

I'm getting married in London in August and am looking for a cheap way to get my photos done. I'd like to shoot it myself but there are some obvious problems with this!!!

I am thinking about contacting photography students or someone trying to build a wedding portfolio. Is there someone like that here who would be willing to do it? Alternatively, does anyone have any other good suggestions?

Thanks.

Is Craigslist popular in the UK (www.craigslist.com) If so and you cant find anyone on here, then maybe look on there in the artist section.

95% of the time cheap weddings = cheap quality. Look around on here, see what the decent photographers charge and start looking in that range. Then when you go to look at a wedding portfolio DO NOT LET THEM SHOW YOU 10 IMAGES FROM EACH WEDDING!

make them show you the ENTIRE wedding 300+ images. People take a few good shots, have a portfolio from lucky shots and go sell themselves. BE CAREFUL, ripoffs are everywhere.

have you seen the thred "help with diy wedding" ?
i had a friend shoot the wedding after 1 months practice with my eos 350d
he took about 400 pics, we got 180 ish good shots and 40 or so really good ones. we are really happy with the results, and havent even tried to photoshop them yet.

however a pro did come too, by chanch a photo journalist friend.
her shots are better, so if your looking for sharp perfection you are really going to have to bite the bullet and hire a pro.
if you do get a learner then make sure they can boss guests about, arrange people, handle the awarked unkle who dosent like having his photo taken, has a backup if it rains. knowes some wedding poses for you to stand in, and little tricks like putting your hand on the brides back, not all the way round, to avoid odd finguers poking out.

a book on wedding photography will help.
students are ok as long as they can stay focused (haha)
watching out for signs like the champine comming out as the que for the speech. etc..

you dont want to be following a half harted student about saying "did you get a shot of aunty Doris yet?"
youll have enough to do.

i hope this helps, good luck on your wedding day.

yeah, students attention will be on the wedding party that's still single lol. Beer beer and more beer at the reception wont help either.

I'd go with the pro and maybe one or two amateurs. Memories are priceless dude.

I am one of those kind of photographers that he is looking for.. new to the business and offering cheap prices because i still need more experience. I have done several weddings by now and all of my clients were pleased. I wouldnt talk so negative about "students". If he is looking for someone like this then I am sure he knows the quality will suffer a little compared to a pro that charges several thousand dollars

when i got married i wasnt so much into wedding photography that i am now, so i probably would have looked at this differently back then with the knowledge i have now. I got a family friend who was a pro photographer to do our wedding, but unfortunaly a WEEK before the wedding he had an emergency and was in hospital!!

I was getting last things ready in the city so didn't know this, i get a call from my mum telling me that this has happened but she has already got a photographer under way (So i knew nothing of how he worked!)

IF i lived this over again....i would have gone to a uni or tafe and asked for a student to shoot my wedding...if not that i would have gotten a few photographer's name off here who are semi pro because i see these people's work it is brilliant...and they under charge because they are getting experience! Plus your helping them too!!

Thanks for all your helpful comments. I actually wanted my best man to do it but my fiancée insists that he'll be too busy. If anyone on here would be interested in doing it please let me know!

Hahahahahahaha funniest statement ever
(I do agree tho, I'd like to shoot my own wedding as well)

No way i'd want to shoot my own wedding... I want the best there is. I already choose my wedding photographer - I even told my girlfriend! Actually i'll have two wedding photographers at least, i'll probably get Wazza to come down too.

http://www.jvk.co.nz/

If budget was not a consideration, I would certainly choose the best I could get. However, the idea of handing over a large amount of money for photo's that are the same, or worse, than I could have done myself is a little hard to swallow.

As "[B]", a photographer friend of mine says

Friends with Becker?
Great photographer indeed

I got married 10 years ago and just got a buddy to do the photos. My biggest regret. As someone once told me - a bride and groom remember their wedding through the eyes of the photogrpaher.

That is now the one area I would not suggest anyone cut corners on. Too many memories and moments that you'll never see happen again!