Your wedding day will be one of the most important events in your lifetime. When you spend so much energy on all the details, it is important to hire a professional photographer who can beautifully capture the little details as well as the big picture.
You will put your heart and soul into making your wedding day about you and what you love. A talented and experienced photographer will be able to capture the details and emotion of your day, right down to the buttons on your dress, your super-cute shoes, and the sparkle in your eye.
Hiring a wedding photographer is one of the most important decisions in the wedding planning process. When all the planning is complete, all that money is spent, the dancing is done, and your wedding day is over, you'll just have memories. Sadly, most of the memories will fade... fast.
So, how do you go about hiring the right wedding photographer for such a momentous occasion? First, start by searching the internet, attending bridal fairs, and obtaining referrals from friends, family, and other wedding vendors. Then, start talking to photographers to find out about their education, experience, style, and personality.
Online Portfolios
Websites are a great place to start. Type phrases like "Utah wedding photographer," or the city where you reside plus "wedding photographer" into an online search engine. Visit the websites and remember, the best photographers are not always on page one of the search results. Also, click the sponsored links on the side of the webpage; many good wedding photographers advertise there.
Wedding Planning Websites
These websites bring together paying wedding vendors of all types, including photographers.
Bride Access
Salt Lake Bride
The Bride and Groom
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utahweddings.com">Utah Weddings
Online feature: Make your day picture perfect
The inside scoop on choosing a wedding photographer
by Melissa Kelsey
The Knot
Style Me Pretty
Wedding Chicks
Bridal Fairs In Utah, the first bridal fairs of each year are held in early January, with additional shows in spring and fall. Photographers and wedding vendors of all types have booths on display and are happy to give you information and pricing on wedding details.
Referrals
Ask your friends, family, and other wedding vendors who they recommend, who they loved, and who they would use again and why.
Education
While not absolutely crucial since many great photographers are self-taught, a wedding photographer's education is a quick and easy way to weed out potential wanna-be wedding photographers. With such easy accessibility to decent digital cameras, any Dick, Larry, or Jane can claim to be a wedding photographer, but beware, there is a lot more to wedding photography than a nice camera. Look for photographers who have a Bachelor or Associate degree in photography. Many good wedding photographers also receive on-going education with conferences, seminars, and meetings with fellow wedding photographers.
Experience
How long has your wedding photographer been at the game?
Style
As you sift through photographers' websites, you will begin to see a trend in what you like. Do you like traditional, posed photographs, unconventional and artistic photographs, photo journalistic (candid) photographs? Perhaps you like a blend of all three.
Personality
It is very important that you and your wedding photographer click. Are they friendly, flexible, thoughtful, kind? Do they seem passionate about what they do? Can you see yourself spending a lot of time with the photographer?
You will likely have an engagement portrait session, possibly a bridal session, and spend most of your wedding day with your photographer. Do you see yourself enjoying your time with them or hoping your picture time will be short? Are they going to bark at Aunt Bee because she blinked during family portrait time?
The best place to start is by looking at the photographer's website bio. If you like what you see, schedule a time to meet with the photographer to feel them out in person.
When you and your spouse look back in fifty years, do you want to be flipping through a beautiful keepsake album of your wedding day or be one of the many sad tales of brides and grooms who wish they had hired a great professional photographer to document their wedding?
Do your research, figure out what style you want, find a photographer who you enjoy being around, and spend a little extra on a great photographer. You will never regret it.
Melissa Kelsey is a Utah wedding and portrait photographer based in Salt Lake City. Check out her Website and photo blog.
Comments (3)
Betsy, Cape Cod
July 8th, 2009
5:22 am
5:22 am
How right you are. We hired a friend. Bad choice. Too many poor prints we didn't want to use but felt we had to.
Jenni
November 29th, 2009
2:59 am
2:59 am
I would say Melissa is a beautiful choice for weddings. But if she is too busy contact Leslie Feit from Mini Cupcake she has this same beautiful cool style.
10:33 am