Questions to Ask Your Wedding Photographer

You are not auditing them. You are finding out whether the day they are imagining is the day you are imagining — and getting the boring things in writing while everyone is still being agreeable.

How to use this list

Do not ask forty questions. A consultation that turns into an interrogation tells a photographer you will be difficult to work with, and the good ones are choosing you too.

Pick the eight or ten that matter for your wedding. If you are getting married in a dark church in November, ask about low light. If your venue is an hour from anywhere, ask about travel and overtime. Skip the rest — most of it is in the contract, and the contract is the thing to actually read.

Before you book

• Are you available, and is that hold firm? Obvious, but ask whether a date is held or provisionally held, and what makes it firm.
• Will you be the one shooting? At larger studios the person you meet is not always the person who turns up. This is the question couples most regret not asking.
• Have you shot at our venue? Not a dealbreaker either way. A yes means less scouting; a no is worth a conversation about when they will visit.
• How many weddings do you take in a weekend? Two in two days is normal. Two in one day is a reason to ask more questions.
• What happens if you are ill? A real answer names a network or an association they can call. A vague one is a risk you are accepting knowingly.

Money, including the parts that come later

The quoted number is rarely the final number. Ask what turns it into a bigger one.

• What is included in the base price, hour for hour? Get the coverage window in writing.
• What does an extra hour cost on the day? Receptions run long. Knowing the rate in advance turns a stressful decision into a small one.
• Is travel, accommodation or a second shooter extra?
• What do albums and prints cost if we want them later? Ask now, while you are a prospect rather than a past client.
• What is the deposit, and is it refundable? Almost never refundable. Ask anyway, and ask what happens if you move the date.

The contract

Three things belong in writing, and couples routinely discover they are not.

• How many edited images, and by when? “Six to eight weeks” is normal. “When they are ready” is not an answer.
• Who can use the photographs, and how? Most photographers retain copyright and grant you personal use. That is standard. What you want to know is whether they will publish images of your wedding, and whether you can ask them not to.
• Do we get the unedited files? Usually no, and that is a defensible position rather than a red flag. Better to know now than to ask for them in March.

Style, and how they work

• How would you describe your approach on the day? You are listening for how much they direct. Some photographers move people; some disappear. Both produce good work, and one of them will suit you.
• How do you feel about a shot list? The answer tells you a lot. Most photographers want a short, specific one and are wary of forty-page documents copied off a blog. If you want to know what a useful one looks like, that is a whole guide of its own.
• How do you handle family photos? Ask how long they budget. If they say twenty minutes for twenty groupings, they are optimistic, and the math is worth walking through together.
• What do you do in bad light? Relevant for winter weddings, dark churches and late receptions. Ask to see something shot in conditions like yours.

The day itself

• Will you help build the timeline? Most experienced photographers will, and they are often better at it than the venue. Take the offer.
• When do you need the final details? Usually a week or two out. Put their deadline in your calendar now — see when to send the shot list.
• Do you carry backup equipment, and insurance? Two cameras is the expected answer. Many venues require liability insurance, so your venue may ask you for this anyway.
• Do you need a meal and a break? Yes, and it should be at the same time you eat, not during the toasts.
• How do you back up the files that night? Dual card slots and an off-site copy. Every working photographer has an answer ready.

The questions they will ask you

A good photographer runs this in both directions, and the questions they ask are the ones you should have answers to before the consultation:

• Who are the people that absolutely cannot be missed?
• Is there anything sensitive in the family — divorced parents, an estrangement, a recent bereavement?
• Who can we ask when we cannot find someone?
• What does your grandmother look like?

That last one is not a joke. It is the question that costs the most time on the day, and the one couples are least prepared for. A name on a list is not a face in a room of 120 people — which is what a face sheet exists to solve.

After you book

Put three dates in your calendar the week you sign: when the balance is due, when they need your final details, and when the gallery is contractually due. Those three dates prevent most of the friction that couples later describe as a communication problem.

Everything your photographer needs from you — the shot list, the names, the faces, the table numbers — comes out of the guest list you are already keeping. In Seat the Day it builds a shot list and a Who’s Who sheet from that one list, so the answers are ready when they ask.