You are engaged and one of
most important days in your life is fast approaching. Your wedding day will be filled with happiness and emotion. Family and friends will be there; some you have not seen in many years. It will be a wonderful day for you to remember and share. There will be so many things going on of which most you will not even know about until you look at wedding photographs. Choosing a photographer may be a difficult and daunting task; and affording it may be even more cumbersome. You may be apt to ask a friend or relative to photograph it for you; this is surely to be a bad idea for many reasons. A professional wedding photographer knows how to capture all moments of your wedding day with best results by having years of experience and photography knowledge.
Finding a wedding photographer is not difficult because there are so many. There are many ways to go about finding one and many things you should know. The best way of course is to be referred from another wedding couple that recently had their wedding photographed by a specific photographer. Notice I said “photographer” not business or studio. Your decision should be based off of one photographer’s work; not work of a group or large wedding photography studio with multiple photographers. Always check who will be photographing your wedding.
There are many other ways to find wedding photographers including phone book, newspapers, billboards, and of course internet. Over 70% of all brides and grooms search for wedding professionals online. There are a few things you should know about searching on internet.
Take your time - The first photographers you will find are mostly because of large advertising budgets. This is not a bad thing but you should see all options available to you.
Be specific - When using a search engine search for your “state” and “professional wedding photographer”. Your search may look like this: Massachusetts “professional wedding photographer”. (Use everything that is italicized.) The part in quotes will eliminate all general photographers and just focus on wedding ones. You could even add your city/town for just local results. (Add town after state; do not put in quoted part.) I recommend using Google (www.google.com).
Ok, so know you know how to find a wedding photographer. Now which one to choose? There are three primary factors that come into play when choosing a photographer; style, price, and personality. Style and price can usually be found on their website so we will start there.
Style – There are many styles such as traditional, photojournalism, candid, formal, etc. Some photographers offer only one style, but best photographers can offer all of styles and would normally incorporate them all into your wedding day coverage. It all depends on what you want. When viewing a photographer’s portfolio, remember these are their best shots. Always ask to see a full wedding.
Price – You can spend from $500 to $10,000 on a wedding photographer. The norm is to spend about 10% of your entire wedding budget on photographer. Most photographers have packages that will include everything from coverage to album and final prints. Some photographers have complete al la carte pricing; if you are on a small budget this is best way to go. You will be able select just what you want. There are two things you need, coverage and ability to purchase negatives or high resolution digital images. Watch out with coverage; many photographers will charge an hourly fee beyond their normal time offered. When you receive your negatives or digitals images you can print what you want when you want wherever you like. Of course as a professional I recommend using a professional photography lab for your prints but you could certainly use Wal-Mart and save a bundle. Just keep in mind that quality would be slightly lower. As for your wedding album buy it yourself and put it together yourself. The cost of buying an album from photographer is usually double actual cost. Then of course doing it this way you can get it when you want and when you have money. Visit www.albumsinc.com to view many albums and you can purchase them right online.
