How To Find The Best Wedding Photographer For You
Choosing a wedding photographer is a HUGE deal! Seriously its a REALLY BIG DEAL! Dare I say your wedding photographer is the most important wedding vendor you will book…. Why? Because once your wedding is all over, you will only have your photos to look back on to relive the day and preserve your legacy as a couple! As a wedding photographer, I want every couple to be over the moon with their final wedding photos and have no regrets with the wedding photographer they chose. I want you to remember how your day truly looked and felt when looking back on your photos. I totally understand that the average couple goes into wedding planning not knowing a thing about wedding planning and that it can be overwhelming booking vendors and hoping you made the right choice but rest assured I am here to help with this part of the day. I am breaking up for you how to go about getting the best wedding photographer for you because all couples are different and have different wants and needs. After reading this, you will know how to properly establish what type of wedding photography experience you want as a couple, properly research wedding photographers online, what questions to ask when you inquire with them and what to ask when you do consultations.
Where To Start Before You Start Reaching Out To Wedding Photographers
- Establish your budget
I believe the first step in this process is settling on a budget for you as a couple! To me, there is nothing more frustrating and a waste of your time as a consumer than falling in love with a specific product or service and realizing its not in your budget. Do yourself a huge favor and avoid that by research wedding photography pricing in your area and agree as a couple what is a realistic price for you to pay based on how much you want to invest in your wedding photos. Price wise to be honest, its a pretty big range for what you will be paying depending on the photographer’s experience, the area you are looking in, and what is included in the wedding photography package you want. Most photographers either have their full pricing or starting prices on their websites. If that’s not the case, they will send you their full pricing list when you inquiry or their starting prices and will save the full pricing list for your consultation with them.
- Decide what your must haves are in your wedding photography experience
Most wedding photographer have multiple packages to choose from or give you the option to build customizable packages. Here are some of the common things that are included or can be added to most wedding packages :
Engagement session
6, 8 and 10 hours of photography coverage (the average amounts of most wedding photography coverage)
Additional hours
Rehearsal Dinner Coverage
Second Shooter
Bridal Boudoir
Wedding Albums
Professional Prints
Professional Canvases
- Settle on a Shooting and Editing Style
Before narrowing down photographers to interview, decide on the type of photography shooting style and editing style you prefer.
Most Common Shooting Styles:
Fine Art Wedding Photography
Photojournalistic Wedding Photography
Traditional Wedding Photography
Lifestyle Wedding Photography
Editorial
Most Common Editing Styles:
True to Color
Dark and Moody
Light and Airy
To research these different styles, your best bet is to get on Instagram, Google, and wedding planning websites such as Zola, Wedding Wire, The Knot and Junebug Weddings. There are lots of different variations on all of these editing and shooting styles so if you start to feel overwhelmed write down what specifically you like and don’t so once you do start looking up photographers for your wedding it will be a lot easier to pinpoint photographers to reach out to.
What to Look for When You Research Wedding Photographers Online
- Look at the wedding portfolio and blog sections of all wedding photography websites
When looking through portfolios together as a couple, chat amongst yourselves about what you both like and don’t like that you are seeing. From there, narrow down stylistically what is a must for you both.
- Look at reviews online
Most established professional photographers collect reviews somewhere whether it’s on their Google Business profile, reviews on their Wedding Wire or The Knot profiles, Facebook Business Pages and/or Yelp. Read what their past couples have said and take into consideration if a lot of the reviews are consistent with one another and if over all the past couples are very happy with their experience.
- Read the FAQ section of each wedding photographer’s website
A lot of big and common questions are answers that could make or break your decision to move forward with pursuing them as your wedding photographer. Be smart with your time!
- Read the “About Section” on each wedding photographer website your view
See if on not only a professional level, you can also connect with them on a personal level. This is SO important and I can’t recommend this enough. Out of every wedding vendor, you will spend the most time with your wedding photographer not only on the day of your wedding but before and after. I am not necessarily saying you have to be friends them with (although working with someone who feels like or actually becomes a friend is great) but you should at least see if they could be someone you like being around and can work with!
What to Ask When Inquiring with a Wedding Photographer Initially
- Provide your date and venue
These are the 2 most important bits of information the photographer needs in order to see if they are available that date and if they are available to travel to where your venue is.
- Ask to see at least 2 full recent wedding galleries
Listen up folks this is my number one rule for you…DO NOT BOOK A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER BASED OFF THEIR HIGHLIGHT REAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA OR THEIR WEBSITE!!!!! Every photographer has their highlight reel online of their best photos. Make sure that they can shoot all parts of the day equally as good, they can work in different lighting scenarios, their work is edited consistently and their work also is consistent as to what is on their websites! If they can not send you full galleries to look over move on because that’s 9 times out of 10 a HUGE red flag. Also, ff you want to do an engagement ask to see 2 full recent engagement galleries as well!
- Ask for pricing or where their prices start
As I stated earlier, some photographers have their full pricing or stating prices on their website while others will send over some sort of pricing info when you inquire. Make sure you ask so you can avoid wasting your time and their time talking further if you have a price range set in stone you are willing to pay that they are not in.
- Make Your Inquiry Personal
Tell them a little about yourself as a couple and what you are envisioning your wedding day to be like. Let them know also what you like about their work overall. You don’t have to go into great detail but its nice to add a personal touch when inquiring.
What to Ask During Your Consultation with a Wedding Photographer
- How do they interact with couples and what is their approach to shooting weddings
All photographers do things differently. Some photographers are more into directing and posing while others take a more observational approach. Its up to you as a couple with what you would feel most comfortable with and prefer on your wedding day but make sure regardless that you ask so there are no surprises or awkwardness the day of the wedding and you can feel totally comfortable.
- What to expect for the wedding photography process
Wedding photography is SO much more than just taking photos on your wedding day. It’s a lot of planning and coordination between you and your photographer and possible engagement photos, rehearsal dinner photos and boudoir photos. Ask about the timeline and process for all of these so you can plan according and be prepared.
- How long does it take to get your final wedding photos back
This is a HUGE thing you need to make sure you ask so you have realistic expectations for the photographer and their process along with have a date set in stone that you will get your photos at the latest. Also, make sure that this is included in the contract! There are a lot of horror stories of couples who did not get this set in stone had to wait for a very long time to receive their photos or have not got them at all in so cases at all.
- How booking and payments work
Incase you decide to move forward, make sure you ask how to officially book, how to make your initial payment and additional payments are due, and how to formally make the contract official so there are no surprises later on.
- Ask to see a contract and thoroughly read it before signing
This is something everyone should do for a huge investment regardless. You should do so as a photography client so you understand both your rights with what you can do with the images you purchased as well as understand the rights the photography has as the artist of your images.
Are you searching for a wedding photographer? Brooke is a wedding photographer serving the Washington DC Metropolitan Area and beyond. View her work here and if you like what you see, reach out to info@brookesilvermphotography.com to learn more!