Happy Wednesday!
This weekend Andrew and I started the fun task of sorting through the ridiculous amount of photographers in the Columbus area. Wowsah. So many!
So far we are considering photographers who are obviously in our budget and have affordable packages for 10 hours/all day.
We're also looking through recommended photographers from my sorority sisters' weddings (heck yeah word of mouth!). Our process so far is to scroll through websites and the portfolios therein, asses available packages, and decide whether or not we want to contact them for further information.
...and I have to stop being a snob about the websites. Yes, I do web analytics for a living and work with incredibly talented web designers so I get particularly frustrated when I see junk on the screen trying to sell me. I need to get over it. However, web design is a good investment! Sheesh!
[End soap box.]
But yeah, any photographer can post pretty pictures on their site. How do you know who to choose? I'm thinking I should Yelp all of these photographers and see if they're rated anywhere like The Knot or WeddingWire...which means they cost more, right?
Do you have any tips on finding the right photographer?
I read Le Magnifique Blog's post on the subject. The author, Damaris, provided tips and I created a list of what to look for when hiring a photographer:
I read Le Magnifique Blog's post on the subject. The author, Damaris, provided tips and I created a list of what to look for when hiring a photographer:
I also read the below tips for photographers on Pinterest, so at least I can see if the photographer will do these things:
Do you have anything to add? How did you choose yours? Since we won't meet any of them in person until we hire one do you have any questions that we should ask them over the phone?
Thanks for your input!
5 comments:
Yay wedding planning. Could you ask to have a skype meeting with them? That way you can get their vibe and see how they interact with you in person (virtually :)).
a lot of photographers don't have prices on their website, either, so e-mail them for info. one of the best decisions i've made so far was to create a gmail account JUST for wedding e-mail. that way nothing gets lost in my regular inbox, and i don't care if a ton of vendors have my e-mail address since i'll be deleting it post-wedding anyway.
i looked at a lot of the vendors that our friends have used before - unfortunately most of them were well out of our price range, which made me jealous. lol.
also, DEFINITELY READ REVIEWS on wedding wire (or the knot, but i've noticed WW is better - idk if the knot deletes some of the bad reviews of their "preferred" vendors or what). that is the best way to know how a photog (or any vendor) works if you can't get first-hand information from a previous client.
i found ours that way - read reviews on WW, checked websites and facebook pages (some people can't afford/choose not to spend $ on a fancy web design), then started e-mailing the ones i liked for info. out of the photogs i contacted, the one we chose was easily the most friendly, most accommodating, and had the best prices for what we want (artsy, less posey, more candid, etc.). :)
good luck! <3
ahhh good luck! i'll have to start planning for this sorta stuff too blah. i always love word of mouth if it's coming from someone i trust. good luck!
-- jackiejade.blogspot.com
Agree with Callie on The Knot reviews. There's practically no negative reviews which seems fishy to me...
Make sure you take advantage of the message boards on The Knot though (you'll probably see me on the Columbus one!) People are always asking if anyone knows of budget friendly vendors or vendors who fit whatever criteria they're looking for. A lot of times people will post vendor reviews after their wedding too.
It's also a good place to vent/freak out if you need. After we booked our venue for some reason I kept panicking that we wouldn't be able to get good pictures there. So I posted something and one of the girls who had her wedding in the same place sent me pictures of hers so I could see how they set it up and what shots they got.
I had a budget in mind, but we went above it. And you know what, that was ok. One huge thing for me was how well the photographer meshed with us. Jeremy hates taking pictures so finding a photographer that jelled with him was a big deal for us. Our photographer was more than we wanted to pay but these were the most important things to us. I was SHOCKED at how much photographers were. It is so much more than I figured we would be spending, but I absolutely love our photographer and I can't wait for him to take pictures of our wedding.
And websites are a HUGE deal to me too. If they don't have a professional website, then I really don't trust them with my money.
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