Step by Step Guide on How to Hire a Wedding Photographer

Your wedding is the most beautiful and important day of your life. You’ve been looking for your soulmate for a long time but you’ve probably imagined your perfect wedding day for even longer.

The memories you take away from your perfect wedding are extremely important. The perfect wedding is likely to have elegant decorations, mellow music, your favorite people and of course your beloved groom.

Photo by Kenzie's Photography

It’s natural that when you’ve arranged the perfect wedding, you’ll want the best pictures to honor the day. You may even want to dedicate a few albums for all your wedding pictures.
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However, weddings are extremely expensive and adding professional photography to the list, is likely to burn a hole in your pocket.
While you can’t compromise on a lot of aspects of your wedding ceremony, you have to look for ways to save whenever you can. Photography happens to be one such aspect of your wedding that allows you to cut costs and save some money. 

I understand the dilemma that you’re going through and because I understand, I’ve found a couple of solutions for you to easily find affordable photography in your local area and still have the most professional looking pictures of your big day.

1. RESEARCH

Work on your wedding preparations the moment you’ve been proposed to and set the wedding date. The earlier you begin your preparation, the better and smoother the whole ceremony will turn out on your special day.

When it comes to photography, do some extensive research on the most affordable wedding photographers in your local region. Make a list of all the photographers you think you are interested in. You'll definitely want to check their sample work and reviews online.

*PRO TIP* expecting a photographer to bring numerous printed works to a consultation is very 1990... many portfolios are online and digital. If you're worried about print quality ask them if the photos are high resolution or what dimension the photos are, anything above 2500 is safe!

2. Decide on a Budget... For REAL!

Deciding on a budget isn’t as easy as it may seem initially. It includes deciding the size of the wedding you want - big and grand or small and intimate. Accordingly, you have to decide whether you have enough in your savings to manage a wedding of that size and still have money to keep you going afterwards. Please don't go into tons of debt for your wedding- try making a Go Fund Me or send your PayPal address on your Wedding Shower invites or Save The Dates.

After that, you pick out every little thing such as pocket squares and bowties to the big things like your wedding gown or tuxedo. While picking out all of this, you also need to ensure that you spend within your budget. There are tons of resources online for DIY that doesn't have to look DIY! Some diligent google and youtube searching is all that's needed. 

​3. First Round of Elimination

After doing your wedding photography research you can move on to your first round of elimination. Your list is likely to be quite long at this stage but from here on you get to eliminate the options that do not suit either your taste or your budget.

After you set the exact budget for everything including photography, you know which ones to scratch from your list. Whatever is not affordable, must be simply struck out to maintain a healthy budget. You can keep some options that are very close to budget but the rest need to go in order to ensure that your final spending is not triple the amount you’ve set aside for the wedding.

​4. Meeting Photographers

Once you prepare the second draft of your list, you should try to rank it according to your favorites and go visit the first 5 or 6 photographers. Before this, however, consider your budget, your own interests, quality and proximity.

If chosen photographers are local then they'll be more available to meet and they’ll certainly be less expensive in comparison. Arrange a meeting with the chosen photographers and get to know their style of work, quotations for the event and other details. Some photographers prefer to meet in person, others may offer a phone or video call, do what works best for you!

This next point is key: It is important to clarify any and every question that you may have regarding their style, payment and other services to ensure minimum confusion at a later stage. Make sure that the prices that they tell you are the final and all inclusive and won’t increase due to the cost of buying prints, rights to the digital files or extra for editing.

5. Quality First

It’s hard to not want pictures of every single thing that’s going to be in your wedding- starting with the moment your hair and makeup start at 8am... And while those are important  moments, you want to remember that the pictures need to primarily star you and your better half. A good way to think about it is: what photos will you most likely print and hang in your home?
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So make sure that you don’t get swayed away by the number of pictures. Stick to better quality over quantity. 

Photo by Kenzie's Photography

​6. Second Round of Elimination

After you’ve decided what it is that you’re expecting from your wedding photographer in terms of affordable prices and quality you can seal the deal with them. If you're picky (you know who you are), it is recommended that you meet with a few different local photographers and make a decision only after analyzing all possible options. 

​7. Connections

If you haven’t finalized one yet, then ask your close friends if they know anyone, recommendations go a long way in the wedding industry! Maybe even try working with individual photographers instead of companies. Usually they cost a whole lot less and have the exact same quality of photography. 

8. Final Round of Elimination

​By this stage you should have gone over your list and checked with all your connections. You've invested the time to find the most affordable and professional local wedding photographer and all that’s left to do is throw out the list and contact your choice.

Make sure to pick the best package according to your budget and sign a legal contract that includes both your signatures. And voila! You’ve got the perfect option for your wedding without much of a compromise.
  
It’s your wedding day and what matters the most is that you have the most stress free and gorgeous ceremony that you’ve always imagined. That is what I hope to help you with . So try following the above guidelines and you should easily find the best local photographer that is affordable and well under your budget!