Planning a wedding requires making a lot of decisions, and if buyer’s remorse wasn’t already a thing when you bought those tacos last week for $15, how much more stressful to spend thousands of dollars on a single vendor for your wedding day.
You could spend days, or even weeks, flopping between options, meandering back into a google search, or staring blurry-eyed at reviews, but at the end of the day you still need to make a decision on your wedding photographer. So how? How do you make sure that you choose the right wedding photographer when there are so many options?
The decision may seem overwhelming and you may not know where to start in selecting the perfect photographer for your wedding day, but by taking a few steps you can be sure to find a photographer that you can trust with capturing the most important memories of your wedding day.
Step one: Decide on style
Before seriously looking for a photographer you need to know what you are looking for. So, what is your style? We all have photos that specifically stand out to us for all kinds of reasons. It might be the candid ones that you are drawn to, or perhaps it is the dramatic show-stoppers that catch your eye. The question you need to ask is “why?”. What is it about these photos that you love? Is it the raw storytelling nature of the photo? The nostalgia? The emotions that they stir? Whether it is the moment, or the location, or the people that a photo captures, the most important role it plays is putting you back into that moment. You want to feel what you felt all over again. You want to experience the location and remember the moments that you shared with the people you love. So, when you are looking for your photographer, look beyond the trends and consider whether the photos elicit emotion, capture moments and tell the story of a wedding in a creative way. This is what will be timeless. This is what you will want when reliving your wedding through the photos.
Of course, we all have preferences when it comes to colours and styles and overall look of a gallery. Do you prefer a darker, more moody look, a bright and airy look, or a more natural look? Whatever your preference, a photographer that shoots within any of these “styles” can either tell a story or not through the photos. They can either capture the emotions and candid moments or fall short- so look for this when considering a photographer regardless of which style you prefer. How do you do this? That leads up to step two.
Step two: look through some galleries
It may seem obvious, but in order to know what you’re getting you need to look at some photos. Websites are a great place to start with this. Photographers with a lot of experience should have a lot of photos on their site and there should be a lot of photos from a lot of different events. Watch for diversity in their work, different kinds of locations, different parts of a wedding day etc. Especially consider your own venue and look at galleries through this lens considering whether the photographer has photos that show a similar atmosphere to your own venue. Notice I didn’t say the same venue- while this could be considered an extra bonus if they have samples from your own venue- an experienced photographer will be prepared to photograph in both familiar and unfamiliar locations without any problem, so instead watch for similar kinds of locations.
Don’t forget to check them out on socials as well as you will likely find some more recent work there.
Step three: Check out the Reviews
I am a review browser myself. I stand by the fact that you can learn a lot about a service or product by reading reviews and this is no less true when it comes to picking a wedding or elopement photographer. When reading reviews try to find third-party sources where a client can review a photographer directly. A couple of examples of this would be Google or Wedding Wire. This can ensure that you are getting an uncurated snapshot of couples’ experiences with the photographer. That said, do not disregard the review section on the photographer’s website as well. Not every couple goes through the process of leaving a review on a third party site and some just send it to the photographer directly. You can get a more robust perspective by checking out as many reviews- from as many sources- as possible. Although, as with most service reviews, you will likely get a good instinctual sense after reading just a few reviews.
Things to watch for:
Did couples receive what they expected? Did they receive it in a timely manner? Did the photographer go above and beyond in making a couples’ experience great?
Step four: consider your budget
One thing to consider at this time is budget. It is important to set a realistic budget for every element of your wedding. You can look up averages in your area and that can be a good starting point, but ultimately you need to ask yourself what is most important to you? For example, you might be a musician or just a music connoisseur and find the music, DJ, or dance party to be the most important aspect of your wedding day to you. Or perhaps you are a foodie and so the meal becomes paramount - your budget will likely reflect this one way or another.
When it comes to budgeting for your photographer this becomes a challenge for a few reasons. The primary one being that photography budgets can range dramatically! You are not really just spending money on one aspect of your wedding day when it comes to your photographer. They are there to capture all of the moments, all of the details, and all of the emotions of a wedding day. It is through the photos that you will re-experience your dance party, recall the meal and decor, and relive the moments and memories from your wedding day. How do you put a price of this? (okay now this sounds like a Mastercard commercial).
This is why the individual budgets for a photographer can be so vastly different from each other- everyone puts a different dollar value on these memories. So many different aspects go into why a photographer is priced at what they are. Experience, knowledge, confidence, and creativity are just a few examples of reasons one photographer would be priced higher than another even when offering a similar or the same package. So, after you find “the right” photographer for you, perhaps develop a realistic budget based on this. At the end of the day, in some way or another, we all get what we pay for. Don’t just look at price and package when comparing photographers- consider all of the above and, I would contend, most importantly whether or not your personalities mesh. Which leads us to step five.
Step five: Meet with them and see if you Jive
This is, without question, the most important thing to consider when selecting a photographer: “Do you get along with them?” Do your personalities mesh?
On your wedding day you will spend a significant amount of time with your photographer. In some case, you might even see them more than your see your new spouse! So you want to be sure that you jive.
Your photographer’s presence is directly impacting your experiences on your wedding day. If your personality and your photographer’s do not mesh and you feel awkward around each other then you will feel this in your interactions on your wedding day and this will seep into how you remember those moments.
An experienced photographer will make you feel comfortable and at ease throughout the day while someone you don’t jive with or lacks experience will negatively affect your wedding day experience.
So, meet with your photographer and see if you jive. This could be in person, grabbing a coffee or beer, or, fairly commonly at this time, virtually. Either way, an important way to see if you are comfortable with them is by asking questions. Specific questions about your wedding day is important, but also general ones about them as well. A few examples of these kinds of questions would be “what do you see as your role on a wedding day?” or “why did you get into wedding photography”?
Things to consider:
Do they have experience? Are they confident? Are they knowledgeable (You could determine this during your meeting or through their site- Do it provide a lot of information?
Step six: Have an engagement session
Finally, if you are still uncertain about the photographer, consider doing an engagement session with them as a trial run. After all, an engagement session is a great idea anyway (check out my blog post here for why you should).
Interested in learning more about Joey Rudd?
Joey Rudd has been taking wedding and elopement photos in the Ottawa area professionally since 2011. Since then, he has been honoured to be recognized as one of Canada’s best wedding photographers by the Professional Wedding Photographers of Canada as well as the recipient of the platinum award for the most unique wedding photo for three years. He has a passion for weddings of all sizes and has been recognized as one of the go-to elopement photographers in the Ottawa area.
If you are looking for beautiful, authentic photographs that capture your emotions and memories from the most special moments in your life, drop me a line! Let's see how we can work together to capture these timeless memories for you.
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