When it comes to hiring a wedding photographer, it’s usually the 3rd highest wedding vendor on the list, catering being the first and the venue the second.

As such, there are some things that you can do in order to hire the right one, some things to look out for and be aware of and also some tips to help shave a few bucks off when you book them too.

Let’s being with a few cool facts about the wedding photography industry. According to SLR lounge, they have calculated there is an average of 114,000 some odd wedding photographers in the nation that cover roughly 2.4 million weddings annually.

THAT’s a LOT of wedding photos taken!

If you take a quick look at your local region, you’ll find three types of wedding photographers, the budget photographer, the middle-of-the-road and the high-end photographer. Each has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to what your own needs and budget is.

Let us dive in to each for a moment and see the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Budget Wedding Photographer

This is where you will find people with lower-end gear, little experience and low price points, usually $200-$1,000 for a full days worth of work. Typically, you will find these type of people on social media sites, offering low pricing for their services.

As this blogger, Lauren, describes her wedding day problems when she hired a budget photographer for the wedding.

“When I used the budget recommendations of these sites and magazines, the recommended photography percentage was way below what I was realistically seeing for photographer pricing. I didn’t have anyone to tell me what the “normal” pricing was for a good photographer, or even how to know what would be considered “good”. I was counting on the resources I used to help me, and they sadly didn’t.”

Quality

Here, with budget vendors, you’re going to get budget results. In the instance of Lauren, she got what she paid for, substandard images because the person behind the camera didn’t know what they were doing.

Blurred shots, out-of-focus, bad lighting and cropping, grainy images in low light, this is going to be typical.

Many of these people will either be starting out in business or they will be operating as not a business, but themselves. Not all budget photographers are bad per-say, some are good, just new and need the experience.

Middle Ground Wedding Photographers (Mid-Range)

Most of the photographers that you will find will be in this range on the scale.

Ranging from $1,200-$3,000 for most, this is where you will find most of the work being done in the industry and most of the standard types of photograph styles.

These are people with some good experience under their belt and you’ll find that most will provide adequate for your wedding day.

They will usually have pro level gear ranging in price from a couple thousand bucks to upwards of $10,000 or more.

In this range of wedding ‘tog, expect to get much better images, poses and even better customer service too.

About 81% of couples wind up hiring a professional in this range.

High-end / Luxury Wedding Photographers

These are a very small, yet good at what they do, wedding photography.

You’ll find that these tend to be very high priced into the $3,000- $15,000+ range bringing along with it their brands and speak to those with high incomes and standards.

In fact, just 4% of the market makes up these elite photographers and you will not have a single issue when it comes to quality and what they bring to the table.

In fact, many of them will have medium format cameras that can be in the $40,000+ range alone.

How to Know Which Photographer to Hire

When you’re looking for the best wedding photographer for your wedding, you have three things that you first need to compare.

Let me dive a bit deeper into that for just a moment.

It boils down to experience, quality, price and value, the four most important keys to finding a vendor.

In a nutshell, you should spend roughly 10-12% of your budget on photos and 10-12% on your video, totaling 20-24% f your overall wedding budget.

Anything more and you’re just tossing your money out the window to the vendor that you hired.

Anything less, well, it’s a huge roll of the dice and I’ll explain why.

The thing that I teach couples is that you need to leave your emotion at the door when selecting wedding vendors, that includes myself and my wife.

The MORE your emotions are going off the charts, the MORE likely you are to overpay in a wedding vendor and trust me there are PLENTY of vendors out there that want nothing more but to take as much of your money as they can.

Wedding vendors give me grief because I tell this to couples, but honestly, it’s the truth.

See, the wedding industry is much like the automobile industry, the more emotional you are towards liking someone’s work, the more likely you are going to pay whatever price they have.

One thing that I will also tell you is that not all vendors are the same. Some are real business’s, some are just fly-by-night ones, some pay taxes, some don’t, some are insured, again, some are not.

That brings me to my next point, the four keys on what to look for in a vendor.

Price, Experience, Value and Quality

These are the three main elements that you need to seek out when finding a wedding vendor of any category. While its not the only way to book a vendor, it IS the most important.

Price is a given already, that 10-12% or 20-24% if you choose to book photos and video. Say your wedding was the national average of $34,000, that according to Wedding Wire/theKnot.

About 20% of that number is just under $7,000. Realistically however most couples are going to spend closer to $17,000 which translates to $3,400.

To figure out your budget number just take the total wedding budget number and divide by .20%.

Price also depends on the number of hours a photographer is going to work and there is lots that you don’t see.

Prep time and post production time usually outweigh the time at the wedding day 2-3 to 1.

Experience plays a huge role in the overall quality of the work the wedding vendor is going to produce for you.

Someone with a years’ experience will not do as well as someone with 15 years’ experience generally.

Our rule of thumb is this: Try to work with vendors with more than 5 year’s experience if you want a vendor that will not make as many mistakes or one that knows how to circumvent them when they happen.

Quality will come from that experience as they are able to refine their craft over time and this is what you want to be aware of when selecting someone. Usually, the more experience they have, the better they are at what they do, that’s why both experience and quality play hand in hand.

Finally, value-added services play an important role with the cost. Things like free USB’s, added time, free gifts, a warranty, upgrades, albums, second shooters are examples of what value is.

For you, the bride, value is the extra things that come to the table.

Narrow the Search for the Right Wedding Photographer

In order to help narrow down your search for the right professional, you can do a few things.

First, take your budget number and create a range from it. You can use this tool below to figure out that number and the range to seek.

Once you have the number, you can start the search process and there are a few ways to go about that.

1. Using social media to ask

2. Using a search engine to ask

3. Ask friends and family for advice

The first two are going to be your wide cast search that you will use to narrow a professional.

Our advice, be specific, the more you are the narrower the search and the better results you will get.

Many times I will see a generic search for a wedding vendor with no date, no price range, a vague idea of what they want and the like.

Well, that’s a bad solution. When you are generic you get everything under the sun from budget photographers to luxury ones most people can’t afford, those that are booked on your date and those that aren’t all in the same query.

Instead be VERY specific, here is a good and bad example of the process.

A Bad Example: “ISO a wedding photographer that is affordable and can cover our wedding all day…”

A Good Example: “In search of a dark and moody wedding photographer for our wedding June 29th, 2023 that can give us 9 hours coverage in the Metro area. Our budget is in the range of $2,700 and $3,300.”

Are THEY a Good Fit?

Even if all the elements above align within your criteria, you need to seek out if they are going to be a great fit for you guys at the wedding.

Many times, I will connect with clients via email or chat, but the best way to see if they’re going to connect with you is to call them or visit them in person if possible.

Sometimes vendors personalities just don’t click with yours or your vision of the wedding doesn’t fit their brand, hey, sometimes it happens.

It’s also a great way for us vendors to see if we click with you as well.

I can tell you from experience that we also look for signs of being a bridezilla or someone that is over-demanding and if we think they are, we’ll pass you off to someone else.

Have a Signed Contract

No matter who you work with, make sure you have a signed contract that both parties have copies of for your protection.

While this is a wedding, it’s also a business transaction too, so keep that in mind as you book vendors.

I’ve seen too many horror stories across the nation where couples book a $500 wedding photographer and they either show up, halfway do the work and never give the images, they do the work and give crappy images that aren’t professional at all or worse, they just don’t show up to your wedding day.

Make sure you have these elements in any wedding contract:

Their business and personal name, mailing address, a cancellation policy, a reschedule policy and a SOW or statement of work that they are to do.

It helps both you and the vendor if there are any questions about anything or if you need to seek legal action on the vendor at hand.

Wedding Videographers & Filmmakers

As a fellow filmmaker, I can tell you that when you book your wedding photographer, you also need to book the wedding videographer.

Some companies like ours is both under one roof, offering wedding photography and video/film in the same business.

Videographer, filmmaker and cinematographer all go hand in hand, the main difference is in the price and what you get.

• A videographer is someone that documents the wedding and provides you a basic video of the wedding day. Think longer videos that just capture the day.

• A filmmaker is going to offer those basics but go a step further and give you a highlight video, sometimes called a feature film or wedding movie of sorts. There is an element of story telling in one of the products that they offer.

• A cinematographer is going to offer you a story style film only, no video.

All three are done on digital video however and done in similar ways, its the end result in what you get that define the name mostly as well as price

When shopping around, find someone that will provide you a ceremony video thats edited with two or more cameras and a good microphone so you can actually hear what’s being said. You’ll also want someone that offers reception highlights in some way and if possible, a small highlight film or feature film.

Pricing will be less than a wedding photographer most times and you can expect that the average range is going to run you in the $1,800 range as thats the national average when it comes to ranges.

You can however, find very professional ones upwards in the $5,000-$10,000+ range too and they are highly skilled at storytelling.

A few things that will want to make sure of when hiring a videographer/filmmaker include:

• They have HD equipment (4K optional)

• They have multiple cameras at the ceremony

• They have wireless microphones and audio recorders

• Lights and tripods

• They are licensed and insured

Finally, if do find someone that you like, photo, video, or both be sure to see if they’re a good fit for you and your soon-to-be, when you reach out to them see if they do more than just talking about what they do and what they offer.

Being able to build that relationship in addition to being a vendor is a good sign that they are vested in you as a person and not just a sale.

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