Finding your ideal wedding photographer can be quite a daunting prospect, it seems like a very important decision, and rightly so! After your wedding is over, you’re left with the rings, each other, and the memories! You want to make sure that the memories that are captured are going to last a lifetime and you’ve got all of the important people and moments included.
One thing I have noticed about the industry lately is that it is divided between those who are doing it as a passion and those who are in it for purely the money.
Neither is set in stone as a good or bad thing but it brings me on to my first tip: how much should you spend on wedding photography?
How Much You Should Spend On Wedding Photography
This is a tricky subject to cover as there are so many differences in prices and of course budgets. I guess one of the things to keep in mind is that like with anything of quality in life you have to pay a premium to get a good product. There are also however some very talented people within a lower price bracket that are doing this as a side hustle or in the infancy of their business.
I won’t discuss specific figures, but my rule of thumb is to set yourself a budget you can afford and book someone on the top end of that budget. If the most you can afford is £500 for a photographer then find one that charges £500. (It isn’t that simple, my other tips will come into play as well)
Also, give your photography budget a higher percentage of the overall wedding budget. It is more important than the chair covers and favours!
I won’t give too much of my opinion away on pricing here as I feel that there are too many variants but I will say that some of the best in the business, not only at taking photos but in the way they connect with their clients, what they bring to the wedding day in terms of personality, the whole process of becoming a part of your life from when you’ve enquired till long beyond the wedding day, the care, dedication, passion, and heart that they put into their business and each and every wedding, those people are the ones that charge the most money. Some of them are in the luxury wedding market and are priced a lot higher than the average.
The point I am trying to enforce here is that however much you think you can afford for wedding photography, pay the top end of it and find someone who cares about your wedding as much as you do.
How To View A Portfolio
I guess most of you are thinking the obvious; with your eyes duh! Let me break this down a bit further for you and give you the best of my experience and advise here.
A wedding photography portfolio is not just a bunch of photos. It is a whole digital identity for that photographer. Do they have a website, as well as Instagram or another social media platform you can find them on? Social proof is a huge part of a portfolio these days. Are they active on social media? Are they posting about different weddings on a regular basis? This shows you that they are indeed established within the wedding industry.
On their website, how is it laid out? Is their work easy to find? Does it look consistent in style? (So similar colours and tones rather than one lot of bright and airy photos with not much colour, then a bunch that look like they’ve been puked on by Crayola and look super dark and moody)
Does the website look like the Instagram profile? Similar work? Also, read the copy on their website. You’re not buying someone’s photos, you are buying them as a person as well. No one wants to hire someone to spend a lot of time on their wedding day if they’re not going to gel and get along! Website copy should showcase a photographer’s personality, and tell you a bit about who they are, and what do they bring to the table for you other than knowing how to take epic photos? This information should be easy to find, and nicely presented and they should have taken the time and care to build a nice-looking website. Why? Because if they took the time to sell themselves to you as well as their photos then they are more likely to care about doing a good job! Behind-the-scenes content, blogs and a visible price page are also a bonus.
Ultimately like with pricing there are no wrong or right ways, I just suggest that if you like someone’s work you take a look at them as a person as well to see if you feel that you might connect with them.
Speak To Them
Would you jump into a relationship with a stranger? You’re more than likely going to want to date them first and get to know them. Not all the information you need is on their dating profile. The same applies to a photographer. Yes they should make it really easy to know a lot about them with not too many clicks once you’re on their website. If you’ve seen the work, read the copy, seen the price and decided to get in touch with them, then have a chat on the phone or a zoom meeting with them! It gives you a chance to ask some questions without the really boring back and forth of email conversations (that is so last century).
When someone enquires with me I love having a chat on the phone and finding out about them as people, a back story to their engagement, the wedding plans, the name of their pets and kids, and lots of other cool stuff. It helps build rapport. That is, in my opinion, the most important part of my business. My relationship with clients. And in your search for a photographer, I think you should make it a big tick box in your list of priotities as well. Think about it, you are going to spend the majority of your wedding day with this person.
Other suppliers, you get a glimpse off, an hour or two with the make-up people, an hour or so with the catering people but your photographer is there for the whole lot. It’s important to establish a rapport, know that they’ll answer your text messages and questions, and know that they are invested in your wedding emotionally when the big day arrives because your memories matter.
Also you want to know that they’ll get on with your family and friends on the day.
Don’t be mistaken, I’m not saying you need a full life history of this person, it is easy enough to know you click with someone quite soon into a conversation. If you’re digging their portfolio and you’ve clicked on the call, get that contract signed!
Reviews and Kind Words
We’ve all seen the adverts about a certain product doing as it says on the tin. The same goes for wedding photographers. I believe trust is at an all-time low right now, with a few bankrupt elephants in the room, companies hiring third-party photographers, and a few other spooky wedding stories that would make your wedding cake curdle.
Let me let you in on what you should ideally be looking for. Once you’ve established your photographer has a certain way of working and doing things, based on what they’ve written on their website, compare that to the reviews. For example, they claim to be candid, unposed, non-intrusive. Are their reviews reflecting the same? The most common sentence used by my clients when leaving me a review is how I delivered photos that they didn’t notice me taking of them and captured memories they didn’t imagine would even be in the gallery. Guess what, I claim to do exactly this. Another one of my bold claims is that I am the life of the party. Most of my reviews touch on the fact that I got on really well with their guests and family and was a right laugh on the day.
I’m not saying that being a right laugh is a prerequisite of being a good wedding photographer, I am just merely pointing out that if they claim to say or do something then check the reviews that match up to that claim. Also, try and see that the promised delivery timeline of their galleries is spoken about in the reviews. If they claim to turn it around within four weeks are you seeing various people complaining that it took double the time?
Another small tip is to check multiple sources. Not just kind words on their website, check google or Facebook. I say that with an offer of a pinch of salt you should take it with as I know a lot of us don’t tend to have our reviews pages visible too often unless it’s on our website but you get the idea. Nothing is a better endorsement than word of mouth from a happy customer.
I have many more tips and tricks of the trade, but I fear that this blog might be edging on the side of war and peace-type literature. Find me on Instagram, search for my name with the word photo and you’ll see me on there. Don’t be shy to send me a DM and ask me for advise.