The new "friends first" wedding trend

Lately there has been an unfortunate trend in wedding photography. With the cost of nice digital cameras being well within the reach of most people, there has been a huge influx of people assuming they can photograph a wedding simply based on the fact they own a digital SLR camera.
This year our weddings have dropped off a bit. with brides having "friends with nice cameras"shoot their weddings. In addition to photographing friends there is also a crop of people advertising a cheap, photo for hire, wedding coverage that for one low price they photograph the wedding and the couple gets a copy of the full size images. After that the contact ends.
Though our number of weddings has dropped, we have been inundated with calls from disappointed to devastated brides wanting to know if we can fix their wedding images. In most cases this is impossible. Technical issues can be, in some cases, overcome through our editing. That is about where our ability to salvage wedding memories ends. There is no photoshop magic that can compensate for an untrained eye, and a lack of passion.
Wedding photography is more than just showing up to snap a few shots of things that happen. It is a photographic discipline that requires expertise in photojournalism, editorial, fashion, and portrait photography. It is an art form that works with the interpretation of human emotion.
To be able to connect with someone and capture the fleeting moments of their life and preserve the emotion that is frozen in the 250th of a second, is an ability that is not achieved with the simple purchase of a digital SLR. The cameras instruction book doesn't say anything about knowing that every time David sees his new wife smile he starts to tear up. It says nothing about knowing that as soon as Amanda looks at her self in the mirror as soon as she is ready to walk down the isle she will start fanning back the tears. And the last time I read through my cameras users manual it said nothing about Thom, the 6'5" 350 pound rancher that is as tough as raw hide and just melts into a sweet pudding whenever he sees his daughter in her beautiful white dress.
Our photography is our way to express our art and passion for life, love and personal connections. We love getting to know our couples and being able to spend the most intimate and important few hours of their new life together. Desiree is an amazing photographer and an amazing person. we have very few brides that don't make it a point to let me know how lucky
I am to have her as a co-photographer and a wife. She is able to provide brides with much more than a few snapshots of their wedding. She provides them with beautiful emotion filled images of the nerves, the excitement, and the love that they are experiencing before the wedding. She also provides them with stress reduction, an amazing knowledge of all things wedding. And the ability to fix almost anything that may come up during the wedding. This is not taught in a users manual to a new camera. It is part of who she is.
I know this is a long post, I just needed to express my thoughts on this. There are a few events in your life that can not be repeated. Once they are over there is but one way to remember them. Once the vows have been read, the minister gone home, the food eaten, the cake enjoyed, the dress preserved in a nice box in the attic or sold on ebay, the presents returned, there are two things that you will keep with you the rest of your life. You vows, and your wedding images. You vows last until death. The only thing your children, grandchildren, great great great grandchildren will have of you and your wedding, is your collection of wedding images. With this knowledge that you will be remembered by your offspring through these images, how is it even conceivable to entrust that to someone just because they are cheap and you receive all of the digital negatives.
Again I apologize for the rant but with all of the brides coming to us in desperation hoping to salvage some semblance of their wedding, I feel obligated to write this. Not that we need more weddings. We just want people to consider the true importance of the wedding photography - the only tangible object you will have and cherish from your wedding. Consider that and then try to put a value on it. If you value your memories as a few hundred dollar gamble. I have nothing more to say. If you treasure your memories and want a document of the beginning of your family's legacy. Search out a good professional photographer and spend the money on them.
Invest it what is truly important in life. If you actually took the time to read this entire thing. I sincerely thank you for the time you spent doing so. We would also enjoy hearing from you and the good or bad experiences you had with your wedding photos.