How to Find Your Wedding Photographer

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You shouldn’t entrust the capturing of your precious wedding pictures to just anyone. You want to make sure you hire the very best professional wedding photographer (in your price range, of course) so you can feel proud to share them with your friends, family and each other for years to come.

Step 1 Where To Look For Wedding Photographers

There are several ways that you can begin your search for a wedding photographer:

Yellow Pages – OK I’m not sure anyone actually uses the yellow pages book anymore, but you could look on the online yellow pages.

General online search – Search for Wedding photographers in your city or town.

Other brides – Ask other brides and ex-brides that you know, who they used or are using and if you could see their wedding pictures. This is a great way to get the scoop first hand on potential wedding photographers.

Ask around – Ask your other vendors or the coordinator at your reception venue for recommendations.

Wedding magazines – Some regional or even national publications will sometimes have special guides listing vendors; including wedding photographers in your general area.

Wedding site vendor guide – Many large wedding websites have vendor guides that you can quickly search through. You can search by location and budget and look at reviews from other brides on each vendor.

Snapknot – A wedding photography directory, dedicated solely to helping you you find a wedding photographer by location and price range. You can compre and evaluate each wedding photographer in your area based on style, portfolio images, experience, and professional affiliations.

The best way of ensuring you have a wide variety of wedding photographers to choose from, is by using several of these methods and then compiling a list.

Step 2 Narrowing Down Your List Of Wedding Photographers

Once you have a list of wedding photographers (you will likely have a huge list) you can start narrowing it down to a more manageable number.

First, throw out any choices that are not in your city or nearby cities (unless you’re willing to pay them a travel fee) and any that are completely out of your budget.

Next, remove any that have bad reviews; such as, not showing up, losing all the wedding pictures, bad quality wedding pictures etc. It may have been a one time occurrence and they may be much better now, but this is not the time to experiment.

Lastly, go one by one and check out their websites. See if their style of photography and quality matches your vision. But remember the wedding pictures they put on their websites are their very best work (you’ll also want to see their portfolio later on in person once you narrow down your list). While on their site also look at the wedding photography packages they offer, to see if they have one that is within your budget and includes everything you want. Many photographers will have different packages based on a certain amount of hours and added features for you to choose from.

Step 3 Researching Potential Wedding Photographers

Before meeting with any potential wedding photographers you’re going to need to do a little research. Your first stop should be the Better Business Bureau (BBB), to see if any complaints have been filed against them. This may seem a little extreme, but it’s a great way to see if and why anyone else has been dissatisfied with their service.

A simple Google search for “insert name” wedding photography reviews can give you a glimpse of what other brides are saying about their service.

One of the most helpful ways I found to check up on wedding vendors was to look on wedding forums. These are places where brides discuss everything from vendors to family problems to decoration ideas. You can get a lot of great tips and advice. Just Google the photographer’s name and add the word forums (ex: ABC photography forums).

Step 4 Meeting with Wedding Photographers

Before meeting with your ‘short list’ of wedding photographers make sure they are available on your date, then meet with them in person. You’ll want to review their portfolio and see how you get on with them. You want to make sure that they are friendly and make you feel at ease. There’s nothing worse than having to work with a photographer on your wedding day that you don’t get along with, believe me it will show through in your wedding pictures.

Ask them any and all questions you have, their answers may just be the determining factor between two candidates.

Step 5 Choosing Your Wedding Photographer

Ultimately, the choice is up to you and I can’t tell you who to choose. But here a few tips on how to choose your wedding photographer. Once they meet the criteria, they are probably your best choice. These are the guidelines that I used to choose mine.

My wedding Photographer….

Was In a neighboring city and didn’t charge me travel fee

Was Professional and extremely nice

Made me feel relaxed

Had great reviews

Had beautiful wedding pictures in the style that I was looking for

Was within my budget and offered several packages for me to choose from

Your wedding pictures will provide wonderful lasting lifetime memories; you want to ensure they are just what you wanted. So don’t be afraid to shop around until you find ‘the one’. You can then rest assured that you are getting the best quality wedding photography at the best possible price and keep your wedding photography costs down.

Wedding Photography Options {pros and cons}

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disposable wedding cameraThis is one of the most important parts of the wedding planning process. This is where you’ll really need to do your research to ensure you will have wedding pictures you can be happy about. Many years from now, looking over your wedding pictures will bring back wonderful memories of your wedding day.

There are several options available to you when it comes to choosing your wedding photographer:

#1 Hire a professional wedding photographer

They likely have years of training and experience, and have probably developed their own style of photography. They own their own photography company and most likely have insurance in case something goes wrong. They will give you a contract so you’ll know exactly what you are getting into. They have a professional portfolio so you can see how they have photographed weddings in the past.

Pros:

They typically take thousands of wedding pictures a week. They can adjust to different or difficult shooting situations in a flash (no pun intended).

They know their equipment inside and out and always have backup equipment available.

They are up to date on all the latest wedding photography styles and trends. They know how to pose you so in order to get the best shot.

They’ve seen it all and know the ins and outs of weddings, so you know they will capture all the important moments.

Afterwards, they’ll painstakingly review each picture and edit them to ensure they’re perfect. They have access to professional printing services and can also create professional albums.

Cons:

They are expensive, costing around $2,000 up to several thousands of dollars depending on how long they have been in the business and how well-known they are.

If they are in high demand they may not even be available on your date (or you may have to book them well in advance).

#2 Use a wedding photography service

This is basically a company that has a staff of photographers with packages to choose from.

Pros:

Using a company may be cheaper than hiring a solo wedding photographer. They may have packages that include other services such as videography, DJ services, etc.

They also have backup photographers in case the one you choose cannot make it on your wedding day.

Cons:

The reviews on some of these companies are less than stellar (I read quite a few bad ones when researching for my wedding).

You may not be able to meet with the photographer and see their work in person – you may have to rely only on what you see on the website.

 If the photographer that you chose is not able to make it on your wedding day another staff photographer that you’ve never even talked to may show up in their place.

#3 Hire a cheap wedding photographer

This is a wedding photographer who for some reason is cheaper than the rest of their competition. They fall somewhere between the seasoned professional wedding photographer and the beginner. You know the one; they claim they’ll take 10 hours worth of pictures, edit them, print them out and create an album for under $1,000.

Pros:

They are cheap.

Cons:

They are too cheap. Remember you get what you pay for. They are priced well below everyone else for a reason; you may not get all as promised.

#4 Hire a beginner photographer

This is someone who is fresh out of photography school and may not have much experience with wedding photography.

Pros:

They are less expensive than a seasoned professional wedding photographer.

They have been taught the many photography styles.

They probably would be able to adjust to changing or difficult shooting situations quickly.

 They may also have access to professional printing services and may be able create professional albums.

Cons:

They may not have much if any wedding photography experience and may not know all the ins and outs of the wedding process.

They also may not be up to date with the latest wedding photography trends.

They probably don’t have state of the art camera equipment and may not have backups.

They may not have access to professional editing software/equipment.

#5 Enlist a relative or friend

You can ask someone who you think takes decent pictures. Preferably someone who knows your partner and yourself well enough that they know what type of pictures you would or wouldn’t like.

Pros:

This will be very cheap or most likely free.

You’ll feel very comfortable with them since you know them well.

Cons:

They have none or very little wedding experience. They will most likely not have state of the art equipment and backups.

They don’t really know their camera inside out and most likely cannot adjust quickly to changing shooting situations.

If they mess up your wedding pictures, this will strain your relationship.

#6 Have your guests be your wedding photographers

This can be done one of two ways. Place several disposable cameras on each table and ask your guests to click away, or ask guests if you can make copies of all the pictures they took with their own personal cameras during the wedding.

Pros:

It’s free, or definitely cheaper than hiring a pro.

Cons:

You’re leaving everything up to chance, you don’t know what quality you’re getting. You may get a whole lot of pictures of the guests and not many of you and the groom. Or horrible out of focus photos.

 It may not be that cheap if you’re using disposable cameras – they can cost about $5 each (or more for digital). Depending on how many you place per table (and how many tables you have) it could add up to a few hundred dollars.

You have many options when choosing a wedding photographer, it may not be an easy task, and it can be expensive, but this is the one place where you shouldn’t skimp. The special moments at your wedding – saying I do, a loving glance, a candid smile – all take place within a few seconds. You need someone who can react quickly and capture each one.

You may save a lot of money by hiring a friend or relative but what happens if they can’t make it or are late? What if their pictures are less than stellar? This will undoubtedly create friction, and that’s something that’s not worth any amount of money. By hiring a beginner/cheap wedding photographer, or by having your guests use disposable / personal cameras, you are leaving it up to chance. You don’t know what you’re getting.

Bottom Line: I highly recommend that you hire a pro. Let me repeat it again…

I highly recommend that you hire a pro.

Photo credit: Photo by SP AL UK