30 Jul 5 STEPS TO CHOOSING THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER FOR YOUR WEDDING DAY
Choosing any wedding supplier can be a daunting task. Your suppliers play a huge part in bringing your wedding dreams to reality and in the case of your wedding photographer, documenting those memories for you to look back on and enjoy for years to come.
The suppliers you chose will be such a huge part of your day, I can understand the pressure to get it right. So how do you go about choosing your wedding photographer? Let’s have a look.
Step 1:
Decide On What Wedding Photography Style You Like
The very first place to start when it comes to choosing your wedding photographer is to first decide on what style of photographs you both like and want for your wedding. The easiest way to do this is by taking a look at the types of wedding photographs that resonate the most with you. Take a look at your wedding Pinterest board or saved Instagram posts and ask yourself what style are these images? Look at them in relation to the two biggest factors:
- Composition – do you gravitate towards more posed images? Are they all artistic and using creative lighting? Are they relaxed and natural images? Are they serious and “deep” or light-hearted and happy?
- How the images are edited. Do they feature muted colours or bright colours? Do they have an airy or moody feel about them? Are they heavily stylized or more natural?
You can most likely fit the style of images you like into one of the most common types of wedding photography (Traditional, Fine Art, Documentary, Contemporary or Creative) and bingo – you know what style of wedding photographer you are looking for.
Step 2:
Set A Budget for Your Wedding Photography
As with anything in wedding planning you need to decide realistically how much you want to spend on your wedding photographer. It would be amazing to have an unlimited budget but that just isn’t life (if only!). According to the Bridebook 2020 Wedding Report, the average spend on a wedding photographer last year was Β£1110 and Hitched recommend setting aside around 5% of your total budget. Wedding photographers really do come in a range of prices and this is predominantly dictated by the amount of experience they have followed by their style. Know what you want to spend so you don’t end up falling in love with someone way out of budget unless you don’t plan on sticking to it of course.
Step 3:
Search for Your Ideal Wedding Photographer
Now you know what type of photographer you are looking for and how much you want to spend, it is time to find them. The internet is by far the best place to search for your wedding photographer. You can use everything from supplier directories, Instagram hashtags, Facebook groups, online Wedding Fayres, online real wedding features etc.
Taking Instagram as an example, head to your wedding venues account and then tagged images. Do any of the professional images they have been tagged in stand out to you? It can take a little digging around but it is worth it when you find the photographer you love.
I always recommend narrowing your search down to 2-3 photographers who fit your price and you like their style before taking it onto the next step.
Step 4:
Dig A Little Deeper – Research Your Favourite Wedding Photographers
Now you have your shortlisted photographers it is time to dig a little deeper. And this advice works for all wedding suppliers, not just your wedding photographer. You really want to be sure you look into them on a much deeper level than just their IG/FB posts:
- Reviews – one of the biggest indicators. What have previous couples (and even suppliers) said about them. Most suppliers should have Facebook reviews visible so you can start here. You can ask your wedding venue if you know they have worked there what they thought, was the couple happy. Do they have any google reviews or directory reviews such as Bridebook? Find out exactly what previous clients thought of them as this can give you the biggest indicator as to what to expect should you book them.
- Previous Galleries – next you’ll want to actually look at previous galleries. Naturally, as photographers, we post our favourite images to our social media accounts and websites, so to really give you a true indication of what to expect from a whole gallery you need to see a couple of them. Any photographer proud of the work they produce should have no problem at all in giving you access to some recent galleries to have a peek in. So if one says no, or only offers a curated collection such as a blog post you may want to ask yourself why.
- Read what they say about themselves. Not usually on the list when it comes to finding a supplier but I think this is a big one! How do they describe their work? How do they like to work? What are they like as a person on paper? How do they write on social media? Does all of this fit with how you imagine your wedding photographer to act, say, be? Ultimately you and your wedding photographer will form a partnership so you want to make sure it is the right fit before heading to the final stage.
Step 5:
Meet Your Favourite Wedding Photographers
And finally, the next step in choosing a wedding photographer is to actually speak to them. Someone can seem like the best fit but until you speak with them you can’t be 100% sure. Ultimately you will spend a large part of your day interacting with this person, more than any other guest or supplier!
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They will be there from the morning until the evening so you really want to make sure that you really get along. As humans we have a gut instinct about people and meeting with them (over zoom or in-person) will let you know exactly how you vibe together! Can you imagine spending the whole day with this wedding photographer? Will this person be fun to spend the day with? Will they help you relax? Will they interact with you and your other guests in the way you want them to? Trust your instinct on this one, because the wrong person can still tell you the right words you want to hear, but we know on a deeper level, an instinctive level if we “click” with someone straight away.