How to pick a wedding photographer

Photography is one of the most important factors of your day – it lasts forever and you only get one chance to get it right!  Your photos should represent how you want to remember your wedding day, so it’s worth investing the money and time into making your choice.

​Below are some things to consider before booking your photographer. 

There are many different types of photographers so I have broken it down into three different categories.

1. Traditional/Magazine style
These are posed photos with your partner and lots of family and friends. Group shoots usually take a long time and are set in one place just with different guests. These photographers will give directions, how to stand, when to smile or sometimes when to laugh.  These pictures will be flawless because they will keep taking to get it right, but these are not natural shots.  
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TONY GAMEIRO PHOTOGRAPHY

2. Natural/ story of your Day
These photographers are less intrusive but take pictures as you are chatting to guests and capture real moments of your wedding.  This does mean you may not have a photo of you, your mum and your aunty all together because you didn’t speak to them at once. These photos represent a story of your day, what you did, who was laughing together and dancing together. 

ROB POWER PHOTOGRAPHY

​Couldn’t resist putting one of my own wedding in.  This photo captures the true essence of our family – I look lovingly at my husband, my husband is looking lovingly at the dog and our dog couldn’t care less!

3. Quirky
These photographers throw out the rule book and they will take pictures at different angles or purposely cut out the person in the picture to focus on an item instead. If you are all about the details this photographer is a good choice for you because they usually take pictures of wedding items.  So if you are not looking for 400 hundred photos of yourselves, this works well. 

DAVID FENWICK PHOTOGRAPHY

GAVIN PHOTOGRAPHY

​Once you have fallen in love with a photographers collection of previous weddings you need to arrange to meet them in person – both of you! You spend a lot of time with your photographer on the day it’s important you like them, build a comfortable relationship and understand how they work.
 
If the photographer has not been to our venue before, arrange a site visit.  There are so many photo opportunities here at The Ferry House and even in the surrounding areas so you want to make the most of them.  If the photographer is familiar with the venue they can have a plan A for photos if the weather is good, and plan B if it’s not on your side.  Timings are just as important. We have great sunsets in our Spring, Autumn and Winter months and evening photo spots too.  You can bring sparklers for evening guest photos and even have your first dance outside under a starlit sky, so make sure your photographer has the correct equipment to capture it all perfectly.
 
Think about when you want photos taken. Do you want photos whilst you are getting ready or just photos as guests arriving for the ceremony?  Do you want evening photos?  Most photographers will leave after the first dance so ensure if you want them to take pictures with a full dance floor you have agreed a later finish time.
Check their printing options - are you expecting them to give you an album at the end, just a USB or website with photos on for you to download and print yourself?
Lastly book in plenty of time - the good photographers get booked up in advance so this should be a priority as soon as you have your wedding date. I am not saying rush into a decision but get your skates on with your research and contacting the ones you like and checking availability.
 
I hope this has been helpful to start your search, contact us if you need anymore help.

Take a look at our Gallery for some more of our favourite photographers work - Click here
Or check out some of the above photographers work-
Tony Gameiro
Rob Power
Gavin Photography
David Fenwick

Author

Lauren McAleer