How to Pick Your Wedding Photographer

Written By Kiera Steffan

I know how overwhelming it can be trying to pick a wedding photographer. So where should you start? A lot of people say to wait until you have your venue booked and your date locked in before you start looking for your photographer, but I don’t think you need to! If you want to book your dream photographer, I recommend narrowing down your top 5 as soon as you can. Then, as soon as your venue and date are secured, you can inquire right away for a better chance that they’ll have your date available!

So how do you find your dream wedding photographer? Grab a notebook, or a spreadsheet and Google wedding photographers in your area. As you look through your options, write down the name of each photographer you find. If you don’t like a photographer’s style, or they are outside of your budget, still add their name, followed by “no”. This will save you time later when you’re looking on The Knot or Instagram. You can refer to your list and you won’t have to look through the same photographer’s work multiple times.

When you find a wedding photographer that you love, write down their starting price next to their name. This will make it easier to narrow down your options later.

Once you have looked at all of the wedding photographers in your area on Google, move on to Instagram. Refer to your list and try to look at photographers that you haven’t already found on Google to make sure you look at all your options. After looking through Instagram, move on to The Knot or a similar wedding vendor website and see if there’s any photographers you missed.

At this point you probably have a very long list of potential wedding photographers, and a lot that you know you don’t want. Make a new list with your top picks. Now I recommend doing a deep dive on all the photographers on your new list. Look through their Instagram and their website.

Important questions to ask yourself while looking through a wedding photographer’s socials:

  • Is their editing style consistent?

  • Do they capture emotional moments or just posed portraits?

  • Are there negative Google reviews?

  • Can they take good pictures in any lighting situation?

  • Do they pay attention to small details?

  • Are any add ons included? - engagement session, second shooter

  • How much experience do they have?

Asking yourself these questions should help you narrow down your list so you will be ready to inquire when you’re ready!



Kiera Steffan