Today, My Wedding Hero welcomes a guest blogger and bride-to-be, Jenna Andersen (Check out her own blog at That Bride!).

With a professional wedding photographer for a mother and an up-and-coming (already amazing) photographer for a sister, making the photography decision was an important one for me. It’s a daunting task, what I consider to be the most important decision I will make throughout the planning process. I thought there might be others feeling a little bit overwhelmed, and so I created a little guide to choosing someone perfect for you!

1. Do your homework.
Yes it takes hours, but spend the time browsing through all of those sites will pay off in the end. Some excellent resources for finding photographers include Wedfog and the Association of Wedding Photojournalists.

2. Decide where photography sits on your priority list.
My mother is a photographer, so photography actually sits at #1 for me. I made sure to allot a very large chunk of my budget towards it, and I have done a lot of research looking for someone who will provide me with photos I can swoon over for the next 50 years. Although this is a choice that many brides make, I would never choose to have a semi-pro or a friend shoot my wedding for a discount. I want someone with experience who I know I can trust to capture the day so that I can relive it over and over.

3. Decide what type of style you are looking for in your photographer.
Labeling a photographer as “photojournalistic” is all the rage right now, and the practice is so widespread that it is becoming quite difficult to find a photographer who doesn’t practice some type of photojournalistic style. First decide if you like the spontaneous images created with this style, and then look for other details that interest you.

Photos I love look something like this:

While the photos that catch the eye of my guy look something like this:

Photo by Jessica Claire

4. Send out emails to everyone you are (even remotely) interested in.
I would suggest asking about a couple different things right off the bat to cut down on the amount of emails you will have to exchange back and forth

• The date you are interested in booking for.
• Pricing Information
• A request to see a contract (read the fine print to make sure you are guaranteed the head photographer, and other such important aspects)
• Full examples of past weddings (of course photographers are only posting their absolute best photos on their blogs and websites, make sure you see what the entire day will look like using these examples)
• Travel Fees

I typed up a form email in word, and then just used the BCC function to email all of the photographers at once without them knowing. When a photographer used a contact form on their website instead of giving me an email address, I simply copy and pasted the information I had already created.

5. Don’t box your photographer in.
I think this rule should apply to all wedding vendors. Don’t hire someone for what you want them to do, hire them for what they can do. If you were hiring a seamstress to design your dress, you wouldn’t want to hire someone who specializes in creating dance costumes for children’s dance recitals, unless you want a dress that looks like it belongs in a dance recital (see The Titanic Wedding Dress Story for a real life example of what can happen when the right vendor isn’t hired!)

Basically this idea boils down to choosing someone based on their portfolio and individual style. I absolutely adore the photos of Heather Gilson, and she is even in my price range, but she doesn’t fit the style that we are looking for as a couple. My guy loves Jessica Claire, but I would never hire Heather and ask her to shoot photos that look like Jessica’s. I want to hire someone and let them naturally capture the day, not run around scrambling to create a fabrication of what they think I might like.

6. Give your photographer some direction, especially when it comes to important details that you spent months creating.
I remember reading a blog of a bride who had spent hours and hours creating all kinds of detailed DIY projects for her wedding, and was so disappointed to get her pictures and realize that almost none of those small details were captured. Although it isn’t necessary to create a portfolio of shots that “must be captured” on your day (especially if you are interesting in hiring someone who lables themselves a photojournalistic wedding photographer, as they will be trying to capture the day in a natural manner), a photo checklist can be a good place to start figuring out what images are important to you. I have a special relationship with one of my grandmother’s and so it is important to me that I have a few shots with her through the day. It is images like this that I will be directing my photographer to look for and attempt to capture as they are happening.

This is just a jumping off point, but hopefully it will help in getting started on making this important decision. If you have already found the photographer of your dreams, feel free to comment and let me know who you found!

~Jenna