What Do You Want To Remember About Your Wedding Day? {How To Find Your Wedding Photographer – Part 3}
In your quest for the right wedding photographer to tell your story, it is important to ask about what you will receive after your big day. Because this is a big day. Photography is a significant investment in your wedding day (up to 20% of your total budget), but rightfully so. It’s the only thing that will last for decades as a tangible reminder of your day. By the end of the night, the music ends. Within the week, the food is gone and the flowers have wilted. After a year, the cake is consumed if you follow the first anniversary tradition of freezing and then eating the top tier of your cake. You should have something to hold onto to remember your wedding day. In images that tell your story. Of the day you held your sweetheart’s hand and promised forever.
What is included in the investment you are making in your photographer? How many photographs should you expect to see? Will digital files be included? All of them or just a portion and the rest are extra? How will they be delivered? Will they be low-res, medium-res or high-res files? What does that even mean? What about an album? How many spreads are included in it? Can you add more? Will it be custom designed with the photographs you select? Or will it be one image per page? These are all good questions to get answered before you make your decision.
Established wedding photographers should deliver upwards of fifty photographs for every hour they are with you. There are so many integral moments that unfold on a wedding day and you should want your story to be told in its entirety. Not just the ceremony, holding of hands, exchanging of rings, the first kiss as a married couple and then the sharing of cake bites, toasts, first dance and an exit. Don’t you want all the in between moments, too? When one of your best friends is with you while you’re getting dressed and quietly gives you a gift that touches your heart and makes you pull her tight for a big hug while blinking back tears? Bridesmaids secretly watching your First Look through the blinds? Or your Mom beaming with joy and pride as she walks you down the aisle?
There are so many elements that go into making a wedding day special. They should be documented in photographs for you to cherish the rest of your marriage. Your life. And ultimately, future generations. Because how fabulous would it be. If you had all of the photographs. That told the story of your grandparents’ wedding day. Or your great grandparents. For me, that would be priceless.
It would also be pretty fabulous if I had photographs I cherished from my own wedding day. And not just two photographs. I want better for you.
Please. Find a photographer who’s portfolio of images speak to you. Whom you can trust to tell your story. And then you can relax, knowing you will have wonderful memories to hold in your hands. You deserve that. To have photographs that you love.