When you first start planning your wedding, you most likely have no idea what a strange and sometimes wonderful world (wedding planning) is ahead of you. I know I didn’t! I thought planning my wedding was going to be really simple…and that it wouldn’t be stressful at all. HA. I was wrong on both accounts…for me, planning my wedding was crazy stressful. After my journey as a bride and now after a couple of years as a wedding professional, I know it doesn’t HAVE to be stressful unless you let it! This is one of the reasons I decided to write this post. I feel like the only advice out there on how to choose your wedding photographer comes from magazines like The Knot, which well meaning as they are, is not written by photographers. When I flip through and read the lists of “questions to ask photographers” I always feel like those questions aren’t really the right ones to ask. In my opinion, there are two main reasons you should hire a photographer. The other things? Well, those are important too, but I strongly believe the following two things are the biggest reasons to choose a photographer!

I believe that you should hire photographers based on two things…and no, surprisingly one of those things is NOT budget. I used to think that was a reason people hired me (and I think its one of them for sure…just not the most important) but after being passed over by a few couples who ended up going with photographers who charge more than me, I realized that people are booking more and more for the RIGHT reasons. I strongly believe you should book a photographer who you: 1. LOVE their style. You can see yourself in their images, you love stalking their blog to check out their new work, and you are just in love with whatever their style or focus is. DON’T hire a photographer and then try to change them. If you are writing things like “We really love tons of candids” in an inquiry email when the photographer does NOT focus on those things, you are only setting yourself up to be disappointed. Photographers have their own styles and way of shooting that are kind of ingrained in who they are. It’s like going to a seafood restaurant and ordering a hamburger. Yes they CAN make burgers, but they really excel at SEAFOOD!

When John and I met with photographers, we met with photographer A. who had decent work, but there was something somewhat traditional about her style that we just weren’t quite 100 percent in love with. I remember specifically asking her if she could do our engagement session “like this other one”….HOLY COW BAD SIGN BATMAN. You never want to hire a photographer you have to ask to change…it’s not going to end well, I promise you. Our photographers were totally out of our budget…but we ended up choosing them because we LOVED everything about their style. We also really liked them as people, which leads me to my second point.

2. Make sure you LIKE the person before you hire them! Don’t hire someone you are iffy about…or someone who you think is weird, etc. Not everyone is going to like everyone…and that’s totally cool. But you don’t want to spend your whole wedding day (yes, you spend more time on your wedding day with your photog than your spouse!) with someone you just don’t really like or want to be around. Do you really want to look back on the wedding and remember how annoying your photographer was? I didn’t think so. We also met with photographer B, who gave incredibly short (and kind of rude) answers to everything we asked her. She really seemed like she didn’t want to be at the meeting at all. This made me feel like my business didn’t matter to her, and that she wouldn’t do a great job on our wedding day with such a negative attitude. Choosing someone you like, and choosing someone you trust is SO important to having a great wedding day experience, but also to getting great images! I obviously realize that when you are 80 years old and looking back at your pictures, you aren’t going to be thinking about your photographer and how much you liked him or her…but when you look at your pictures, you want to see beautiful images where you and your spouse look relaxed, happy, and in love. If you hire a professional photographer you have a great rapport with and that you really trust, you are going to end up with better images than if you don’t. Trust is so important to making my job easier…so if a potential client just doesn’t trust I will be able to create their vision or document their wedding day in the way that they want me to, I will often refer them out to another photographer I think will be a better fit.

Well, that’s my two cents on hiring photographers based on my own experiences as a bride and now a photographer. I genuinely believe that these are the top two things you should be considering when you’re deciding between a few similar photographers. Don’t base the decision solely on budget (like we ALMOST did) and then regret not choosing the photographer whose style you really loved down the road!