I spend a lot of my time on social media, just like most of you, scrolling through friends' posts on Facebook and liking cute photos on Instagram. However, I also use social media to keep up with current wedding trends, to find new clients, and to try to help brides who are desperately trying to navigate their way through Pinterest and plan their own dream wedding.
I do my best to stay active in wedding groups on Facebook, not to promote myself, but to lend a helping hand whenever possible. One of the most frequently asked questions is something along the lines of, "HELP! There are so many wonderful photographers in my area and I don't know how to chose the right one!" So, yes, I would love to say "ooh, ooh, pick me! pick me!" to every bride across the globe, but let's be honest for a second, that's simply not going to happen. So here are my three tips for picking a wedding photographer!
1. Before we move on, let's start by talking about money. This really should be the first step in looking at anything during your wedding planning process. You have a budget and you unfortunately have to stick to it. Of course we would all love these elaborate shindigs, but someone has to pay for it. If you can't afford a particular photographer (or really any vendor!), no matter how much you love their work, at the end of the day you simply can't hire them. I will always encourage you to evaluate what you're spending money on and make sure that it's allocated in a way you're happy with, but you only have so much. Just like any other business, we can't discount our packages just because you can't afford it, we have expenses too.
2. Of course it is important to make sure that you actually like the photographers work. Check out their website and instagram page. Are you absolutely in love with their photos? Something I always recommend is to think about looking at these photos 10 and 20 years from now. Does this photographer have a style that might look dated? Is there a chance that you'll look back on your wedding photos and think "Oh my gosh, that is SO 2019, I can't believe we thought that looked good.." You want your photos to be timeless. But I guess in the 80's they probably thought shoulder pads and big hair looked good so who knows!
3. So you had a list of photographers in your area, I'm sure the budget issue knocked some of them off, some of them you didn't like their style, but now you have it narrowed down to a handful and you're stuck! Now comes the most important factor - personality. The thing that you may not think about is the fact that you will be spending practically your entire wedding day with your photographer by your side. Think about that for a minute, you are going to be spending 8-12 hours on the most important day of your life with this person! You want to make sure that they are someone you can count on if something goes wrong (because something almost always does) and you want them to feel like a friend. Because by the end of your wedding day they will have probably seen you laugh, seen you cry, and possibly even cried along with you.