Wedding photos will be one of your most treasured memories from your wedding day. In this post I will go over details on how to choose photographer that will suit you and your vision of your big day. And also what prep work you need to do to make sure all the photos you want- are captured.
My Top 5 tips!
Tip No 1
Since you have already started planning your wedding- what is your vision? Are you going for any particular theme (royal, classic, rustic, boho, modern, country, super hero, film etc.)? I am 110% sure you have already started your Dream Wedding Pinterest Board- what kind of photos have you pinned there? What is it that you like about them- is it the lighting, the set up, the intimacy, the freedom?
I know there are a lot of questions in the above paragraph, but it is important to know what you want. You won’t know at this stage this 100%, but you’ll need a good idea which direction you are going. Because what you want to achieve with your wedding photos- will determine what kind of photographer you want to book. Once you will start (or if you already have) you would have noticed that each photographer have certain style. You want to book someone who is matching your wedding vision.
Tip No 2
Every photographer will have their Wedding Packages- their price will depend mostly on what time frame you want them covering. Do you want them just for the ceremony & official photos and some from the wedding breakfast? Or would you like the full day from you & your bridesmaids getting ready till after the first dance? The longer they are with you, more they will charge. Maybe you would like a second photographer to make sure the candid photos of the guests are being captured while you are posing with your new husband? The more pictures, more editing time as well.
We went for full day package with 2 photographers – and that is what I would recommend to every bride. They arrived just after I started getting ready (about 9:30ish) and left after the first dance (9ish – we got delayed with the first dance). We received about 860 photos- which was lot more than I expected. Obviously- you need to take your budget into account. Make sure you don’t go astray from your budget too far.
Tip No 3
Ask around for photographers. You could have a friend that got married not so long ago. Maybe your venue has a list of recommended suppliers. Ask your friends if anyone knows someone good- as word of mouth is the best advertisement. Plus- if someone you know recommends you- you know it will be good and you can see their work much more closely. But there is absolutely no harm in going on the good old trusted Google and search for photographers. If you are planning to attend wedding fairs – there will be a selection of some there as well.
Tip No 4
As I said before- every photographer will have a Wedding package that will include certain things, here are the things to look out for/ ask about:
- will you have copy right free images on a memory stick?
- how many photos will you roughly get?
- does the cost include photo editing and to what extent?
- what time do you plan to arrive & leave on the day?
- how long will it take for us to get the wedding photos?
- does your price include pre-wedding shoot?
- does it include a photo album?
- can we see examples of your work?
- how do you usually like to run the day?
- do you need a list from us what photos we would like to take?
Even though our photographer offers wedding albums, we didn’t go for that as the price was a bit too high. Plus at the time you receive all the wedding photos- you will get very overwhelmed and it will be hard to chose which ones you would like in the album. It’s been about 6 months since we’ve had our photos back and I think we have a good selection now of the photos we would like in our wedding album.
Originally we didn’t book the pre-wedding shoot, but our photographer double booked us and had to make some changed, so to make up for that- he threw in the photoshoot for free. Honestly- this was one of the most fun parts of the whole wedding process. We spoke to Jack (our photographer) about what we like and all that sort of stuff and we decided to have the shoot at our local ice rink. This was mental- as we had the place to ourselves, the staff at Planet Ice was really helpful and the photos are amazing.
Tip No 5
Out of all of your wedding suppliers- photographers will be with you the longest (apart from the venue/ hosts). When you book them, check if they expect to have meals provided. We did provide our photographers same 3 course meal we had plus a tap behind the bar for soft drinks, coffees and teas for them. Which we thought was a very nice touch as well as showing that we appreciate their hard work.
There are several articles on MCL about Weddings, so go check them out, click here.
One that will go hand-in-hand with this one will be What to look for in Wedding suppliers – click here.
I really do hope this helps you with getting your wedding photos organised. What I always find useful is creating mood boards (I’m a visual person). So don’t be shy of not just doing one on Pinterest, but put those pictures in a Powerpoint or Word or whichever program you prefer to work with. Or if you have gone a bit Bridal magazine crazy- cut the pictures out and stick them on a board. It will all help.
Here is a moodboard with photos and shoot list what we used (all photos are from Pinterest, not my own).
Any questions or suggestions – please leave a comment.
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