One of the most significant parts of your wedding is the selection of the photographer! Follow our step-by-step guide and you’ll end up with dreamy wedding photos that you’ll treasure forever.
After choosing the date and picking your dream venue, one of the to-dos at the top of your wedding planning list should be ‘choosing your wedding photographer’. Your wedding photographer will capture forever the most cherished moments of your life and these photos are your most important memories.
After all, once your big day is over, the photos (and your memories, of course) are what you’ll have to treasure for years to come. The selection of the wedding photographer is one of the first things you have to book and find first!
Important factors for the selection of the wedding photographer
Where do you start when it comes to choosing a wedding photographer? There are a lot of things to consider in order to select the right one, like the cost of the photographer, your budget and the wedding photography style you want to have for the most special day of your life! All these are a part of a puzzle that your wedding planner will help you solve!
Choosing your wedding photography style
Style is everything when it comes to photography and deciding on what suits you as a couple will stand you in good stead on the journey to finding your perfect wedding photographer. If you’re a couple who likes natural, captured-in-the-moment photos, you don’t want to hire a photographer who specializes in posed and staged images. And, if you’re camera-shy, you don’t want to hire a contemporary photographer, who’ll treat your wedding like a magazine shoot!
Here are the main styles of wedding photography that you need to consider when searching for your wedding photographer. Bear in mind that many photographers don’t just stick to one style, so you can have a combination of these styles without hiring multiple photographers:
- Traditional
- Fine Art photography
- Contemporary/ editorial
- Film
Don’t know what sort of style you like? It’s time to spark some inspiration and looking at real weddings online can help you to narrow down your photography preferences. Checkout Instagram and Pinterest for real weddings and editorial-styled shoots too; they’re your new BFFs through this wedding-planning journey. When you find a wedding picture you would love to hang in your home, like it and pin it to your photography board – you can then show these to your photographer and check if he/she is able to capture your big day in the same way.
It’s all about experience!
Before you make your selection, make sure that your wedding photographer has the necessary experience and reflects your feelings and your preferences regarding the wedding photography! It is very important to choose a photographer that is experienced and specialized in wedding photos! You should always check his/her wedding portfolio, to get a full picture of his/her work. Find a picture that is very close to your ideal wedding photo result and discuss with the photographer now about your wedding! Moreover, an experienced wedding photographer can help you during your wedding day to pose better, to give you the right instructions and find the best spots for the best wedding photography and result!
Read the photographer’s reviews
Check the photography reviews on every social platform, in order to secure your choice! It is well-known that every couple, if satisfied with the aesthetic result of the photos, leaves a review to the photographer feeling grateful for his work. For more feedback, you can also contact the photographer, in order to meet him in person and discuss your wedding photo preferences! If he/she suits your needs and preferences and his/her work reflects your feelings, bingo, we have a winner!
Meet your photographer
This is the person you want to capture on one of the most important days of your life – So you can’t make a HUGE decision like this just by scrolling through someone’s grid on Instagram! Before you think about booking the photographer, you should make an appointment with the photographer, to find out more about him/her.
The photographer you ‘ll choose, should make you feel comfortable and you should have an instant rapport with him/her He/she will be with you all day, so you need to like him/her as much as any of your other guests!
Do They Know Your Venue?
Another way to ensure you have the right wedding photographer is to check if he worked in the past in the venue you have selected! The secret spots of every venue are the key to the whole experience! If your photographer knows in which place to take the photos, in which spots the wedding photography will give the best aesthetic result and the spots that you will look incredible, the wedding photography will go to another level!
Find out what is included in the photography package
There’s no one-package-suits-all when it comes to choosing a wedding photography package. The package you choose will ultimately be determined by your budget and how important the photography element of the wedding is to you. Factors like how many hours you want to have the photographer, how many clips you want to shoot and how many of his/her associates will be engaged to the whole process, will affect the cost! It’s up to you!
Ask about the post-wedding timescale
Don’t expect your photos back a week after the wedding. Your photographer is shooting pretty big files and will take hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures throughout the day, and as much as you would love to revisit your special day ASAP, remember Rome wasn’t built in a day.
This is a date that has to be set and agreed upon so that you can be sure that you will have your wedding photos as soon as possible.
