25+ New Wedding Trends You'll Love

The photographs from your wedding day will be a timeless memento of a truly special day. Wedding photographers can be very expensive, specialize in a number of different styles, and offer a variety of levels of service. Choosing a wedding photographer takes careful thought and consideration about what sort of pictures you want to document your wedding day. Do plenty of research and interview a number of the candidate before making your choice. 1-Decide what style of wedding photography you prefer Here are a number of different styles of wedding photography, and different photographers will specialize in different styles. Traditional- classic-Photojournalism-Illustrative -Fashion 2- Start looking early: Booking your wedding photographer should be one of the first things you do after you have booked your venue. Wedding photographers are in high demand, especially in the busiest times of year for weddings, and many of the best ones will be booked up a year in advance. 3-Ask for personal recommendations. The best wedding photographers will tend to develop a reputation, and may be known locally to your friends are family. Start your search by asking people you know and trust if they have any recommendations, either through personal experience, or word of mouth. Talk to people you know who have got married in the last few years and ask about their experience. 4-Avoid hiring family or friends. It may be tempting to hire somebody you know to be your wedding photographer. You may be drawn towards hiring someone you trust, who knows you and your partner well, and you think will understand what kind of pictures you want. While this might turn out perfectly well, it is highly likely that this person will not have the technical skills and experience to give you the best photos. 5-Search online. A great way to search for wedding photographers is to look online. There will be a very large number of people advertising their services, so think about how you can focus your search more closely and narrow down the results. Look for people with plenty of experience and lots of information about themselves and the photography they produce. You should also look to see if they work with an assistant or solo. 6-Examine a photographer’s online presence. As with anybody advertising themselves on the internet, you will need to think carefully and critically about how they present themselves. Try to find reviews of the people you are interested in by searching for their names. You should be cautious with reviews and be prepared to make up your own mind, but the more information you have the better. 7-Create a shortlist. Once you have been through the profiles and seen some of the photography of a number of wedding photographers, you need to narrow this down to a manageable number. Then you can arrange to meet, interview, and inspect the portfolios of your chosen few. Think carefully about who you want to interview, and consider what elements are most important to you. 8-Prepare thoroughly for the interviews. Once you have drawn up your shortlist and arranged the interviews, you should spend some time preparing together with your partner. You will need to draw up a list of specific questions that you want to ask, as well as thinking about the soft skills that you will want your photographer to possess. 9- Talk about the photographer’s style. The first thing to discuss is the style and ideas of the photographer. You will have seen some pictures, but you will be able to get better and more complete understanding by talking it through in person. Ask the photographer to describe the style they shoot in and be sure to ask any further questions if anything is unclear to you. !0-Ask about the photographer’s experience. One of the key things to talk about in the interview is the level of experience each of the photographers has gained. You should ask how many weddings the photographer has shot, and how many similar to yours. Different weddings have can hugely different requirements and expectations, so it’s important that you understand how much experience they have that is especially relevant to you. 11- Ask if the package includes an assistant. You should always ask the photographer if the deal they are offering includes an assistant to help them with the work on the day. Having an assistant, especially if the wedding has more than around 50 people, is likely to be an important addition. 12-Ask about what the photographer will do on the day. It’s important to find out detailed information about how the photographer will work on the day of the wedding. You need to determine whether they are prepared to stay a little later if it runs on, and how they plan to interact with the guests. Will they be taking lots of candid shots, or will they be corralling people around a lot. 13-Determine how you will receive your pictures. Find out how long you can expect to wait for the pictures, and in what format they will be presented. You need to make sure you know what your photographer will pass on to you at end of the process. The number of photos, the format and resolution of the photos, as well as the way they are presented are all crucial questions 14-Examine the portfolio. Your potential photographers will bring along a portfolio of their pictures to the interview. It’s important that you spend plenty of time looking through this in detail with your partner. Ask the photographer to give some context for the pictures, including asking about the style used, and the type of wedding it was. 15-Evaluate your interview notes. Spend some time looking back through the notes you made during the interview to help you decide. These notes are a record of the interview that can give you a good idea of the impression you got from the photographer. You can compare the scores across the different shortlisted candidates with your partner, and evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses.