How to Choose the Perfect Wedding Photographer!

There are a few things that are really important to consider when you are trying to decide what photographer is the right fit for you and your fiancee. Here’s my top 4 things to think about:

1. Personal connection - It's SO SO SO (yes I said it 3 times:-) important to hire a photographer you like AND trust. You photographer(s) will be with you the most amount of time (event more than your fiancee!) on your wedding day. We always like to chat on the phone at minimum, and best case a zoom or In studio meeting to gain that personal connection and get to know who you are as a couple and what is important to you. I always like to ask what your dream wedding plans are and what are you most excited and even most nervous about. In talking through location, schedule, and all the things you are planning you can get the vibe for how the photographer works and their personality. Another amazing way to build rapport is to do an engagement session with your wedding photographer. This is something we offer complimentary with our full wedding collections because most couples we work with have never done a professional photo session and are a little nervous. It’s a great “practice” session for the wedding day so you totally feel comfortable and know how your photographer works, plus you will get some beautiful photos of the 2 of you to share on your wedding website, save the dates and really just to have to remember that exciting time when you were engaged!

2. The photography work itself - You should love the photos you are seeing in that photographer's portfolio both on their website and social media to start, but honestly anyone these days can throw up an Instagram or quick website. To go along with that you should definitely ask to see a full wedding gallery from your venue if they have shot there so you can see one start to finish, or if they haven’t something similar in style to your location. There are 3 different components that go into a photographers images; 1. Posing - the main 2 that you will see are either posed and serious/dramatic, or candid and natural. 2. Lighting - some photographers are natural light only and tend to be on the light and airy side which works in some wedding venues and situations but not all. The other type of lighting you will see is a mix of using all the lighting sources along with images using natural light the photographer will use off camera flash for the reception and for things like sunset or even night photos to capture all the elements of the scene and time of day. This is really important for certain venues like Nova 535 or the Florida Aquarium because they don’t have really any natural light and are stunning when lit with video light or off camera flash. 3. Editing - the finished images that you see will have a certain look which could be: dark and moody, light and airy, have enhanced color tones, or be classic and more natural and true to what the wedding looked like. When you are looking at different photographers work, keep these things in mind and you’ll totally see what I’m talking about and get a feel for what you like the most.

3. What do you want to have after the wedding? By that I mean, beyond the digital files for social media and having them on your phone. Do you have a wall space at home you want to put a canvas or piece of wall art to start your family wall? Do you want to have an album to flip through the story of the day? How about an album for your parents to have as a gift. Every photographer offers something different in terms of products and quality. Some don't even offer printed artwork at all and if you want to have something printed you have to go do that on your own. This may not be something you've actually thought about, but now you can! Back when I started my business, I use to put the digital files on a DVD and now most new computers don’t even have a dvd player. Then it was USB drives, which now many computers don’t even have those, so who knows what the future of jpg files will be in 20 years. To me, one of the most important things you can have is something in print that you can touch and feel to hang on your wall or flip through to relive all those amazing moments. It what helps connect your story to future generations. I’ve been married 16 years now and both my husband and I have relatives who have passed and we can show our kids who they were and tell them our memories with them, it’s truly powerful and so important.

4. Investment. You may think of this as “price” but I like to call it an investment because after the wedding, the only things that increase in value as the years go by are your photos and video. Everyone is on a budget whether you have $5,000 or $500,000 to spend on your wedding so it definitely can be tricky! Weddings are one of those things most people haven’t done before and you really have no idea what things cost beyond maybe what the Knot or Weddingwire is telling you. Their info tends to be very general and average and doesn’t necessarily take into consideration the location, season, size of wedding, or style. Instead of going in with a set number of how much you think photography should be, really look at several photographers you love and see how much it costs to have the photographer that checks all your boxes actually is and see if you can make that work in your overall budget. Each photographer is going to offer different amounts of time, one verses 2 photographers, and like we talked about in #3, albums, prints etc. We do something unique with this because making sure all of our couples walks away with some kind of printed artwork is a top priority. The entire amount our couples spend on their actual photography is an artwork credit to spend on an album or prints!

I hope this was helpful in your planning process and would love to chat with you to see if we are the perfect photographers for you. Contact us by email or text at 813-480-0324 or info@carriewildes.com or you can even grab a spot on our calendar for a quick 15 min chat by clicking below.