Congratulations on your engagement! You are probably very excited telling friends and family, but do not get too relaxed, you have a lot of planning to do for your special day. One of those things is that you will need to hire a professional wedding photographer.
Hiring a photographer is probably one of the first things you will need to do, this is because some of the best professional wedding photographers book their shooting schedule up to two years in advance. So get searching for your photographer right after you have booked your venue. This will allow you to provide a date and location for them when checking availability.
Seek recommendations from family, friends and your venue.
Wedding photographers who are good at what they do, usually have a track record of success with a great reputation amongst many. This means good photography is not too difficult to track down. Start out by asking for photographer recommendations from family and friends who may have hosted their own wedding or been to one recently. Your friends and family will always have your best interests at heart, so they are more than likely going to recommend a truly fantastic photographer. If nobody close to you doesn’t know of a photographer not all hope is lost. Speak to your caterer or even the venue you plan to wed at. All these places may know someone perfect to capture your big day.
It’s time to pay them a visit.
If you are fortunate to have a list of recommended photographers, it is time to break the list down even further by eliminating particular photographers from your list. First, give them all a call, have a chat about what you require, but do not commit to anything just yet. Use the call to find out how friendly and accommodating they are.
Once you have eliminated a few more from your list, it is time to pay them a visit. Is their office or property nice? Is it well kept and modern? What is your overall impression? All these little things create the bigger picture (no pun intended) as to what you could expect when working with them.
Get judging that portfolio!
When sitting down with a potential photographer, have they offered you a wide variety of wedding albums for you to look over? Have they worked at the venue that you are planning on having your wedding? What are their working hours, do they suit your needs? These are just a few questions you may need to ask yourself before committing to hire a photographer, but most of all, do you love their style?
You may also want videography to be done at your wedding, if you do, this is the chance to speak to your photographer to ask if it is possible. Do they have any video samples to show you? Do they edit their own videos before handing them over to you? How much involvement do you have? Although you may not necessarily want to use the same company for your wedding video, but nevertheless choosing the same company to do both will certainly offer you peace of mind that everything is being handled together.
Getting the photographer lined up can be a tough mix of things to accomplish, especially if you do not know one. There are so many out there to choose from, narrowing them down is an all day event.
Thank you so much for sharing. I loved beautiful photos and the descriptions of how its did everything. We’ll gonna follow these steps on hiring our photographer i’m getting married next year.