A wedding day, is over in a blink of an eye. Your wedding photographer is unique in being the only vendor who will deliver a lasting product to be treasured for the rest of your lives. That means careful research and selectiveness regarding style, skills and personal demeanor are extra important when choosing your photographer.

As wedding designers, we can’t help but feel that choosing your wedding photographer is one of the most important decisions you will make during the wedding planning process so we have put together some pro tips to help you book the photographer of your dreams!

Find Your Style

First and foremost, when beginning your hunt for a wedding photographer, you should begin by considering your preferred photography style.

All the best wedding photographers specialize in a particular type of photography that gives their images an identifying style and flair associated with their name. Be wary of a photographer who claims they shoot “all styles” or “any style you want”. You are not looking for a jack of all trades, master of none. Not to mention, if you view their portfolio and see dozens of different shooting styles and coloring techniques on display, you will surely not adore all of them, and how can you guarantee which your wedding photos will most resemble?

Start a Pinterest board to save all the wedding photographs you most admire from wedding blogs and Instagram, and then scroll through everything to see if they have a style in a common or a style you identify the most with. This will give you a jumping point to start your photographer search.

Research

The first steps to finding your perfect wedding photographer is online research, asking for suggestions from your friends, or getting recommendations from your wedding planner or venue. You're the only ones who know exactly what photography style you're looking for. Maybe you can't put it into words, but you'll know it when you see it. Create a running list of photographers whose style stands out to you.

Schedule Interviews

This is not a decision that can be made on looks alone—you must meet your potential photographers in person. If you like what you see on their site—and their fees are in your ballpark range—call to see if they're available for your wedding date. If available, go ahead and send an introductory email with a bit about you and your soon-to-be spouse, you event and the vision for your day, and feel free to attach five or so of your very favorite photos from your research so they know what you love. If the photographer is already booked on your date, you may want to see if they have an associate or can recommend another shooter with a similar style. Set up in-person meetings with three to five potential photographers who are available on your wedding date to look at more of their work and assess whether your personalities mesh. Be prepared to talk about your venue, wedding style and what you envision for your photos.

Connection

Most professional wedding photographers will schedule a consultation over the phone or video chat when asked. Some will even prefer to meet in person!

At this point, you have hopefully whittled down your options to 3 or fewer. With all other factors (price point, skill) being similar, you want to go with the photographer with whom you can forge the best connection. Chemistry between the photographer and subjects is important – especially for photography that has the potential to be intimate, emotional, and authentic. You want to feel comfortable having this individual follow you around for 6 to 10 hours clicking and snapping away.

Come prepared with some basic questions, but also feel free to banter so you can get a feel of who they are as a person. While you may not already have a mood board at this stage of the process (unless you booked your Wedding Planner early enough to create a full design lookbook for you), you can send the photographer inspiration images for your wedding – or the design lookbook if you have one! This will give them an idea of the look you want to achieve, and how they can help you capture it. Do they seem enraptured by your wedding vision? 100 percent on board? Bored? Half-hearted? Fake enthused? These are all things to note, as they might affect your photographer’s creativity and ability to give your wedding their all, no matter how professional they are. If they already look bored and you’ve only shown them your third inspiration picture, this is not the photographer for you.

Budget

As Wedding Planners, one area of our expertise is advising clients where to trim the fat when they have a tight budget but big wedding dreams. There are many small luxuries you can scale back on with very little consequence. It is our belief that your photographer should not be one of them.

You get for what you pay for. You can probably find a photographer on Craigslist to take your wedding photos for $100, but should you? If a photographer is the cheapest, he or she is probably the least qualified. A talented, popular, highly experienced, well-reviewed, and reliable wedding photographer is not likely to undervalue themselves by charging below the standard market rate in your area, and your Wedding Planner should be equipped to advise you on what the current market rates are.

With a little research, knowing what you like, and asking the right questions, you can have the photographer and wedding images of your dreams.