What to look for when choosing your wedding photographer

Beyond finding photographs you love, here are the things worth thinking about before choosing who’ll be beside you for most of your wedding day.

Look at full wedding galleries, not just the highlights

Instagram is very good at showing you the prettiest thirty photographs from a wedding.

But a wedding gallery needs to tell the story of an entire day.

Ask to see a full gallery or two so you can get a better idea of what the photographer’s work looks like from beginning to end. Look at the getting-ready photographs, family groups, ceremony, reception, speeches and dance floor alongside the beautiful golden-hour portraits.

You want to know they can photograph the whole day consistently, not just the parts that happen in perfect light.

Look for consistency in different lighting conditions

Wedding days have a habit of throwing just about every lighting situation at a photographer.

You might get ready beside a beautiful window, have your ceremony outside in bright midday sun, take portraits under grey skies and then spend the evening in a dark reception space.

And sometimes Wellington decides to give you all four before dinner.

Have a look through your photographer’s work and make sure you love what they create in different conditions, not only those dreamy sunset photographs.

Experience really matters when the light isn’t doing exactly what we’d hoped it would.

Think about how you want your photographs to feel

Before worrying too much about photography terminology, think about how you actually want your wedding photographs to feel when you look back at them.

Do you love photographs that feel polished and editorial? Relaxed and candid? Romantic? Classic? Full of movement and energy?

Most photographers blend several approaches throughout a wedding day, but their work will usually lean in a particular direction.

Personally, I love creating beautiful, considered portraits while leaving plenty of room for everything happening naturally around them. Your wedding shouldn’t need to become an eight-hour photoshoot just because you’d like beautiful photographs.

Look for a photographer whose work feels like the way you’d like to remember your day.

Find out how they photograph people who aren’t models

This one matters because, despite what Pinterest may have led us to believe, most people getting married are not professional models.

You shouldn’t need to arrive knowing your angles or wondering what on earth you’re supposed to do with your hands.

A good photographer should be able to give you direction when you need it, help you feel comfortable and create beautiful portraits without making every photograph feel stiff or overly posed.

They should also know when to stop directing altogether.

Some moments need a little help. Others just need someone paying attention.

You actually need to like them

Your wedding photographer is going to be around for a surprisingly large portion of your wedding day.

They’re there while you’re getting ready, during emotional family moments, throughout your ceremony, while you’re having portraits taken and potentially right through until everyone is on the dance floor.

So personality matters.

You don’t need to become best friends immediately, but you should feel comfortable talking to them, asking questions and trusting them to be around the people you love.

If you get off your first call thinking, yes, I’d happily have this person around all day, that’s a very good sign.

Ask to see weddings similar to yours

Your photographer doesn’t necessarily need to have photographed your exact venue before.

I’d much rather know that someone can walk into a new space, understand the light and create beautiful photographs than know they’ve stood in precisely the same spot seventeen times.

Instead, look for experience that’s relevant to the kind of day you’re planning.

Having a winter wedding? Ask to see one. Getting married in a church or darker venue? See how they handle low light. Planning a city wedding, a huge wedding party or a celebration that runs well into the night? Look for examples of those too.

That will tell you far more about what they’re capable of.

Understand exactly what’s included

Photography packages can look very different from one photographer to another, so make sure you’re comparing more than the price at the bottom.

Check how many hours of photography are included, whether there’s a second photographer, how your photographs are delivered and approximately how many you can expect.

It’s also worth checking things like travel, engagement sessions, albums, turnaround times and whether there are any additional costs you should know about.

If you’re not sure what something means, ask.

Nobody expects you to arrive at wedding planning already knowing the difference between eight hours and ten hours of photography coverage.

Check the boring-but-important professional stuff

It’s not nearly as exciting as choosing your flowers, but this is one of those things you’ll be very glad you checked.

Your photographer should have a proper contract and professional systems in place for looking after your photographs.

Ask about backup equipment, how your images are backed up after the wedding and what happens if something goes wrong.

After more than a decade working as a professional photographer, I’ve learnt that being prepared for the things you don’t expect is just as important as knowing how to create a beautiful photograph when everything goes perfectly.

You shouldn’t need to spend your wedding day worrying about any of it.

Don’t choose purely on price

Your budget matters, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with having one.

But when you’re comparing photographers, try not to reduce the decision to who gives you the most hours or photographs for the lowest number.

Look at the experience you’re getting, how consistently they photograph a full wedding, what’s included, how you feel about their work and whether you trust them to handle the day.

The right photographer isn’t necessarily the most expensive one.

They’re the one whose work, approach, experience and offering make sense for the two of you.

Trust how you feel

At some point, you have to stop opening seventeen browser tabs and comparing everyone’s packages in microscopic detail.

If you love their photographs, understand what you’re getting, feel comfortable talking to them and trust them to photograph your wedding well, you’ve probably found a pretty good match.

Sometimes it really can be that simple.

You’re choosing a person, not just a photography style

Your wedding photographs matter, of course. I’m a photographer, I was hardly going to tell you otherwise.

But when you choose your photographer, you’re also choosing someone who will be there for a surprisingly large amount of your wedding day.

They’ll probably meet some of your favourite people. They might help straighten your dress, find a missing buttonhole, gently organise your entire extended family and know when to give you direction and when to simply let a moment happen.

So yes, choose someone whose photographs make you stop scrolling.

But also choose someone you trust to walk into your wedding day, whatever it happens to throw at them, and document it beautifully.

That combination matters far more than whether they’ve photographed at your venue seventeen times before. x