How did you choose your photographer?

gadgeteer_2

Can I ask how you all found and chose your photographer?

For example, was it just google "<area> wedding photographers", maybe you hit the wedding fayres or was it personal recommendation? Which is most important to you?

Secondly once you found a few, what made you decide to go with the photographer you booked?

Obviously image quality is important but how much were you swayed by the price? What other things were you attracted to? For example the quality of the album maybe?

I'm trying to do a bit of research to see how brides make their decision so I can better direct my marketing efforts. Hope people don't mind me asking.

lisajane8482

My photographer did a graduation shoot of me and family. He mentioned he did wedding photography so when we decided to get married I looked at his webpage and facebook page where he has a gallery of wedding photos. To be honest I have seen more amazing "staged" photos but we're not really interested in that style. His price really swayed it for us and we didn't bother looking at any other photographers, plus he makes us feel at ease and is really friendly. A wedding photographer we met at a wedding fayer (who did my friends wedding) made me feel uncomfortable, have no idea why he just did.

hannhol

we're getting married next winter, and by the time the ceremony is done it'll be dark. so we need someone who specialises in taking photos in low light, and not a natural light photographer. we actually found someone through a recommendation of a natural light photographer, who said she couldn't do it, but recommended someone who could. he was in turn very honest about what he could and couldn't do.

some of the photographers we had contacted speculatively (by googling "wedding photographer and 'area'") were more hit and miss. one of the asked if there was any chance we'd change the date of the wedding (suffice to say we'd confirmed the registrar and provisionally booked the venue by this point! and, strangely enough, we want to get married in winter.

in terms of price, we liked the transparent pricing of our photographer £x got us him for the whole day, from as early til as late as we want.

so i guess, what I'm saying is, be honest about waht you can do, and don't ask silly questions!

hannhol

ps we're not getting an album, with every photographer we considered, it was an extra c. £1000 for an album, and that was too much for us. we'd rather have a good photogrpaher, and a couple of photos than a full album

sdr2211

We did a combination of looking on the web for photographers in the area we were looking to get married in, fairs and word of mouth recommendations. We met with a few, two in an almost 'interview' setting before we decided who we were going to use. Our original choice then e-mailed to say that something had come up that meant she could no longer photograph our wedding but she gave us a recommendation and we have gone with him. Fortunately they have a similar style (probably why she recommended him, though they are friends and work the same areas) which we liked. I felt comfortable with him, which as he is coming to photograph me before is just as well!
We could have got a different photographer at a much lower price, but we agreed that we wanted good pictures and were prepared to spend more on this part of the day - afterall, the ring and the pictures are the bits that stay with you for ever!

sdr2211

PS - for us too it was the pictures we were interested in and although he has a number of different albums if we want these, there was no pressure at all to buy one or to have one if we didn't want it. They can add considerably to the cost and as we are paying over £1500 already, I want to think about spending another £1000 pounds + on top.

hannhol

sdr2211 - exactly the same situation as us, price wise. Unfortunaetly although our photographer seems great he only has one album package. but like you no pressure which was nice.

fulltime

I'm a wedding photographer and also now a bride to be, go with recommendations from friends and family. You need someone you can trust. I'd also advise, if you can with going with a friend of family member that isn't really a photographer but offers to do it for free... it's a lot of pressure on them as it's a stressful job, you don't get a second go at the shots. And also, if they do mess it up, your photographs are what hold many of your memories of the day, you've spent all the money making your venue gorgeous, getting the perfect dress and suits, you want it to be captured beautifully forever. It's really not worth scrimping on it.

Obviously everyone's budget it different, but my advice would be to go with the most you can afford, remember you need to click well with the photographer... especially if you hire a male photographer, he'll probably be there when your getting ready in the morning... you don't want someone you find creepy or in the slightest bit uncomfortable with.

And when I say the most you can afford...expensive photographers don't always have amazing work, or they will have but it will be very dated. Ask to see the photos from an entire wedding, from start to finish. That way you can see they've not just pulled a few lucky shots from each wedding they have shot and that they produce stunning photographs from morning till night.

It's all about shopping around for a style you like, a personality you like and a fantastic quality.

If they have price lists on their website, but you can't see what you fancy, ask them. Most have a price list as starting point, after all.. every bride is different.

I hope this helps... some info is a bit conflicting.. but there's just so many variables with the wedding photography. Just remember the photographs are the only thing you keep after the wedding... and the photographer spends most of your day with you, you need to like them x

GOSH sorry about how long this is!

katie1812

We were given tickets by our wedding reception venue to the Norfolk Show where there was a wedding fayre. We went along not knowing what to expect, had been to a few fayres but hadn't found anything previously.
He had an amazing pitch, knew exactly what to say etc, and then when he saw his photos, though 'WOW!' they were amazing. He had many different packages, but we'd said from the start we wanted a DVD package where we owned the rights to the images. We are both really against having to go back to the photographer and pay him for prints for different family members etc.
We saw a couple of other guys, and although cheaper, their picture were not as good, so we went full out and with a bit of haggling paid £725 for two photographers ALL DAY, DVD package.
Neither of us are particularly photogenic but they made us feel so comfortable and we had such a laugh being posey! lol!
We have received our photos and they are worth every penny.

My advice is so look around and be prepared to pay a little more for that extra bit of quality! Good luck

Impet_Limpet

We googled the area and asked a few friends who had married recently (that we liked the pictures for!) for their recommendation.

You need to grab peoples attention, in our case it was the offer of a free engagement shoot via someone on here.

We were really impressed with the pictures but most importantly he made us feel really at ease and it reflected in the pictures.

Main points

- Made us feel at ease and very knowledgeable
- Brought a selection of albums for us to look at to show us the styles, they really blew us away!
- Left us with a price list and contract to look at and think over so we didn't feel under any pressure.
- We liked the transparency of the prices, so we felt able to pick and choose what we wanted to stay within budget. If we just got the quote as a you get xxxx for £££ without knowing what individual aspects cost what we probably wouldn't have been as happy (and as we found we could afford more - we added extra stuff to our package like parent albums.)

Bella73

gadgeteer wrote: »

Can I ask how you all found and chose your photographer?

For example, was it just google "<area> wedding photographers", maybe you hit the wedding fayres or was it personal recommendation? Which is most important to you?

Secondly once you found a few, what made you decide to go with the photographer you booked?

Obviously image quality is important but how much were you swayed by the price? What other things were you attracted to? For example the quality of the album maybe?

I'm trying to do a bit of research to see how brides make their decision so I can better direct my marketing efforts. Hope people don't mind me asking.

First of all their web page had to be half decent with some nice shots and nice write up without any mistakes. I know that is picky but in our mind if you cannot even get your website right then I wouldn't trust you with my wedding pictures.

Once we had narrowed it down we emailed and this is important if you want the work reply promptly if you are away make sure you email at least sends a polite I'm unavailable sort of reply. We had people suddenly bothering two or three weeks later! Sorry but in the business world that is shoddy and disrespectful, so naturally we didn't go with them.

Then we arranged a visit to see their portfolio, loved it and booked them there and then.