Dallas Wedding Photographer | Before Hiring a Wedding Photographer | Wedding Tips
You’re engaged and you’ve found the perfect venue. Congrats! Before hiring a wedding photographer, you should ask yourself these 7 questions to make sure they are the BEST for your wedding day.
1. What style of photography do you like?
This one may seem pretty obvious, but let me explain why you want to really look at what style of photography you want for your wedding day. There are lots of trends when it comes to photography styles, ask yourself if you will like this particular style in 10, 20 or 50 years?
Your wedding is an important life event that you will cherish your whole life. Make sure the style of photography you choose is something that you will love for years to come.
2. Do you like their personality?
Ask yourself if you really love the personality of the person behind the camera. There are a lot of photographers out there and many of them will offer you a great experience. What will take your experience to the next level is if you LOVE working with them as much as you love their work.
Your photographer is with you alllllll day on your wedding day. Think of them as your personal paparazzi. Make sure it is someone you feel comfortable with and will make your day fun and stress free.
3. Are you willing to budget for a quality photographer?
I hate to say this so bluntly, but you’ve probably heard it before and for good reason. “You get what you pay for”
A professional photographer will have years of experience capturing weddings, they will know what shots to take, how to take them and they understand the flow of a wedding day. They will have confidence knowing they are capturing your wedding day the best way possible! Not to mention, they probably have also invested time and money into education and top of the line gear.
I get trying to stay within a budget for a wedding, however, I would strongly encourage you to invest in a great photographer. At the end of the day, your flowers will die, the food is gone and you’ll no longer have a reason to wear that gorgeous gown…but you will have the photographs taken that day.
4. Ask your photographer how they protect your memories
I know a lot of brides don’t even think about this but it is so important. Before hiring a wedding photographer, Make sure they shoot with a camera that has dual card slots. That just means that they can fit two memory cards into their camera and record the images from your day on BOTH. Why does that matter? There are no redos on a wedding day so if a card gets corrupted and you lose the images, if they only shot on a single card…you’ve just lost all your images. This is so important to me on a wedding day that I don’t hire photographers as seconds if they have a cheaper camera that only has one slot.
Additionally, You’ll want to know how they back up their photos once they are uploaded as well. Do they erase the images from the card before sending the gallery off? Do they put them on an external hard drive? I personally believe you should have at least 2-3 places you’ve stored the images just in case technology fails and you lose one set of files. It is always good to play it safe with once in a lifetime memories.
5. How does your photographer provide an exceptional experience? How will they help you have a more stress free and enjoyable wedding day?
Again, there are a lot of wedding photographers out there. Before Hiring a wedding photographer, as yourself “how do they make my day easier”? Do they provide bridal guides? checklists? custom timelines? Do they get to know me as a person and do I feel less like a bottom line?
There are a lot of ways that photographers can make or break your wedding experience. At Kimberly Harrell Photography, I want all my couples to feel like I did EVERYTHING in my power to help them have a great experience. I offer complimentary engagement sessions for all my wedding couples so that I can get to know them as people and they can get to know me. I have a teacher’s brain so I love providing my couples with a bridal guide with tips for planning their wedding day, checklists for things to pack day of and I make a timeline for them as well.
One of my core values is loving and serving people in ways that may not necessarily be my “job”. Need something hung. Got it. Need a button sewn on or boutonnières pinned? I’m your girl.
6. What is their backup plan in case they are ill or hurt?
This one is important. You’ve done all the planning. You think you are ready to walk down the aisle and you get a call that your photographer is sick and can’t make it! I’ve actually been at weddings where the planner or makeup artist did that and they had NO ONE to come fill in. Horrible, right? I have a community of wedding photogs that I work with regularly that if for some reason, I was too sick to come to a wedding (I’d have to be nearly on my death bed for this to happen) I would reach out to one of my amazing photog friends to associate shoot the wedding for me. That basically means, I would send someone I love and trust and have worked with in the past to come and shoot your wedding and then I would edit the images.
7. How many weddings have they photographed?
I think it is important to ask how many weddings your photographer has done. Here is why, you have to be a problem solver on a wedding day. Mid-day harsh sun? Where are we doing their first look? Timeline gets behind…what can we do to get caught up. I think the more experience you have making these decisions, the easier it is for you to put into action the solution.
I hope you found this post on 7 questions you should ask yourself before hiring a wedding photographer was helpful! If you are currently looking for a wedding photographer, fill out my contact form and let’s see if your date is available!
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