Picture this; you just got engaged to the love of your life. You’ve found your dream wedding venue and booked your dream planner. Now you’re ready to start looking for a wedding photographer. You fall head over heels for a wedding photographer whose images are magazine worthy. They have outstanding recommendations and reviews. You think they’ll be the most incredible person to hang out with on your wedding day.
So what now? Now is the perfect time to schedule a call with that wedding photographer and get the lowdown on all the necessary info before booking them.
But where do you start? Lucky for you, I put together a list of my top 9 questions that you should ask your wedding photographer before you sign that contract.
1. Have you worked at my venue before?
This is a great question to ask but also ask yourself whether it’s important to you. Sometimes shooting at the same venue repeatedly can leave a photographer feeling a bit… well, uninspired. So shooting at a new location isn’t always necessarily a bad thing. Whenever I work at a venue that I’ve never worked at before, I always preview the venue ahead of time. Doing a walk-through and connecting with the planner and venue coordinator. I have a thorough conversation with my couples to figure out what it is they like and don’t like about their venue location. This way I can ensure that I am highlighting aspects of the venue they love. Whether I’ve shot at the venue 20 times or not at all, always being prepared and organized is a MUST for a wedding photographer.
2. How many hours of coverage for a wedding day do I need?
This is a difficult question because, honestly, no two weddings are alike. So for the sake of this question, we will just use a general timeline.
I typically suggest no less than nine hours of coverage for a couple with a wedding of anywhere from 80 to 200 guests and is looking for coverage starting with getting ready photos and capturing all of the important parts of the reception, not including the exit. Some things that could play a factor into whether or not you need more or less time would be traveling time between locations. If you’re getting ready location, ceremony, and/or reception venues are at different spots, you’ll need to allow time in your timeline to get from point A to point B.
How rushed do you want to feel on your day? If you’re not wanting to feel rushed, then plan to have your photographer there for a bit of extra time ahead of the ceremony. That way, any portraits you do before the ceremony aren’t rushed.
3. Do we need an engagement session?
Yes! Consider your engagement session your trial run for the wedding day. This is a fantastic opportunity to get to know your photographer more and get comfortable in front of their camera. I love to look at engagement sessions as an opportunity to work through all of my posing tips and tricks with my couples so that on their wedding day when we only have 10 minutes of Portrait time, we can bust everything out quickly and get you back to the party with your friends and family. Not only will your engagement session help you feel more comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera, but you’ll end up with a beautifully crafted engagement gallery made to fit both of your personalities and beautiful images to share for years to come.
4. Will all of your images be edited?
While you may feel this question is pretty obvious, it’s something to clarify. Some photographers will only edit the images that make it into your printed album. Other photographers, like myself, will edit every single image you receive on your online gallery.
5. Who will be shooting my wedding?
If you love a photographer’s work and you’ve made a strong connection with them, it’s important to know if they are going to be the ones showing up and photographing your wedding or if they’re going to be hiring an associate shooter to come and shoot for them.
6. How many years have you been shooting weddings?
This question might be one of the most important questions you can ask. With time comes experience! I’ve been a Wedding Photographer for over a decade. Being a wedding photographer is about so much more than just clicking a button on a camera, and a lot of that knowledge comes with time and hands-on experience.
7. Will you help with posing?
For many of my couples, this is a huge question and fear. My answer is always yes! I would never set my couple up, walk away and tell them, “OK, now just do your thing.” I can only imagine the questions that would follow “ how do we do our thing? What is our thing? What are we doing?“ and my favorite, “What do I do with my hands?”.
As a photographer, it’s our job to guide you through every aspect of posing, whether it’s a carefully crafted portrait that will hang on your grandparents and parents’ walls for years. Or a beautifully executed candid photo. You want a photographer who will guide you every step of the way.
8. How long will it take for our gallery to be ready?
Art takes time and should never be rushed. But having a clear expectation of when you can receive your gallery is never a bad thing to know. I love to get a preview gallery out to my couples a few days after their wedding with 30+ images, with the full gallery following about five weeks after the wedding day.
Lastly, this was my favorite question that I was asked by a couple during a wedding consultation.
9. What is your favorite part of a wedding day?
The first time I got asked this question, I honestly had to stop and think about it for a moment. Every aspect of the wedding day is my favorite because it holds its special place on that day. But I have grown fond of speeches during the reception. Although it is not the most exciting and poetically beautiful thing to photograph, I love that it gives me even more of an insight into the couple from their close friends and family. I gush over the stories close friends tell about crazy times, and yes, I usually cry when the couple’s parents give a toast.
If you would like to chat more about wedding photography, feel free to reach out! I’d love to answer all of your questions.
