What Questions Should I Ask My Wedding Photographer?
By Caitlin Hoare
Choosing the right wedding photographer is crucial to capturing the essence of your special day. From photography style to availability, there are important questions to ask to ensure you find the perfect match.
Your wedding photographer is one of the most important aspects of your wedding day. Because let’s be honest, once the day has passed and you settle into married life the only things you’ll have left to remember your special day are your partner (of course!), the ring on your finger and your wedding photo gallery. But who should you choose? There are a lot of options out there! So if you’ve started researching you’re probably wondering, ‘what questions should I ask my wedding photographer’? We’ve come up with a list of questions that will help you understand your prospective wedding photographer’s services a little better, open up the conversation to your wants and needs and hopefully instil some confidence that you’ve found the right person to document and capture your day in a beautiful, authentic way.
In a nutshell it’s your wedding photographer’s job to tell your story through beautiful images that capture not only the details, but the atmosphere, and most importantly the connection you have with one another, and your loved ones. Everyone says how their day goes by in a flash, so your wedding photographer is the one tasked with documenting your day and cementing your memories with the utmost sensitivity and style.
Your heirloom photo gallery will be one you will want to reflect on for years to come, and possibly pass down to generations too, so you need to make sure you choose the right person. It’s at this point that we would say please don’t book the cheapest option available, simply because it’s a bargain. It’s probably a bargain for a reason! Book the best photographer you can afford; you won’t regret it.
How to choose your wedding photographer
But how do you know who’s right for you? Well, first you need to check out their style, there are so many photography styles out there and only you know what you really love. From ethereal fine art to bright street style to fashion editorial, and everything else in between!
You also need to make sure you click with the person. Aside from your partner, they are the person you are going to be spending most of your time with on the wedding day, so you need to make sure you get on! Once you’ve narrowed down a selection, we would always recommend talking to them, either via Zoom or even better, meet up in person. They should make you feel at ease in their company, and you should hopefully have a similar wedding photography vibe / aesthetic in mind. If you click and you feel confident in their services, you might be ready to book them and pay the deposit. But before you do, go ahead and ask your wedding photographer these quick questions. From the obvious to the niche, we’ve covered them all…
Questions to ask your wedding photographer
- Tell me about yourself…
- How would you describe your photography style?
- Are you available to shoot my wedding?
- Will you be shooting my wedding, or do you have an associate and / or a second shooter?
- Are you shooting any other weddings around the same time as mine?
- How many weddings do you shoot a year?
- Can I see some full coverage wedding galleries please?
- What’s included in your package?
- Have you shot at our venue / worked with any of our suppliers before?
- What time will you arrive on the day and what time will you depart?
- Can I customise the package? Do you have any extras I might be interested in?
- Will we get an engagement / pre-wedding shoot included?
- What do you need from us before the wedding?
- Do you document the night before and / or the morning after?
- What do you usually wear on a wedding day?
- Do we need to provide you / your team with food?
- If needed, would you offer a retouching / editing service?
- Is travel and accommodation included in your fee?
- Do you shoot on film too or just digital?
- Are we able to order prints or design a wedding album through you?
- How long after the wedding will you deliver our wedding gallery?
- Can we see a ‘sneak peek’ small gallery before then?
- How will the images be delivered?
- Will we have a certain amount of time to access / download them?
- If we wanted to book you, when do we have to pay a deposit? How much is it?
- What are the payment terms?
- Do you have insurance?
- If you were unable to shoot my wedding for whatever reason, what would happen?
- Can we send you a list of shots we want? Or a Pinterest board?
- Will you share our images online for marketing purposes?