How to choose your elopement or wedding photographer: 5 insider's tips

Finding the perfect photographer for your elopement or wedding can be really hard since there is a wide choice and if you aren't familiar with choosing one (e.g. you have never had the chance to choose one for an engagement or another photo service) you may feel overwhelmed and lost in front at all this offer.
This small guide wants to give you 5 insider's tips to help you to choose the professional that will suit you the best (and avoid the worse).
Ready? Let's start!

Let’s start with the easiest one to check. The style of a photographer is usually easy to see and you don’t have to be a photo amateur to see if you like a photo or not. It is related only to your personal tastes and there is no good or bad choice here. However, there can be a little tip here: when selecting a photographer, look at his/her blog AND Instagram feed. On the website it is easy to select a few photos for the portfolio that will look great but if also the blog section is great AND the studio’s Instagram feed is amazing (which means constant high quality and regular posting), you can almost be sure that the studio will be consistent with its quality level.
(WRITING NOTE: I won’t use both he/she or his/her for the rest of the article to make this post more easy to read. Unfortunately, there is no way to write without indicating a gender)

This point is maybe one of the hardest to see through the pictures. With organization I mean the ability of the photographer to work all the day flawlessly. It is difficult to know if a photographer is organized only looking at his pictures, but there is a tip that I can give you about this. If you are interested in a particular photographer and would like to know if he is organized, send him an email requesting further information.
If he replies quickly (within 12-24h)  this is already a good sign of being organized, but it is not enough. If you want really to know how much he is organized on an event, ask him to do a call or to describe the usual workflow on a wedding. If he is organized, very little will be left to chance in his description. On that day you cannot think when it’s time to shoot this or that picture or if it’s the time to go to do because the light is fading. You should rely on your professionals and the photographer should be one of these organized vendors.

After the organization, this is one of the game-changer. Everyone can prepare a good “organized speech” about his wedding day workflow but the real thing to see are the reviews from past couples. Ask or check for past reviews on an independent website. I’m focusing on the world “independent” because, unfortunately, reviews that you can see on photographer’s websites can be fake. I know, I know, it sounds bad but it happens. I use weddingwire.com for my client’s reviews (see the reviews page here)  but also Google and Facebook work fine.
Publications have less importance in my opinion, but if there are a lot of publication on different and important online blogs, well also this is a sign of quality since it is hard to be published by a specialized wedding blog and only the best is going online, due to high competition.

If all previous points were super important, this one can be optional. With “knowing the area” I mean if the photographer have previously worked in that area/venue, so he already knows the best spots to shoot and don’t need to do a scouting before the service. I’m saying that this is an optional point because there are a TON of different wedding venues and it is hard that someone have worked in all of them. If a photographer is professional and organized, well is not a problem. Personally, I always do a scouting of the wedding venue before the starting of every service, to get some details and also to check all the best spots to shoot the photos with the couple, so I won’t waste time later.

You like the photos, the photographer seems organized and the reviews are great, what else is missing? Well, even if all the previous points are checked, lastly you should see if you have a good feeling about your potential photographer. We are human beings driven by emotions and on that day emotions will be at the centre of the scene. You should choose a professional that gives you good vibrations since he is going to be on your wedding day and will interact with you. This one is hard to explain with words, but I’m sure that you got it.
I hope that you’ve loved these 5 tips on how to choose your wedding photographer. Any question? Write me an email, I’ll be happy to answer you!