How To Pick A Wedding Photographer

Picking the right wedding photographer is very important.  Years down the road you are going to start forgetting some of the moments of that special wedding day.  By hiring the right person you are going to preserve those special moments in time for eternity.  Even future generations of your decendants are going to be able to look at them to see what your life was like.  I bet you didn’t really think of it that way.  Did you?  Here are some tips to think about when making this important decision.

Try to meet the photographer in person before the wedding day.  If you are hiring a company that employs a bunch of different photographers you could be basing your decision on the person who is selling you the package instead of the person who is actually going to be doing the work.  Don’t make this mistake.  Talk with the actual photographer beforehand so that you can shop around more if something about him or her just doesn’t feel right.

Ask to see an entire wedding album from some previous job they have done.  Don’t just look at a collection of their best work.  Demand that you see an entire album so that you get a better feel of the whole project.  Even a below average photographer can get one good shot here and there.  Those are the ones that they are going to try to show you.  If you can, get them to show you more than one complete album.  That way you will get a really good sense of the types of things that they always do at every wedding.

Ask your photographer how they backup your photos. Ask them what happens if they get really sick right before the wedding.  Is there any contingency plan in place for such a situation?  What would they do?  You can usually get a sense of how caring a person is by seeing their reaction to this question.  They might have never had this happen to them before in their professional career.  It is a good idea to ask them about it so that they can think about it now just in case.

Always try to find reviews that have been published online about this particular photographer.  Try to sort the real reviews out from the ones that sound like a friend doing them a favor.  Sometimes the less than perfect reviews are more believable.  It is well worth doing your homework though.  You can avoid a disaster in advance.  If you can’t find any reviews of them online, then ask them for references of people that you can call.  Then be sure to actually make those phone calls.

A little effort up front on your part can save you a major embarrassment and disappointment on one of the most important days of your entire life.