Choosing your wedding photographer can be quite daunting, especially when you consider how many are out there—all with different styles and personalities—offering their services. You only get married once so you only have one shot to choose your perfect photographer and there aren’t any do-overs. Did you know that, typically, wedding photography is one of the biggest expenses for a wedding besides the venue and catering? This means people put a lot of trust in their wedding photographers before they even get to see the final product! That can be totally nerve wracking, but it doesn’t have to be as scary as it seems!

Whenever I speak with clients about their photography needs, I try to put myself in their shoes. I remember meeting with vendors when my husband and I were getting married and having all the same worries that you have now, and even though I ended up going with with a photographer whose work I knew and loved, I still remember getting anxious butterflies once I signed my contract. But, please trust me when I say that if you follow a few simple guidelines and always trust your intuition, you’ll be well set up to choose your wedding photographer and you’ll end up with exactly the right wedding professional to capture your big, beautiful day.

Which brings me to today’s blog post!

I wanted to give a photographer’s viewpoint, as well as advice and tips about choosing your wedding photographer and being sure you’ve made the best choice after all is said and done! Also, before we get going on the tips, I want you to know that I genuinely believe that I am NOT the photographer for everyone but that I am the perfect photographer for some couples!

Now, to the good stuff.

How do you go about choosing your wedding photographer?

1. Expect their photographs to move you!

   You are hiring an artist to tell your wedding day story and photographers curate their portfolios to showcase their photography style and their artistic eye. When you look through their photographs, how do you FEEL ? Can you envision yourself as the people in their photos? If you experience all the feels looking through another couple’s wedding photographs, it’s a very good sign that you’ll love your own photos even more!

2. Insist on looking through a complete wedding gallery.

   Any photographer can pick their top 50 images to showcase, but when you see a full gallery, it shows you ALL of their abilities—if they can shoot well in all kinds of light, how comfortable their subjects are with them, how creative they are near the end of a wedding day when they are extremely tired. Basically, you need to make sure that their work is consistently creative and professional throughout an entire day. Beware any photographer who tries to talk you out of seeing an entire gallery or who refuses it altogether. Major red flag!

3. Do ya’ll click? Pun intended!.

   Whoever you choose to be your wedding photographer should be someone you click with nearly instantly and feel VERY comfortable around. After all, you’ll be spending an entire day—the most important day of your life so far—with them, so make sure you’d be totally cool with them hanging out with you, the love of your life, and your family and friends for the majority of the day.

Choosing your wedding photographer based on those three things listed above—instead of focusing on how much they cost—will guarantee that you not only fall head over heels in love with your new spouse, but also head over heels in love with your wedding photographs!

P.S. If you’re planning a wedding in 2020 or 2021 Contact me today to chat more about your love story.