Four Weddings and a USB Flash Drive
Despite lots of proclamations about the demise of marriage and sensational headlines stating that the institution of marriage is dead or at the very least is long past its sell by date, this year another 275,000 (ish) couples in the UK will say “I do”.
In making this commitment to marry each couple will, on average, spend around £20,000 on their wedding, which is a staggering £5.5 billion. In the current economic climate weddings are playing their part in keeping various sections of the economy buoyant.
Most of the average wedding spend goes on the venue, the food, the entertainment and the honeymoon but significant amounts are also spent on the wedding dress, the bridesmaid dresses and the photographer.
Whilst the art of wedding photography has changed little over the years the camera equipment used and the way in which the photographs are presented to the bride and groom has undergone a bit of a revolution. Today most wedding photographers will use top-end digital SLR cameras that allow them to see what they are shooting as they go through the day. These new digital cameras also enable the photographers to shoot significantly more images than would have previously been viable with traditional film based cameras.
The finished wedding portfolios are often played back to the bride and groom on a screen to allow them to select the images they want printing or supplying on a CD or DVD.
One of the more recent innovations is to supply the final photographs on a USB flash drive. The flash drives are either branded with the photographers details (obviously with a view to generating more business) or occasionally printed or engraved with name of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding.
Some bride and grooms have taken this one stage further and are now commissioning their own printed USB flash drives onto which they are then loading (or getting professionally loaded) what amounts to an “electronic scrap book” of the event. This can include photos from the courtship, the engagement, copies of the announcement(s) in the local papers, the wedding invitation, the wedding vows, the wedding photo’s and clips from the wedding video.
These “Wedding Scrap Books” USB flash drives are then sent out to friends and family after the honeymoon as a thank you for attending the day. They’re also used to give everyone who attended (and those that could not make it) a fantastic memento from the wedding day.
With the price of custom USB flash drives falling all the time expect to see more and more of them used to celebrate weddings in this way.