5 Things to Look for When Hiring a Wedding Photographer

Finding the right photographer for your wedding day is SO important. There are sooooooooooooooooooo many photographers out there, it can feel overwhelming and most people don’t even know where to begin. Everyone does things SO differently. It’s a huge job, and it is high risk, it leaves very little room for error. So after spending the last 15 years photographing weddings, I’ve put together a helpful list to help you as you start to look into hiring a photographer for your wedding! Here are 5 things to look for when hiring a wedding photographer:

1) A personality that you vibe with, a wedding photographer is one of the people that you actually spend the MOST time with on your wedding day. Choose someone who makes you feel good/confident/who makes you laugh… they are often right next to you during a lot of highly emotional and highly stressful moments of the day. Someone that you TRUST is essential. Trust is huge in the world of artists. You can never predict how every image is going to turn out, because every moment is unique to your day. So trusting the process, trusting your photographer, is everything. Knowing that they are the professional and not having to micromanage them is huge.

2) A style of work that speaks to you. Don’t just look at one photo and pick your photographer. Check out their entire body of work. Look at whole weddings. Ask them to see a gallery of a full wedding day. Check out what the family photos look like, what the photos look like during different times of day in different lighting. Indoor vs. outdoor. Flash vs. no flash. Can you see the sky in their photos? Do they shoot mostly up close images or can they do beautiful landscapes too? Are they good at candids AND posed photos? Do you like their posing? Do you think people look flattering in their photos? Can they capture sunset colors? No two photographers do the same thing. Make sure you LOVE what they do. You don’t hire a professional and then ask them to do it a different way. You hire one based on the way that they already do it.

3) Experience. While there are an ENDLESS supply of new photographers in the world just WAITING for the moment that someone trusts them enough to photograph their first wedding, is that really what you want to do with one of the biggest days of your life? Working with a professional in the industry will provide you with the best service. Someone who knows what to do when things go wrong on a wedding day, someone who has seen it all an knows how to handle problems that arise, someone who can work in EVERY kind of light, not just outdoors. Someone with the proper gear, backup gear, insurance, etc. Someone who can manage a group of people and the chaos of wedding parties and big family photos. Someone who works with the same vendors frequently is even more helpful, they already have working relationships with these people and they know how to work together.

4) A price point that works in your budget. As much as we hate to admit it, price plays a HUGE ROLE in this decision. While all photographers charge different rates, and we so don’t want the reason we don’t get booked to be because of price, it’s just a fact: not everyone will be able to afford their dream photographer. But also, as you begin your search, just know that photography is NOT cheap. It’s the ONLY vendor that provides you with something tangible that you get to keep the rest of your life. They are freezing your memories forever, for you to always look back on. Find a photographer who you think is worth every penny! In my opinion, I’d rather splurge on the things that are the MOST important to me, so think about that! What is the most important thing to you?To give you a more updated price point to understand (since Google often doesn’t update that question for years at a time), amateur photographers are the ones charging $1000-$3000 for a wedding. $4000+ is a very regular starting rate for seasoned professionals. (I’m speaking specifically in my market in coastal North Carolina). If you fell in love with a photographer and you can’t make it work with their price point – ask if they have any smaller package options like an hourly rate, and see if you could get coverage for a smaller portion of your day! Sometimes I’ve worked 3-4 hour wedding days capturing all the BIGGEST moments for a couple who wasn’t able to pay for my regular packages!

5) Turnaround time – I keep realizing that a lot of couples hire a photographer and have ABSOLUTELY no idea when they are supposed to expect to get their photos back. Some photographers (and definitely videographers – no shade, video takes a LOT more time to edit) take an entire year to edit and get you the gallery. Are you willing to wait that long? I work as a full time wedding photographer and my turnaround is 3 weeks. Which for some reason is unheard of in this industry. But I know first hand how doable that is. Make sure you know that information before you book, so you know what to expect. Another side note to this category: actually read your contract. Will you receive a print release from your photographer which allows you the rights to print your photos anytime, forever? Or will you not retain any printing rights, and be forced to order prints through the photographer ONLY? These prints are usually marked WAY up in price, and can be extra thousands of dollars unexpectedly after a wedding.