Hello friends, thanks for stopping by the blog. Whether you’re one of the 5,000 regular visitors each month or a newbie, chances are you’re here to educate yourself about weddings.

Today on the blog we’re going to go over the 5 simple steps you need to take in order to book the wedding photographer (or videographer) that best fits your budget.

Step 1: Research the Wedding Vendor

Like most couples, you’ll want to do some research and that could be through a recommendation, perhaps a Google search, or through an advertisement you may have seen.

Either way, you need to research the people that you’ll be working with for the wedding day.

Some of the common things you’ll want to do:

• Scope out recent work they have done

• Make sure they are within the budget you have for wedding photos/video

• Learn about the vendor, how long have they been in the business, their styles, packages, and what comes with them.

Being able to see recent work will show you a couple of things, how busy they are with weddings and the types of imagery or videos you can expect with their services.

You may like them, you may not, so be sure that the services they provide are something that is pleasing, you can see (and hear if it’s video) the media that’s shown.

Next, you’ll need to make sure they fit within your budget. Over my 22 years in the business, you wouldn’t believe how many couples I’ve met that went far over their budget to either hire me or Carole.

You’ll want to make sure that the price range fits the budget or make sure it’s under that budget number.

Also, you’ll want to take some time and learn about them. Most should have an about us page where you can get to know them a bit, see a few personal images, and the like.

Step 2: Have a Face-to-Face

If you’ve determined that your research meets the requirements for your wedding day, then you’ll want to have a face-to-face with the company.

Either in person or via video chat, it’s a great way to accomplish a few things:

• Get to know them on a personal level

• Have them go over the services in detail

• See if your personality will mesh well with yours for the day

In a nutshell, both you and the wedding photographer/videographer will see if you mesh well with each other. Additionally, you will want to ask great questions while you’re meeting with them.

Step 3: Ask these Important Questions

While there are tons of great questions to ask, we have a few that are “must-ask” questions for any media professional. They include:

• How long have you been covering weddings?

  • The longer a person has been behind the camera, the more experience that they have. The more experienced, the less likely mistakes will happen.

• What kind of gear do you have?

  • What you want to look for here are cameras with dual memory card slots, in addition to a second or backup camera. Having dual memory card slots means your images/video is on two cards, thus less chance of being corrupt, and having a second camera is important in case something happens to the first one.

• What is the policy on rescheduling or refunds?

  • What you want to know here is the details if you have to reschedule or cancel the wedding. For example, COVID-19 related issues are usually covered while things like “we broke up” are not cause for a refund most times.

• How do we get the final images or videos?

  • Some companies do everything online with a gallery, some do all USB and some do both. For example, we do a mix of both for our couples, giving them a highlight gallery that increases over the time we edit, while they will get everything on a USB.

Step 4: The Booking Process

Once you are ready to book, you want to make sure of a couple of things.

First, make sure that there is a signed contract for both parties involved. The contract should contain a statement of work to be performed, guidelines on the work, price, deposits, payment schedule, and clauses to protect you as well as the vendor.

You will also want to make sure that you have a physical copy for your records.

Booking a vendor is usually straightforward for most couples, you sign the contract, return it, pay a deposit, then the company will usually do paperwork on their end to set you up in whatever system they have and typically mail you a copy back.

Step 5: Stay in contact with them

Our final piece of advice is to stay in contact with them every couple of months, this does a couple of things.

First, it will put your mind at ease should you ever have concerns about them folding. During COVID-19, for example, many companies would simply fold and go out of business, not tell anyone.

Second, use the vendor as a resource. as things come up, they will help guide you through any wedding-related questions, sometimes they will have the answers even if it doesn’t pertain to their part of the wedding.