(percussive beat)
- So some of you may be unfamiliar with the term hot take.
Hot take, hot take.
A hot take is a polarizing opinion.
- [Woman] Hot, hot, no.
- That some people are just bold enough to say out loud.
Examples.
- That's just highway robbery.
I can already hear Kristin saying, you know what Devin?
Oh I feel it building up.
It's so bad.
- It's Ladylike and it's Hot Take time.
(upbeat music)
- Now, I've never been married or engaged
so I have really no business sharing this hot take
but I'm doing it anyway 'cause it's my episode.
My hot take is that I believe that engagement photos
are a scam put on by Facebook and they are ultimately
a waste of money.
- [All] Hot Take time, Hot Take time,
Hot Take time at lunch.
- Woo! - Woo!
- This is Devin's Hot Take on engagement photos.
- You have thought and options and experience.
- Here's the thing, I know that I'm right
and I see that Devin has a 12 minute rebuttal of this.
I don't know how she's gonna manage to be wrong
for 12 minutes.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't bias the audience
we gotta listen to her first.
- Roll the tape.
(beep)
- If you put your engagement photos on Facebook
I'm not gonna like 'em.
I don't care how beautiful they are.
I'm glad for you and your significant other.
It has nothing to do with me being petty
about me being unmarried.
- It has everything to do with you being petty.
(laughing)
- You can't prove that, what are you talking about?
You have no idea that's why.
I disagree with that. - Okay.
- I just think it's a waste of money and time
and by you posting your engagement photos on my feed
you are setting the bar and the expectation
that everyone else who's about to embark
on this beautiful life change and transition
has to get engagement photos
when in fact we don't need to get engagement photos
because they cost like 900 to $1100
if you want good engagement photos.
That's just wrong.
- I don't think it's bad to pay your photographer
900 to $1100 because I think
we should compensate them fairly.
But do I think that they are necessary
for good engagement photos?
No, but I don't think that's what Devin's arguing against.
I think she's just saying we shouldn't normalize
hiring a professional to do something
that could be done not as good
but pretty decently for way less.
- Let me just interject with something
that you wouldn't know
unless you've done this process before
and it's that engagement photos are very frequently
a part of the package you get
when you get a wedding photographer.
- Oh, I didn't know that.
- Not always though.
- Not always, not always, not always.
- Not if you use an iPhone.
- Not always, not always.
- Let me get into the meat of my thoughts.
After the advent of Facebook we start having
these engagement photos just popping up
just like curated pictures of people in a field.
This is not an Anthropologie ad, this is my Facebook okay?
- Okay, see this is where I agree with Devin.
I agree that Facebook and social media at large
is the reason why engagement photos became popular
in the first place.
- I think social media made engagement photos more prevalent
but they were happening before then.
- And are they specifically for a save the date?
- Save the date, not important.
The really important piece of mail that you get
when it comes to a wedding is the invitation.
Now the invitation is where
you put the card stock paper out,
it's where you whip out the cursive.
You start telling people your middle names.
(laughing)
- Most people also throw out the invitation.
- I keep them on the fridge for a little bit
partially because I want people to know I have friends.
(laughing)
- Here's what you do for your save the date
that's cheap, easy and funny.
- You take picture of your fiance as a baby.
You Photoshop it on the card.
You take a picture of you as a baby
you Photoshop that on the card.
Send it out, you're done.
People love looking at baby pictures.
- Pause. - Pause.
(laughing)
- The same person who's saying that people don't like
looking at engagement photos is trying to tell me
that people on Facebook like looking at baby photos?
- And not Facebook, not Facebook.
She doesn't want any of it on Facebook.
- Nothing on Facebook.
- She want noting on Facebook--
- Why do you want Facebook then?
- I don't wanna see you wasting your money
'cause it makes me sad, and you know what?
It's gonna make you sad when you need that $800
and you don't have it.
You don't need to stage some kind of like
photo shoot that makes you look like you
and your fiance are on the cover of a Danielle Steel novel.
That's unnecessary.
- What I'm saying is this is a way to make your wedding
less stressful because you already know going in
exactly what you're getting photography wise.
- Oh, touche.
- I can already hear Kristin saying,
you know what, Devin?
It's actually, it's actually a great opportunity
to audition your wedding photographer.
- There is a very specific bond that happens
between you and the person who's taking your photos
and if you don't vibe the whole thing goes to--
(cat meowing)
- And to that I say bull-- (cat meowing)
Bull-- (cat meowing)
(laughing)
You know what also is a great way to audition
your wedding photographer?
Checking their website and that is free.
- You may think that just because a photographer
takes good photos of someone else's wedding
they'll take good photos of your wedding.
That is not correct.
- What else did Kristin say about this?
'Cause Kristin's the only one in Ladylike
who actually has taken engagement photos
and wedding photos.
So honestly although this video might be funny
and although my opinion is valid and correct
hers is probably more correct
because she's actually gone through the experience
and I acknowledge that.
But what did Kristin say?
- As the only person here who has been through this process
here is a reason why engagement photos
are not a scam.
There's a difference between expensive and scam.
Scam implies that a person's trying to manipulate you
to lose your money with ill intentions.
Something that is expensive
and may in some cases be a luxury is different.
A wedding photographer is not just someone
who's good at taking photos.
They're someone who's good at taking photos
in circumstances where they only have one chance
to get things right.
So to go along with that a lot of people are not comfortable
being on camera and they're not comfortable
posing for photos and this gives them an extremely
low stakes opportunity to practice that.
They are absolutely a choice.
Don't come away from this thinking
that I'm like, you have to do this.
No one has to do anything.
- Devin, what if the wedding planning process
is very stressful?
I know that, and this is a great opportunity
for you to just bond with your fiance
and take some pictures before the big day.
You know what else is a great opportunity for y'all to bond?
A dinner, that costs $40 tops.
Take her to get some like, gourmet.
- Pause.
What dinner in L.A.?
- I'm sorry that might be the most offensive of all of this.
- Have a couple glasses of vino, chat about the big day,
go home have some hanky panky.
- I love how this has turned Devin into a woman
that says hanky panky as well as vino.
Drink some vino, do some hanky panky.
- If you wanna give me something tangible
to commemorate this moment buy me some,
like a blender.
I don't know, buy me something useful.
Let's go on a shared experience together
to commemorate this moment.
Let's not take $9000 pictures.
The price of these pictures
are just going up and up and up, and up, and up.
If you want engagement photos fine.
Get a friend with a nice DSLR camera,
have them go out back, find your light, take some good pics.
- I think that if you're coming at it from
the emotional, sentimental side of engagement photos
it's not that you wanna remember the day necessarily
of taking the photo.
You wanna remember the feeling
of being engaged to this person.
- Her argument is that this really is more
about the couple than about us.
- Okay, that's a valid argument
but the problem with that is I think people go overboard.
Like I said they try to stage a whole rom com
in the background at like five a.m.
on a beach in Santa Monica.
Just take a picture of what your love actually is.
You're not waking up at five in the morning
to go to Santa Monica.
You are watching Netflix on the couch like the rest of us.
Take a picture of that and I wanna see that.
Like, sit there for a second, everyone pause for a second.
Close your eyes.
Think about an engagement photo
that you have received in the mail
or that you've seen on Facebook.
Do you care?
No.
- All right, well that was Devin's Hot Take.
- That was Devin's Hot Take.
- That was a spicy Hot Take.
- So just to clarify both Chantel and Kristen
thought Devin was wrong.
I was willing to concede a few points
but was basically on the fence.
At the end of this I also think
Devin might be slightly wrong.
(laughing)
But I feel bad for saying it
and I mean Freddie are you supposed
to be neutral in all of this?
- I...
I think it's coming from a place of care and concern.
- I love Devin and I appreciate her trying to help people.
- Yes.
- I do think that they're something
that was kind of brought on by
and perpetuated by social media.
I don't think that they're necessarily necessary.
All I'm saying is that when people do post them
I enjoy looking at them.
- They're not a scam but the societal pressure
that you may or may not feel to take them is the scam.
That's very real.
- No one needs to do anything.
You don't have to do stuff.
Like, this is all optional.
Obviously it's expensive.
- Also Devin, very funny.
(laughing)
A funny person, I mean this was a good time even if,
is she coming in here?
- Love you Kristin.
I've never gotten married and I respect you
and your choices but next.
- [Woman] Okay Devin, we have to wrap this up.
- All right fine.
Well, there's no point in me swiveling anymore.
I'll just walk off you guys.
I'm here for any other opinions.
- What did we say, Hot Take time?
- [All] Hot Take time, Hot Take time,
Hot Take time at lunch.
- Bing. (bell dings)
- [All] Yay!
- All right, let's cut.
(mellow music)