Choosing the Right Wedding Photographer For You

Planning your wedding comes with much excitement and anticipation, and as long as it takes to plan it, the day passes by faster than you can imagine. You’ll want to savor each moment, and ideally, relive it forever. The best way to appreciate and draw value out of all that you put into your wedding day is to make these moments tangible, and finding a Wedding Photographer you connect with is going to tie the wedding you envision together. As someone that has been in the industry for over a decade, let me share with you 10 Tips on how to choose the right wedding photographer for you!

1. Create A Budget

Once you’ve landed on a wedding budget, you’re going to want to allocate those funds toward the most important things to bring your wedding day vision to life. Choosing the right wedding photographer in my opinion is equally as important as the venue and your dress. Do your research on the photographers in your area. You can narrow down your choices by selecting photographers that include rates on their websites that fit within the budget you’ve created. 

2. Consider Your Wedding Photography Needs

Do you need a full day of photography coverage (wedding preparation, ceremony and full reception)? Maybe just ceremony and reception? Sometimes photographers will work on a sliding scale, or allow you to choose your hourly coverage to document only what you need. Maybe you need a bit more, and a second photographer is necessary. Consider everything you want to document to narrow down exactly what you need.

3. Know Your Style

This is pretty important, but something that a lot of couples don’t always consider when choosing their wedding photographer because they’re price shopping. What appeals to you? Do you like something simple and clean, or chic and artistic? Make a moodboard of your favorite wedding photos (Pinterest is an all time favorite), and ask yourself why you like these photos: is it editing, composition, or their ability to capture emotion? Find a photographer that does what you like really well.

4. Look Beyond Portfolio Highlights

Viewing a full gallery or a photographer has shot will allow you to see a more comprehensive range, from family portraits to reception detail shots. Look for honesty, and emotional connection in a photographer’s work. Think back on an event that meant something meaningful to you. Those moments in our lives are a series of images in motion. A single frame in our memory can contain incredible intimacy, joy, fear, love, anxiousness, or the “indescribable” we often experience. If those defining moments in your life were captured by a photographer, would they capture you looking right into a camera, wondering what to do with your hands? These moments aren’t planned. They aren’t staged. They are real as they are honest, and authenticity is not always perfect. They have motion. Movement. They are part of a MUCH bigger story. Just like your wedding day. What resonates within you? Look for that. You’ll know it when you see it.

5. Consider the Lighting At Your Venues

Whether it’ll be a sunny, outside setup or low-lit, indoor ambiance, assessing the amount, source, and timing of light in your venue is key to making proper arrangements with the photographer. Good lighting is the one thing that can truly make or break a photo. A fall or winter wedding (where cloudy days are more common) is going to look different than a sunny, summer wedding. Having a ceremony in the late afternoon (4 PM – 6 PM) during the summer months can be much better for lighting purposes over a midday ceremony. So my biggest advice to couples is to just ask questions about light when chatting with a photographer. A true professional should be able to easily explain different lighting situations and outcomes, and help a couple structure a wedding timeline in a way that gives the best lighting possible throughout the day.

6. Use the Engagement Session As A Trial Run

An initial shoot with a photographer lets you meet each other in person, gauge chemistry, and see their style firsthand. Personally, I love having an engagement session. I think of it as practice. Most couples aren’t used to getting their picture taken, so having a little session before the wedding gives you time to get used to it. It also helps me see how best to encourage you, find out what you are comfortable with, and makes me feel more like a friend the day of the wedding. Engagement sessions also give couples confidence—once they get the photos back and they see how their personalities radiates in photographs so beautifully, they are typically less anxious about the photos the day of the wedding.

7. Ask the Overlooked Questions

There are so many questions to ask, but which will yield the most telling answers? To get a good feel for your photographer, here’s one you shouldn’t skip: What is your approach to wedding day photography? It is important to not only know the photographer’s style of images, but the way that they shoot in order to get those images. Are they like a fly on the wall, or do they like to get right in there posing people and creating moments throughout the day? Do they capture a lot of candid imagery, or do they give a lot of direction? Your experience with the photographer on your wedding day can be just as important as the final images you receive, and this question should lend some crucial insight.

8. Understanding the Rights to the Photos

The permissions and legal intricacies around rights to wedding photos can often be blurry, so any clarification you can get before signing off will benefit both you and the photographer down the line. For my clients, I own the copyrights to the images, while giving the couple and family personal use to them. Depending on their wedding package, they receive high resolution files so they are able to print and post on the internet for personal use as much as they would like, with the only modification allowed being cropping. Before using any couple’s imagery in a business portfolio, it’s best to check with them first. When it comes to any type of commercial usage with other vendors, it just becomes a conversation, but I am typically very flexible. I look at photo permissions on a case-by-case basis, and if you have specific desires for the images, just ask so we can work something out.

9. Get the Details for Editing Timeline and Deliverables

After the last toast and grand exit, the photographer’s work is far from finished. Knowing what to expect in the post-production process will help balance all that excitement and anticipation to relive your best day through photos. Our couples can expect to get exactly what they see on our website, and nothing less. Average turnaround time in my contract at the latest is about 12 -15 weeks to receive their full gallery of images, which includes roughly 550 - 800 images (depending on the hourly coverage) of fully edited in color and in black and white. While I typically deliver galleries within that time frame, there are photographers that take up to six months. Some couples receive instant downloads for hi-res images, or tangible products and something to hold onto. Each package is different, so understand exactly what you’re getting and when, up front.

10. Make Sure You Mesh

Look for an honest, organized, friendly photographer, because that’s who will be spending the day by your side. I find that it’s always helpful to arrange a video chat or meeting before booking. This gives couples an idea of who I am, and vice versa. There have been plenty of times I’ve talked to a couple and it just didn’t feel like we’d be the right personality type or style for their day—and that’s 100% OK. You have to find someone you feel comfortable with, who you like, and who you trust, because we are the artistic professionals you’re entrusting with your most precious moments and memories. Meshing well with your photographer means you can just let them capture your day and create in a way that is not only true to your wedding day, but to who they are as an artist. It is just a win-win for everyone.

So when it comes to selecting your wedding photographer, it all boils down to picking someone who vibes with your visual style and you as a human. When you have a genuine connection with your photographer, they’ll do a better job capturing your emotions—your love, your joy, your stillness. Years from now, your photos will be all you have to relive and reflect back on this whirlwind, and you’ll thank yourself time and again for investing in them.