"How do I pick a Wedding Photography?" This is a question I've seen being asked more and more across social media and I understand why. The wedding industry and social media is saturated with thousands of stunning images of couples tying the knot and their big day.
All it takes is one google search and you might start feeling surrounded by wedding photographers and god forbid you ask for a recommendation in a Facebook wedding group because you will be at a high risk of being bombarded with links.
{Don't get me wrong, If I see your post I will be congratulating you and responding with my Instagram link and packages. - I love what I do, Why wouldn't I want to Photograph your wedding?}
The Choices are overwhelming, BUT I hope I can make the processes of finding the right photographer a little easier. As a Wedding Photographer, here is what I recommend.
Set Your Budget
I Know this is an obvious one, but that doesn't make it any less important. This will narrow your search field down significantly and it's relevant at every part of this process. This step can also save you the heart ache of finding the photographer you want but can't afford.
It's also worth taking note of the day of the week you are intending to get married on, as some photographers prices may be day dependent.
Wedding photography prices can vary for many reasons but one of the simplest ways of understanding it is that your not just hiring someone for one day, your hiring them for a minimum of two to four weeks to capture and edit your beautiful photos. You'll be paying them a minimum of a months salary plus business expenses for a full day wedding package.
You'll find that many in the wedding industry have been trying to put off upping their price lately and like myself will are currently underpriced, so keep an eye on social media for any price changing updates.
Coverage
This is a tricky one and is definitely a decision to make with your partner.
What details of your wedding do you want to remember?
Start with the minimum and work your way up depending on your set budget. For example the ceremony, depending on the service is usually around forty-five minutes to an hour and a half. Bride and groom photos roughly thirty minutes to an hour, same for family photos.
The great thing about planning your wedding is that it's YOURS. You don't have to be traditional
Basically, what you want to do is put a rough schedule together. Your venues can often help with this. i.e., service time, time you have to get ready; dinner time, etc. Plan accordingly. If you want both bridal prep and your first dance covered you're likely looking at eight to ten hours of photography.
style
Picking the style you would like is incredibly important. If you hire a photographer whose style doesn't match your vision or what you like, you're not going to be happy with the final gallery and both yours and the photographers heart will be broken.
While Pinterest is both my best friend and worst enemy it's absolutely fantastic for inspiration and research, I fully recommend it but anything visual will do. What you want to be doing is making a collection of images that you LOVE, it can be a folder, document, a scrapbook anything that allows you to be organized and clearly see the images. Hopefully this should help you narrow down what your looking for and enable you to commutate clearly to photographers. Only contact someone if you like their style.
Click
This is where things shift from planning to feeling. I know that sounds daft but when you get to this stage you'll understand completely.
Once you've expressed your interest in booking your photographer, I recommend always booking a consultation. This not only saves times but it allows trust to develop and to see if you click.
It's likely that the photographer you choose will be by your side for most of the day, this will also be the person posing you and your partner and that can mean anything from having you kiss in the sunset, looking intimately into each others eyes, staring off into the distance to smiling straight at the camera like your at a year 11 leavers ball. Feeling comfortable with the photographer will have a big impact on how the photos turn out. It's a rare skill to be able to feel awkward and not be photographed that way.
Plus if you're going to be spending your wedding day with this person, you want to make sure you get on with them, at the very least you need to trust them and that works both ways. Photographers are people too and it's not uncommon for us to recommend that a couple try a different photographer based on the fact that they don't feel like they can give you what you want.
I hope this helps to give you an idea on how to approach the question - How to choose my wedding photographer?
If you are interested in having myself as your wedding photographer please emails the details over - booking@beadieproductions.com
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