Get To Know Your Photographer Before You Book
by Sarah F. Wimberley
Booking vendors for your wedding is already hectic enough -- but booking your photographer can be a true challenge. Ensuring that you find a photographer whose vision of your wedding matches your own can be time consuming and difficult.
Before you even start calling and emailing, it helps to know what you are looking for ideally in terms of hours of coverage, albums, prints, and so forth. Make sure the photographer can provide what you're looking for before even talking about costs. Be sure to write it all down -- get names of people and pricing options from the photographers that you talk to. Ask for brochures and promotional materials to be e-mailed or sent to you so you have a record of all your options on paper. I would recommend this especially when your event is months away and you are searching around for your options. You don't want to call later and have the prices jump up on you!
A great way to get to know your potential photographer is to see what types other photography they are doing currently and have done in the past. Doing so can give you an interesting look into their personal work and their passions outside of wedding and portrait photography. Photographers who have a well-rounded portfolio can have more interesting and creative ideas when it comes to locations of portrait sessions.
Second, book an engagement session or bridal session as a trial run with your potential wedding photographer. This will allow everyone to get to know each other and will provide you with a better knowledge of the inner workings of that particular photographer. Also, you'll get to see how they would photograph you and experience it first hand before making the commitment of booking multiple hours on your wedding day. If a photographer would deny you a session without making the commitment first, I would be wary of continuing a relationship with them.
Last but not least, sign a contract! This finalizes the arrangement and guarantees your photography services for an event. If a potential photographer does not offer to send you one to confirm everything -- ask them for one. When the contract arrives, confirm that everything is spelled out, including your costs and payment options.
Congratulations to all of WedPlan's brides and grooms. And good luck in your search for the perfect photographer for your wedding day!
- Sarah F. Wimberley is with in , , and has been a WedPlan Member since .
