Considering style and price select three top choices and schedule a meeting with them. There should be no cost for this. Before you meet with them you should pretty much want to hire them from what you learned about their style and price.

Personality - You want to meet with them to see how they present themselves and if your personalities match. You want someone that is personable and nice so that they will get along well with you, your family, and friends. Never make decision at meeting always go home and think about it and wait until you have met with all three. The best in business will let their work, pricing, and personality do all talking. The meeting should be a casual conversation to get to know each other and discuss your wedding day in general. There is no need to go into great detail now. Some photographer will try to “sell” you their services; never get sold on something. Remember you already decided you like work and price before you got there so what are they trying to sell? Just meet with them to get to know them.

Once you make your decision contact photographer and let them know. Also, be sure to contact other two and thank them for their time but you have decided to use another photographer. They should be considerate and not try to continue selling you their services; if they do you made a good choice to go with other photographer. With photographer you chose go over details on phone and have them right up a wedding contract for you to review and sign. Do not pay a deposit until you have read and signed contract (the photographer should sign contract also). Read contract thoroughly; everything you are supposed to receive should be written down and have price and payment schedule. Always make note of their cancellation policy.

Congratulations you found a photographer and have one scheduled. You should now schedule to meet with them about a month before your wedding date to go over details again.

Have a great wedding day!

Were they soulmates or just lucky? It depends on how you define soulmates. If you define a soulmate as your cosmic twin, then I'd say no these people were very different types that hooked up and stayed happy together for life. In one example, woman was a devout Catholic and husband was just sort of generic Christian. She didn't try to convert him and he respected her need to go to mass every Sunday. No, he didn't become any more or less of a Christian then he already was. They each respected other's right to be who they were. Nobody tried to change anybody. Who they fell in love with is who they stayed in love with. In another example, he was from an extremely conservative religion and she was very lightly Christian. She completely changed her entire way of life to be with him. She gave up makeup, stylish haircuts, jewelry and sexy clothes to become almost Amish in her life with him. She never regretted it because he was everything to her and she came to agree with his family's religious beliefs. In none of relationships were couples a twin copy of other. Yes, every one of those couples struggled in first years of their marriage to find a balance between 'me' and 'we'. Every one of those couples had to learn to listen, to compromise, to be fully present in moment, and to show their love in a way that resonated with other. However, they all managed to live that elusive 'happily ever after' that rest of us only dream of.

If you define a soulmate as right one for you, one you were meant to spend rest of your life with, one specially designed to create 'happily ever after' with you, then yes, they were soulmates. No matter how bad things got, these couples never ever contemplated divorce. They didn't stay together because of a vow before God. They stayed together because they couldn't fathom concept of not loving other one. Every morning they woke up knowing they were both in love. Every night they went to sleep knowing they were both in love.

Copyright 2004, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge