How to be Confident in Hiring Your Wedding Photographer | Irwin, PA

It’s officially ENGAGEMENT season which means people are getting engaged (duh)!
A lot of couples jump straight into wedding planning when they get engaged around this time of year. Whether that means they’re planning a wedding for 2023 or 2024 (or further out), picking their date, booking their venue, and then hiring their photographer are typically the first items on the agenda.

I’m a part of of several large Facebook groups specifically for brides & grooms, I feel like no matter what season it is, people are sharing it all. There are couples who get on after their weddings & post high-praise for their venue or vendor team (which is always so exciting to see). But then there are couples who get on after their weddings & post the harshest criticisms toward their venue or vendor team, expressing extreme disappointment in the vendors who they thought were going to take care of them.

Of course, since I’m a wedding photographer, the hardest posts for me to read are of brides who are disappointed in their hired wedding photographer. It literally breaks my heart to read posts about photographers who weren’t professional, who weren’t prepared for the day, and the worst: who simply don’t show up. How is that even possible?!

It’s really gotten me thinking about hiring vendors (DJs, florists, caterers, bakers, etc.) but mostly wedding photographers. How can a bride & groom be confident that they are hiring someone who has the experience, the passion, the excitement, and the know-how to show up on their wedding day? And not just show up, but capture the memories of the day efficiently & effectively, all the while keeping a professional, upbeat attitude? It sounds like a tall order, but really that’s the bare minimum, right?

After all, in hiring any wedding vendor, not only are you spending a lot of money, but you’re putting your whole faith in that person that they will do what they’ve promised & live up to the standard they’ve presented.

It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot & I’ve come up with a few tips for making sure that the wedding photographer you hire is going to be as amazing as you hope they’ll be!

Of course, no plan is 100% foolproof – life happens & extreme situations occur that might stand in the way of a photographer carrying out their job on a wedding day. In those rare circumstances though, it should be clearly stated in the photographer’s contract exactly what happens if the photographer cannot physically show up to photograph a wedding day.

So, how can you be confident in the wedding photographer that you’ve hired?

Does the wedding photographer have real reviews, written by real clients posted on a reputable website?

• Wedding Wire, The Knot, or a Google Business Page are always a good place to look for reviews, as a business has to be verified by those websites before they can go about collecting reviews. Anyone can write anything on their own website & credit it to “Susie & Joe” (who are “Susie & Joe” anyway?), but having reviews written by real-life clients on a 3rd party website (where they usually have to create a profile in order to write a review) is a great place to start.
• Another thing to look for: are the reviews written over a period of time? Or are they all stamped with the same date (which would obviously be a red flag)? If you’re hiring a newer photographer, they might not have a few year’s worth of reviews to read over, but hopefully they have worked with at least a few clients (in wedding photography, experience is key – you can’t go back & relive your wedding day) who have had positive experiences that they can share about.

Talk with the wedding photographer you are considering in person, over the phone, or via Zoom.

• Does their personality match what they post online? If a person constantly posts cheerful, bubbly social media posts & blogs, but seems moody or serious in person, that would be a red flag.
• Can they answer your questions? Are they knowledgeable about running a wedding day & exude confidence in photographing your Day 1? In my own personal experience, not only am I wearing the hat of “wedding photographer” on a wedding day, but I am typically responsible for making sure the day runs on time as well (as much as I can help it, of course).
• Another thing to consider: do they respond to your emails or phone calls promptly, efficiently, and courteously? Everyone goes on vacation at some point, but an auto-response should make you aware that they’re out of the office. During normal business days though, are they responding to your questions, concerns, and ideas quickly?

Have an engagement session with your wedding photographer!

• More than likely, how they treat your engagement session will be similar to how they treat your wedding day – do they make you feel comfortable & at ease while photographing you? Are they friendly, happy, and have confidence in their equipment, in posing, and in finding the best light & locations?
• Do they post sneak peeks of your session? And how quickly?
• Do they communicate how long the editing process will take? 
• Do they blog highlights of your engagement session?
• And how long does it take for them to turn around the final images?
• The answers to those questions will give you a pretty good idea of how they will approach your wedding day. And if you aren’t 100% satisfied by the engagement session experience (whether the photographer takes an absurdly long time to get your photos back to you, or simply cannot seem to direct you through different poses) then it’s the perfect time to re-consider hiring that person as your wedding photographer.

One last side note: everyone does start somewhere. So, if you are okay with hiring a “newer” up-and-coming photographer who charges less than a someone who has the experience of 100 weddings under her belt – that is completely fine! I am beyond thankful for the couples who hired me when I was first starting out! I would simply say: don’t have expectations beyond what they can produce. If you’ve seen some of their work & know that they’re going to put 110% into your wedding day – go for it! And if you aren’t 110% pleased with the results, please do not turn to social media to bash the photographer – attempt to resolve the problem privately.

Like I mentioned before: you can never recreate your wedding day. Even if the bride puts her dress back on & the groom rents another tux – you still cannot replicate the weather, the atmosphere, the decorations, or the people that all come together to make your wedding day unique and special. It’s a one-shot deal! And it should not be a responsibility that any wedding professional takes lightly (I know I don’t). Do your research & hire your vendors with confidence.

Did you know that I’ve written a lot of these “Wedding Help” kind of posts? You can find them all here!