Planning a wedding is incredibly stressful and hectic and there are so many decisions to be made. We find that too many couples put off finding a photographer, letting it get lost to other decisions, and as a result are left scrambling at the last minute to find the first one that’s available and fits in their budget. We’ve put together this blog post to give you a few tools to not put yourself in that situation!

Choosing a wedding photographer is such an important decision. This is someone that is going to be with you for almost the entire wedding day. You need to make sure you find one that suits you. If you take the time to do that, your photographer won’t just be the awkward person pointing a camera at you – they will become your friend and an honorary member of the wedding party.

But how do you even go about finding a wedding photographer? And once you’ve found your options, how do you choose?

Step 1: Find your options

This sounds simpler than it is. Photographers are spread all over the place. Some will show up first on google, others don’t even have a website and depend on their Facebook and Instagram profiles. There are a myriad of websites (the Knot, WeddingWire, Thumbtack, Bark, etc.) that claim to aggregate listings, but all of them charge vendors significant sums. That means that none of them have all of the photographers. Many wedding photographers are leaving the Knot because their vendor pricing is increasing so rapidly. So with photographers so spread out, where do you start?

To start with a shameless plug, reach out to us! But in all seriousness – we would love to get to know you and what you’re planning. And maybe you’ll decide it’s a good fit. If nothing else, you’re already on our website, so just take a few minutes to send us a message on our contact page.

That said, our recommendation is to start with a Google search. Most reputable wedding photographers have a website and will at least show up on Google somewhere. That doesn’t mean, however, that they’ll show up early on Google. The ones that show up first are the ones that are the best at driving traffic to their website, not necessarily the best photographers. We’d recommend looking through search results at least onto page 4 or 5 of Google, maybe further depending on how large of a market you live in. Each photographer’s website should at least have a portfolio page that will showcase some of their best work. That will give you an idea of their style and whether you like it. If you don’t, leave it and move on.

You can also leverage Facebook and Instagram, although these are a bit hit and miss. Find your local hashtags (like #njweddingphotographer) and look for images you like. When you find a photographer whose style you like, they should have a link to their website on their instagram. If not, you can always send them a message. This is particularly useful to find the photographers who have decided to forego web hosting fees and not have a website, but it can be hard to track them down.

Finally, don’t forget to reach out to friends and family to ask about the photographers they’ve worked with. This may be limited, especially if no one in your network has gotten married recently. But if they have, find out who their photographer was, ask to see some pictures, and ask them how they were to work with. If nothing else, that may give you an idea of what photographer not to hire.

Step 2: Reach out to them

Too many people wait to contact a photographer until they’re ready to book. We think it’s driven by the world of Amazon shopping – we’re used to being able to do everything online and never have to interact directly with a person. While it may be outside of how we’re used to shopping these days, trying to just learn everything from their website is not a good way to approach choosing a photographer. 

We strongly recommend that you schedule a phone call or, even better, a video chat as soon as you can with a potential photographer. Remember that this is someone you are potentially going to be spending your whole wedding day with, so you want to make sure that it’s someone you will likely get along with. If your photographer is someone you could see yourself being friends with, you’ll probably get the kind of photos you want because they’ll match your personality. You’ll also be much more comfortable around them. As you talk to them, you’ll also be able to gauge how professional they are and what they care about in their business.

Step 3: Make sure you know what you’re getting

We try to be as transparent as possible with our packages, but it’s still possible to have misunderstandings just from what’s written on the webpage. And many photographers aren’t clear about what their packages include on their website (many don’t even list their prices). Here are some questions you should ask to make sure you know what you’re getting:

• How many photographers will the package include? Having a second photographer doesn’t just double the number of pictures, it increases the number of moments that the photographers can capture. One photographer can only be pointing their camera in one direction at a time.
• Are all of the digital images included as part of the package? This deserves a couple pieces of explanation. First, no photographer is going to deliver every image they take on your wedding day. For a full wedding day, there may be 5,000-10,000 raw images. Instead, they’re going to edit the best of them and send them to you (the norm is usually 75-100 images per hour of photographer, but that varies greatly by wedding). However, some photographers will only include the first X number of photos in the package and then make you pay extra on the back-end if you want any more. We don’t like that pricing strategy – we hope that you keep and cherish all of your photos – but it’s something you should ask any photographer about.
• Are there any prints or albums included in the package? Some photographers include these, some charge an extra fee for them, some don’t do them at all.
• What will the print release to the photos include? This one is critical. If you’re not familiar with U.S. copyright law for photographers, any time that a photographer takes a photo for a client, the photographer owns the copyright. In fact, legally, just because you paid the photographer to take the photos doesn’t give you any legal right to use them even for personal use. To give you those rights, the photographer should give you a print release to the photos (this is often included in the contract you sign when you book). Pretty much every print release will give you the permission to use the files digitally (share them on social media, view them for personal use digitally), but from there the terms vary. Some photographers will only give you a print release to print through them. Some will require credit to be given on social media photos. You want to make sure that you know exactly what the print release says upfront so you don’t run into any surprises later on. As a side note, we try to make our print release as open as possible. Basically, you can do anything with your photos as long as you’re not making money off of it. We don’t like the idea of forcing you to print your photos through us – you should get to choose what you do with them.

Step 4: Ask to see full galleries

Most photographers don’t post every photo they deliver to their couples on their website. Given that wedding galleries often include 700-1,000 photos, this is for logistical reasons as much as anything. Rather, they’re going to choose the best photos from each wedding and post them.

To give you the best sense possible about what you’re going to get from a photographer, you should ask to see a couple of full wedding galleries. Every wedding, and thus every wedding gallery, is unique, but that will at least give you an idea of what their final product is like.

As you look through the gallery, pay attention to how consistent the images are. There are parts of a wedding that are harder to photograph than others. If the portraits look good but the photos of the first dance at the reception look awful, that’s a red flag and you may want to move on to someone else.

Step 5: Check the reviews

This could really happen at just about any point in the process after step 1. The important thing is that it happens at some point. Doing this is harder than it seems like it should be, though. There really isn’t a good central repository for reviews out there. You’ll find the highest portion of them spread across Google Maps, Facebook, and the Knot. The proportion of reviews a photographer has on each site is simply a reflection of how they find most of their customers. And remember that many good photographers aren’t using the Knot anymore, so don’t worry if you don’t see them on there. Just check for reviews on Google and Facebook.

Step 6: Check the prices

Like step 5, this could happen at most points in the chain, but because some photographers don’t put their prices on their webpage, it will need to move around a bit in the process. We have a great blog post about what you should expect to pay for a wedding photographer. We recommend reading it here.

Step 7: Pick one and book!

Once you’ve reached this point, if you’ve done a lot of research, you probably have at least one photographer that seems like a really good option. Hopefully it even feels like a perfect fit! So hurry and book! Remember that most couples book their photographer right after they book a venue, so their calendars tend to fill up fast. Don’t procrastinate or you might lose your day to another couple.

Conclusion

Those are our tips on choosing a wedding photographer. Comment below to let us know what you think and ask any questions you have after reading this. Good luck in your quest!