How to Find the Wedding Photographer of Your Dreams in 4 Easy Steps

HAVE YOU RECENTLY GOT ENGAGED?

ARE YOU STARTING TO PLAN YOUR WEDDING?

ARE YOU HAVING A HARD TIME FINDING THE PHOTOGRAPHER OF YOUR DREAMS?

If the answer is “YES” to all of those questions. I am here to help you! 

FOR THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW ME…

Hello, hi, hiya, I’m Grace (that’s my husband and I up there). I am a quirky wedding photographer for the untraditional couple, a huge Harry Potter nerd and the ultimate cat lover! I have been documenting weddings for almost 10 years and love to provide education on all things photography related, including how to find the wedding photographer of your dreams!

PLANNING A WEDDING CAN BE STRESSFUL AF

There’s so much to do, so many vendors to book (if you’re going the more traditional route) and just a lot of logistics to cover. Most of the time when you see a photographer you love, you’ll just know it. You’ll feel it in your bones and your soul that this person is going to be the right fit for you and your love on your wedding day. Sometimes it’s hard to find that person. I have complied a list of things to look for when you’re looking for “THE ONE” I mean, the other one…you know, you’re wedding photographer! (insert laugh crying here) Are you ready to get into this? LET’S GO!

1. KNOW YOUR BUDGET

Knowing your budget is huge and so is knowing how much importance photography holds for you. Hiring a wedding photographer is an investment, there’s no doubt about that. Let’s be real for a second though, wedding photography isn’t something you NEED/ But something you WANT. Yeah, I said that. It’s a commodity, not a necessity. But let’s think about this in the border spec of life. If you don’t have a photographer, then your day will be remembered and documented on family and friends cell phones, not the best quality, blurry, blah images. When you hire a professional photographer that knows what they are doing, they have crafted and learned how to create art, no matter the situation, they can make art from anything. They will give you images that will last for many more generations to come. I think that’s pretty rad to give your future family the gift of seeing you on your wedding day. Don’t you?

Remember that a photographer’s cost directly correlates with their experience. If you are price shopping and looking for the cheapest option, you might be getting a photographer with less experience and with that you might get photos that you aren’t super thrilled with, that’s a major bummer, RIGHT?

If there’s a photographer that you REALLY LOVE and want to document your day, but they are out of your budget, take some time to look through what you are doing for your wedding day and see if there’s anything you can sacrifice in order to hire that photographer. It REALLY IS WORTH IT!

2. KNOW THE STYLE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR

Know what style you are looking for, each photographer has a different way of going about things on wedding days and how they photograph their subjects. Let’s dive into the different kinds of photographer that’s our there right now, shallllll we?

Documentary / Photojournalistic

Natural

Fine art

Film

Dark & moody

Light & airy

Contemporary

Traditional

Artistic

Editorial

Honestly, this list could go on forever. A photographer might just be one of these or a combination of a couple. When you look at their website, they might say one of these adjectives to describe their work. Sometimes it takes a couple days of searching hashtags on Instagram, scrolling through Pinterest and looking at photographers websites to find what style you are looking for. When looking at websites, make sure their work is consistent. THIS IS HUGE. If you see images that are edited in 5 different ways, they might not be sure what their style is, and when it comes to your wedding day, you might not get what you’re looking for!

For reference, I consider my work a bit of documentary and dark & moody!

 

3. LIKE THEM AS A HUMAN

You are going to be spending most of your day around 2 people: your significant other and your photographer. You need to like them as a human before you can like them as a photographer. YEAH, I SAID IT. Wouldn’t it suck to spend your wedding day around someone who didn’t give a shit about you or someone you just don’t vibe well with?! THAT WOULD SUCK. Get to know them, read their “about me” section on their website, find them on Instagram and look through their photos and see how they interact with people, and read reviews of what their previous clients have said.

After doing your research, if you think you would get along, contact them and ask to set up a meeting! During your meeting, ASK THEM QUESTIONS. I don’t know about other photographers, but I love when potential clients are curious and ask all kinds of questions. After your meeting with them, you should feel good, you should leave feeling FREAKING GREAT ABOUT YOURSELF. You should just know deep down in your bones that they are the photographer for you. You should feel like you can TRUST them. Oh boy, let’s talk about TRUST.

Welcome to the paragraph about TRUSTING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER. If you at any point during your research find someone that you feel like you trust. Reach out to them. The biggest part of any relationship, yes, even you and your photographer is…you guessed right…TRUST. Speaking from experience, when a client trusts me on their wedding day to do what I do, there’s a freedom in that, there’s the chance to create without expectations being placed on you. I have always found that I do my best work when clients say “I trust you to do what you do, I know it’ll be great no matter what!” Trust who you hire, there’s a creative freedom in it that’s just beautiful and magic will 100% happen.

4. QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR POTENTIAL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

Remember how I said “ask questions”? If you don’t know what questions to ask, sweet, I am going to give you a list that I love being asked during meetings:

1. How to we communicate with you?

2. What’s your approach on a wedding day?

3. Will our images be backed up?

4. How do we get our final images?

5. How long will it take till we get to see our photos?

6. Do you have any pets?

7. What happens if you get sick / die / are unable to photograph our wedding?

8. How do you and your husband work together?

9. What can we do so that we get the best possible photos? (TRUST, wink wink)

10. How did you get into photographer?

11. How long have you been photographing weddings?

12. Can we see full galleries of past weddings?

13. How do we order prints or albums from you?

14. Do you carry liability insurance? Is your gear insured?

15. Do you bring backup equipment?

There are so many questions you can ask, but most of these should be answered before your meeting with them via their website or when you inquire with them initially! Signs that your meeting went well will include, you can’t stop smiling, you feel like you’ve left with a new friend, you are so much more excited about your wedding day, and you just want to do a happy dance.

DO YOU THINK WE ARE YOUR DREAM PHOTOGRAPHERS? DON’T BE AFRAID TO CONTACT US, USE THE FORM BELOW TO DO SO!