My top 10 tips for finding a wedding photographer are aimed to help you make the right decision and avoid wedding photography horror stories! It’s so, so, so important to capture those wedding day memories beautifully, and all too easy to get it wrong! So here’s my own personal guide to finding a wedding photographer you’ll be delighted with.
Finding a wedding photographer: 10 top tips
- Do your research. Take your time to compare a few wedding photographers. Never make a snap decision under pressure (at a wedding fair or a face-to-face meeting).
- Meet your wedding photographer. They’ll be there on your wedding day so you need to know you’ll be happy having them there – do you get along? Are they listening to you or talking at you?
- Never let your budget alone dictate who your wedding photographer will be: ask about experience and look carefully at a few photographers’ portfolios. Choose the best you can afford.
- Let Uncle Bob down nicely, with a polite but firm “No.” It’s so not worth the risk!
- Look for examples on your wedding photographer’s website of photos which will stand the test of time. You need to love your wedding album when you’re showing it to your grandchildren – and they should too!
- Have a pre-wedding photo shoot. It’s the best way to learn how to feel comfortable having your picture taken.
- Use your instincts too. You’re looking for someone you can trust – make that decision with your heart as well as your head
- If you want lots of formal shots, choose a photographer whose style fits. If you’re looking for documentary style photography, find a wedding photojournalist – and if you’re not sure what those terms mean, ask!
- Go by word of mouth if you can. Look at friends’ wedding albums, ask what their photographer was like on the day
- Don’t ignore the sensible stuff: check your photographer is insured, and always, always, always sign a contract. Read it carefully too!
Share your advice about finding a wedding photographer
I’d love to know if you have any tips for finding a great wedding photographer – do share your own advice in the comments box below. If you had a great experience with your wedding photographer, share your advice with other brides and grooms reading this blog.
If you’re still looking – good luck with finding the perfect wedding photographer for your big day.
Claire x
What a great idea for a post Claire! Having been a bride myself back in 2009 and now working as a professional wedding photographer, I can’t encourage brides & grooms enough to invest their time, energy & hard earned money in finding their perfect wedding photographer! The wedding photographer you choose will be spending your entire wedding day with you, so it’s crucial to find someone who makes you feel at ease from the first moment you meet. When I meet couples for a consultation, we usually end up chatting away for a couple of hours – I like to find out what makes them tick while they page through my sample album. Claire is spot on in saying that you should listen to your gut – if you don’t feel 100% comfortable & confident with the person sitting in front of you, then they are probably not the right wedding photographer for you!
I also can’t stress the importance of an Engagement Shoot enough – it’s a great opportunity to get used to being photographed in an informal & relaxed setting and for your wedding photographer to get to know your style as a couple and what you like / don’t like, before the big day! For that reason I include a complimentary Engagement Shoot in all my wedding photography packages and most of my couples end up using their lovely Engagement photos as decorations at their wedding breakfast.
Claire’s 3rd top tip for finding a wedding photographer can’t be more important – you have to make sure you find the best photographer for your budget. Weddings are expensive (we saved up for an entire year for our wedding in South Africa) and we all have a budget when planning a wedding, but your wedding photography should be one of the most important investments of your wedding day – don’t forget that your wedding photos will be all you’ll have left to look at after the beautiful day is over, so yes, make sure you choose the best photographer you can afford but more importantly, if you have the option to allocate more budget to your wedding photography to be able to book the photographer whose work you love and you get along with, then I say don’t think twice!
Thanks for the advice, Anneli – it’s a fantastic point about engagement shoots too: not just to get to know your photographer but so they can get to know you. It’s lovely to hear you are looking to understand what makes your couples tick, what they love etc. etc.
Thank you for sharing – and glad my tips for finding a wedding photographer get your approval!
Claire x
Obviously we think it is really important to have a great photographer-well we would wouldn’t we?? ….but speaking as a former bride let me tell you it’s the one thing that lasts after your wedding day. We went cheap-it was 16 years ago but we knew we didn’t want to be hanging around for hours having pictures taken-we wanted to PARTY! Photography styles and options have moved on a lot since then and I wish the choice had been out there back then-we keep our embarrassing album well hidden from the ridicule we would get from our daughters!
I agree 100% with Claire’s tips – the amount of couples who go cheap and then come to us afterwards to see what we can do with their rubbish images is unbelievable-unfortunately the short answer is not a lot. Yes we can have a post wedding shoot but your wedding day is gone forever.
Additional tips would be to ask for and follow up on references from past brides-a good photographer will be happy to provide these and don’t compromise on service-you should feel special and at ease from your initial enquiry onwards. A photographer should want to work hard at getting to know you so that your images reflect your pesonailities and relationship perfectly.
I could go on but Claire has summarised it impeccably
Thank you for sharing so honestly Jenny. Bless you for having to hide your wedding album from the kids! It’s a really good point about how photography styles and trends can date.
I think it’s easy to remember that bridal fashions change: puff sleeves and square necklines spring to mind… but it’s easy to FORGET that photography fashions change. So while we all shudder at spot colour (those red roses on a black and white photo?) we might not realise that yellow filters and ‘vintage’ processing will look as dated in ten and twenty years time.
And you make a brilliant point about finding a wedding photographer who can give references, and following up on those references. Great advice, thank you for sharing
Claire x
Agree wholeheartedly with the dodgy filter comment!
Great article Claire and already some great responses. Having been a bride myself and a wedding photographer for 6 years I know what I minefield picking someone can be, the plethora of photographers appearing on a google search is just mind boggling.
I have two tips, one has to be that as soon as you find the photographer who you click with book them. We can only cover one wedding per day, some of us only do one in a weekend to ensure top class service, so we get booked up quickly, therefore you need book right away to avoid disappointment.
My second tip would be to research what is included in the package, for example generally a cheaper photographer will offer all the images on disk from your wedding but what they fail to say is that the images aren’t high resolution so are not suitable for printing above a 6×4, so after the wedding when you then want the high resolution images you can end up with a hefty bill. Make sure the price you will be paying is all you will need to pay and there will be no nasty surprises after the big day.
Thank you for sharing your tips for finding a wedding photographer, Lesley – I had no idea that images on disk wouldn’t be high resolution for large prints. Now you say it, it’s obvious that huge files for canvas prints / large prints to frame wouldn’t fit on a disk.
I knew there’d be more advice out there I hadn’t thought of – you’re a gem, thank you for adding your comment!
Claire x
Sage advice Claire. I’ve attached my latest magazine article on the same subject. ©chrishanleyphotography2012
Sorry the comment box obviously doesn’t like the PDF attachment, follow the link and go to page 126.
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=dH13T02fiB18&EID=b103a19b-c9ab-4da8-a240-13e9f5b23e70&skip=
Wow thanks Chris – 3 pages of priceless advice on finding a wedding photographer! You must have seen me coming
I love how open and frank your advice is – good to see some of the things to watch out for in that article (low light in winter, gimmicky albums).
I love what you’ve written about Magical Light. That’s a brilliant question to ask photographers – thanks for the expert advice!
Brilliant advice Claire!
Thank you Nicky x
… I don’t think I can take the credit any more – my 10 top tips for finding a wedding photographer have already turned into a few dozen with everyone’s help!
Totally agree, I am in my 1st year of wedding photography so it’s pretty tough going despite being a photographer for a few years it’s still hard and I get a lot of questions and I think it’s great I need to be able to answer them and if I can’t well that’s not good! So far the brides that have me booked are happy. I insist on meeting them before their wedding I shot a wedding a few years back and had never met the bride it went really well but I think our relationship would have been better had we met previously. I always suggest a pre-wedding shoot, but if they don’t wan that they at least meet for a coffee and a chat I want to hear what they want it’s about them. I think my tip for Brides is to make sure your photographer is listening to you and is able to give you want you want.
Nataliya x
Excellent article keeping it straightforward. As a wedding photographer I particularly like the advice about a pre-wedding shoot. Many photographers will often do a FREE engagement portrait, and that is an excellent time to confirm that they are the photographer you trust personally, artistically and technically. It will be your relationship with the photographer that ultimately determines the quality of your pictures if you want your thoughts and feelings preserved in your wedding images.