All the right questions to ask

The Best Guide Around To Finding Your Ideal Photographer!

Choosing the right Wedding Photographer is harder now than it’s ever been. Couples tell us of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available, and the range of fees, quality & service is huge. Knowing the right questions to ask is the first step on the way to knowing how to choose a Wedding Photographer with confidence. Wedding planning can be stressful and your photographs are going to last forever, so reading this article will put you ahead of most couples navigating this exciting part of your Wedding planning journey.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Choosing a Wedding Photographer is a hugely important personal choice, and as active members of Houston’s Wedding & Events community we know and love a great many of our fellow Wedding Photographers.

It is with this love at heart that I write this guide with all nearly-weds in mind, to aid you in making the very best choice for you, whoever that choice may be!

Daniel Meadows

So we’re here to break down these key points, so that you can make informed decisions, avoid lost time and be safe from ill-equipped vendors. We’re going to take a lot of the guesswork out of how to find the best photographer for your Wedding, in an effort to make sure that you hire the right people (yes, even if that perfect Photography team is someone else!).

So let’s go! Confidently approaching choosing a Wedding Photographer in a saturated market comes down to navigating the three steps below.

• What To look for before you reach out to your potential Wedding PhotographeRS

• What to expect with pricing

• What questions to ask your shortlist of Wedding Photography Candidates

What To Look For

First up, what to look for when initially adding photographers to your potential Wedding Photographer shortlist!

An important first step is to decide what style fits you? You may have looked around at a number of Wedding Photographers by this point, on websites like this one or on social media, and may have an idea of what you’re starting to love. At Daniel Meadows Weddings we thrive on getting those magazine cover compositions and editorial storytelling, putting a cinematic touch of magic on the story of your day, but you might vibe with something different, a purely fly-on-the-wall documentarian style, or perhaps a highly stylized popular ‘filtered’ look. Whatever your preference, start to make a list of photographers who could record and present this most special of days in a way that you will continue to love throughout your new married life.

Look for photographers with more than just a handful of Weddings and evidence of a few years in business, bonus points if they’ve worked at your venue or one similar. Look for examples of their detail shots, and how they light receptions. A photographer with only portraits of the bride & groom might be exceptional at that task, but if they aren’t proudly displaying everything from dances to cake cutting, bouquet-tosses and exits, this can be evidence of a lack of confidence in these areas, especially if you see no examples of post-sunset lighting.

Check reviews online and look for any patterns of poor conduct or service. The words, kind or otherwise, of previous brides and grooms can be invaluable in making your decision.

I’ll be the first to admit that I really don’t blog nearly as often as I ought to, but helpful guides like this one are a good sign that your potential photographer is invested in their profession and in the successful outcome of your Big Day. Look for evidence of your potential Photographer as a human being, blogs, Reels, TikToks, anything that shows you who they are as a person, even if it’s just their ‘About’ page. You’ll spend more time around them on your Wedding Day than almost anyone else so it’s important that you’ll enjoy their company!

As a final check, look for any affiliations with relevant local and national professional networking organizations. We are members in good standing with the National Association of Catering and Events (NACE) and Diamond Partners of Houston’s Association of Wedding Planners (AWP). While not vital they do show ongoing engagement with the local events community, a commitment to continued education and the trust of other Wedding Vendors in the area. Awards and publications can be a positive sign too!

The Cost of Your Wedding Photography Package

Wedding Photography is a milestone investment into a treasure you’ll keep forever, and for your Wedding Photographer it is an investment of several days of skilled work before and beyond the Big Day. At Daniel Meadows Wedding Photography for example, each Wedding is about a week to two weeks of hands-on commitment to making your final product something that you’ll adore.

From our marketing efforts to reach you, our first emails and consultations, being here to answer all of your calls and emails and give advice, planning and shooting your Engagement Session, coordination with your Planner/Venue Coordinator on timelines, from the Wedding Day itself to several days of editing per Wedding gallery, each Wedding is a substantial project that requires a broad professional skillset. Expenses include gear upgrade and maintenance, assistant photographer pay, website and CRM, software subscriptions, insurance, and then our payment portal fees and taxes, leaving out of pocket expenses between one and two thousand dollars per Wedding.

There’ll be a whole range of potential Wedding Package fees to consider, probably anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $10,000+, and knowing the approximate average for your area is going to be a crucial part of deciding how to choose a Wedding Photographer for the Big Day. Fees are higher here in Houston that national average, reflecting the costs of doing business in a big city. There are exceptions to every rule but generally speaking, those under $2000 are either new and developing their craft, or Weddings are simply not their professional focus. This doesn’t mean that they won’t prove to be a reliable person or take great shots, but it can mean that that they are under-equipped for unforeseen circumstances. In the $3000-$7000 bracket you’ll find a range of professionals with experience and ability, and beyond this price point you will begin to find the most sought-after luxury offerings.

Remember that the cheapest photographers are less likely to be running full-time businesses registered in your state, insured, paying the right taxes, or investing in their ongoing education and gear maintenance. It certainly can be a big win if you find a good artist looking for a little extra cash for a lesser occasion, but a photographer offering Wedding services in this manner runs the risk of an investigation or collapse right before your Wedding Day and are simply not worth the risk. Online Wedding planning groups tend to be full of accounts of terrible experiences and the ‘too good to be true’ prices mean that corners are definitely being cut somewhere and this can and often does lead to problems.

Payment plans are commonly available with most Photographers, allowing you to break down the expense into several smaller payments.

What To Ask

You’ve found your potential Photographer or a shortlist of Photographers, let’s reach out and ask them some questions!

Do you have a ‘second shooter’?

Elopement or small ceremony Photographers can be exempt from this, but for most Weddings you’re going to want your Photographer to bring an Assistant Photographer along. The first reason is for more comprehensive coverage of the event, especially when you and your partner are situated apart before the First Look or Ceremony. It’s very hard for a single Photographer to cover both of you, especially if you’re driving distance apart, and even if you’re in adjacent rooms wonderful moments will surely be missed.

More angles of key events is always a huge plus, I work with some of the very best photographers around and there are many occasions at each and every wedding where my assistant got the better shot and it makes it into the gallery in place of my own. Teamwork!

There’s also additional safety in having a second photographer, if any part of your lead photographer’s gear were to malfunction at an important moment, you still get the shot.

May I see a full Wedding Day gallery?

We all curate a select handful of our favorite shots to share on our portfolios and social media, when the light hit just right and everything lined up magically in the moment, but the ability to maintain quality across a whole Wedding day in a range of lighting conditions can be consistently demonstrated by any competent Wedding Photographer, and any professional would be happy to share full Wedding Day galleries with you, so be sure to ask.

Are you insured?

Make sure that your Photographer is insured and can produce a Certificate of Insurance that includes liability. This (along with Sales Tax compliance) is one of the most commonly neglected necessities for the ‘side hustle’ photographer. Insurance protects you as well as the Photographer, and many venues will reject uninsured vendors.

How will our Photographs be safely stored?

At Daniel Meadows Wedding Photography our cameras each hold two memory cards, and every shot is written in duplicate to both at the same time. We’ve never had a card fail but if one ever did, the files would remain safe on the second. Our photographers each carry two cameras, so if one were to fail, the second is ready to go with no time lost. On return to the office your files are immediately uploaded to both an internal and an external hard drive, and the memory cards are not overwritten until you receive your final gallery, meaning each photograph exists in four physical locations. The safety of your Wedding Day photographs is absolutely assured, and this should be the attitude of whoever you hire.

Ask if their cameras hold two memory cards and if they dual-write to both, and then ask how their files are stored. If their answers seem beneath industry-standard and without the highest of safeguards, weigh the risks of that with the cheaper prices they may be offering.

Will you send a contract?

Contracts enshrine the responsibilities of the Photographer and protect you, don’t hire wedding vendors without contracts! Make sure that the minimum deliverables are listed and that a time to complete delivery is established. A contract is an agreement between two parties and you deserve to have your own expectations of service protected. Don’t be afraid to request that details like the hours of coverage, a list of any additional sessions, albums, and the promised turnaround time are written in your contract.

It is your Photographer’s responsibility to provide this contract, and most of them are sent and signed digitally making the process very simple.

And finally, humbly for your consideration, please do think about adding us onto that shortlist and leave a message on the form below. My wonderful team and I have shot everything from beautiful intimate Elopements to grand elaborate Weddings with helicopter entrances and everything inbetween, in this state and others, and beyond the US. We love our Weddings here in Houston but we’re just as happy to jump on a plane to wherever you may be.

We currently take on no more than 15 Weddings per calendar year to keep the focus on our couples and deliver superlative care, and that availability does run low quickly so reach out to us with your date and venue as soon as you are able!

And if your journey to choosing the perfect Wedding Photographer takes you in a different direction, may you have the most beautiful of Wedding days and many long years of happiness ahead, with the most perfect photographs. Please let me know if this guide assists you in making your choice!