Photos on thumbnail courtesy of Ama by Aisha #amabyclaudia.
Without a doubt, one wedding vendor that will serve a big role on your special day is the photographer! From the getting ready moments through the final send-off, they’ll be close by and will be responsible for capturing all of the memorable moments. Here at Madera Estates, our team has been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work with so many talented wedding photographers over the years and it never gets old seeing the stunning photo albums from past weddings.
Since your vendors are such an integral part of your wedding day, we often like to provide tips on our blog about creating a wedding vendor dream team capable of bringing every aspect of your dream wedding to life! As you can likely guess based on the opening paragraph, this week’s blog post is going to be solely focused on the photographer. Everyone loves having beautiful photos from their “Best Day Ever” and a major factor in ensuring these photos exceed your expectations is going to involve hiring a qualified photographer! Throughout this week’s blog post, we’ll touch on a few things that your Houston wedding photographer MUST have.
Experience
When it comes to wedding photography, wouldn’t you agree that there’s only one chance to capture many of these special moments? Granted some of these moments may last longer than others (such as the kiss during the ceremony compared to the first dance at the reception), the truth is your photographer needs to be ready to go for each of these moments and have their camera equipment all set up! With that being said, our first quality that you should look for with a wedding photographer is EXPERIENCE. No matter what industry it may be in or which vendor you’re referring to, you can’t understate the importance of experience. For a photographer, in particular, experience allows for the ability to not only know where they need to be throughout a wedding day, but also they likely won’t get rattled by the urgency of a wedding day. They’ll know all of the major moments that are must-haves in a wedding photo album and can review this with the couple beforehand. This way, everyone will be on the same page and can make any changes to the recommended shots ahead of time. All in all, experience allows for the entire process to be seamless.
Ability to Provide Suggestions
While most couples will have an idea of several photo opportunities they’ll want included in their photo album, chances are they won’t know every possible option. This is where you lean on your photographer’s expertise. Just as is the case with any of the other vendors, it’s important to remember that vendors can be an excellent source of information in the months leading up to your big day, so don’t hesitate to ask questions and accept recommendations. If you’re unsure of what shots you need to capture at different stages of the wedding day, your photographer should be able to provide plenty of awesome suggestions.
Quality Examples From Past Weddings
As you start browsing through potential wedding photographers to hire, you’ll notice there are numerous possibilities to pick from (especially in a large city like Houston). As such, one way to determine if a photographer is right for you is to check out photos from past weddings they’ve worked at. This will provide some insight into their individual style of photography, as well as the overall quality. At the end of the day, you’re going to want the photos to be stunning, so evaluating some of their past work is a huge factor in the equation!
Personality
While skill and experience are arguably the first two things you’ll look for in a wedding photographer, remember when I mentioned in the opening paragraph how your photographer will be close by your side throughout the entire wedding day? Well…with that being the case, you’re going to want a photographer that’s easy to get along with too! After all, this is supposed to be the “Best Day Ever” and you don’t want someone bringing down the mood, right?
Efficient Process
Our next quality that we’ll discuss actually has some similarities to the “experience” section above. Since an experienced photographer will have worked plenty of weddings over the years, they’ll likely have the whole process down to a science. Whether that be in regards to the pre-wedding meetings, the wedding day itself or the post-wedding process, everything should flow smoothly! For this section though, I would like to highlight the “post-wedding” aspect. After your wedding day, I’m going to guess that you’ll be excited to see all of the photos as soon as possible. You may be expecting a sneak peak shortly after the wedding day and hopefully won’t have to wait too long after for the completed album. When meeting with potential photographers, make sure to ask about what the process looks like after the wedding day is finished and when you can expect to receive the finished photos!
Transparent Pricing
A major factor in ensuring a stress-free wedding planning process is going to involve having a budget established early on. This will help in determining who’s paying for what, as well as an understanding of how much you can allocate for the different vendors (photographer, florist, caterer, DJ, etc). When selecting a wedding photographer, make sure all of the pricing is transparent and straightforward. In particular, you’ll want to know what’s included in the different packages and if there are any additional fees. Think of questions like:
- How many photographers will be on-site at the wedding?
- How many hours will they be at the venue?
- How will you receive the finished photos and are any prints included?
All in all, pricing will undoubtedly have the potential to be a deciding factor in which photographer you select, so it’s something we had to mention here!
Availability
This last point might sound like a no-brainer, but obviously the one thing a potential photographer must have is availability on your particular wedding date! In fact, this will likely be the first question you’ll ask when inquiring with various photographers. As we’ve highlighted on several previous blog posts about wedding planning, it’s important to stay diligent on your to-do’s leading up to the big day. To take it one step further, there are certain tasks that are more time-sensitive than others. Setting a budget and touring/booking a venue will likely be two of the first priorities. However, soon after, you’ll start to direct your attention to some of the other major vendors, like caterers and photographers. To hopefully improve the odds of your favorite photographer being available on your wedding date, we recommend avoiding procrastinating on selecting this important wedding vendor!
Still Need a Wedding Venue? Check Out Madera Estates!
As a wedding venue that’s hosted hundreds of weddings over the years, we have been able to work with several talented photographers from the Houston area. Having seen the beautiful photos that come from these wedding days, we can confidently say that it’s worth taking your time in the photographer selection process to ensure you hire someone that you absolutely love! We hope you found some helpful tips in this blog post and have a better idea of what to look for as you meet with different photographers.
If you’re still searching for a wedding venue near Houston, feel free to click HERE to check out our Investment Guide. It includes several key details about hosting a wedding at our venue. We would love to show you around our venue on a tour and answer any questions that you may have. Happy wedding planning!