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One of THE most important things you can do when you start planning your wedding is listen to the seasoned advice of wedding vendors, and in particular wedding photographers. These guys and gals have seen it ALL, and they have pretty invaluable advice when it comes to not only how you can pull together the wedding of your dreams, but for spotting the other vendors who can help you do it. This Instagram post from one of our favorite real wedding photographers, Jessica Roberts Photography, recently caught our eye (you can see her gorgeous real weddings on our site here). In it Jessica shares her tips for finding the right wedding photographer for YOU, which is always a confusing question many new brides deal with. We love her advice, below. (And be sure to follow Jessica Roberts Photography on Instagram if you’re not already for some daily inspiration.)
Use our Wedding Planning Checklist to make sure you are on schedule (and on budget).
From Jessica Roberts Photography:
If you’re engaged, you might have had a moment or ten where you felt totally overwhelmed by the number of vendors there are out there to consider. As one of many, I get it. I thought I’d share some advice for starting the photographer search!
1. START ON INSTA.
Browse Instagram for styles that draw your eye. This is the easiest social media platform to do this on. Hashtag searches for your state followed by wedding photographer, or your venue will weed out most of the photographers who’d be charging you travel to come work with you. (And if you don’t mind paying travel you can search really broad hashtags!) I always use #scweddingphotographer among some other specific cities.
2. BROWSE REALISTIC POSING.
You’ll see dark and moody images, serious model poses, happy fun photos that don’t look like poses (this is my category!), you’ll see all kinds of editing, you’ll see digital images and film images. Find what’s drawing you and start searching that photog’s IG for posing that you can see you and your fiancé doing. Just because you love a serious face shot or a make out session because it’s beautiful doesn’t make it realistic to YOU! So step one is find the locals, step two is find the editing that’s drawing your eye and the posing that really looks like you guys.
3. SEE REAL WEDDINGS.
Contact who you’re loving, and ask to see full galleries. Some photographers have a great highlight reel, but it wouldn’t look like a real wedding day if you hired that person. Make sure you not only love the highlight reel, but you can totally get down with the full wedding days they shoot too! Daytime, evening, after dark…gotta love it all.
4. LEARN THEIR PERSONALITY.
When you meet with a photographer, decide if you could be friends in real life. An off-putting personality will feel 50 times worse on a wedding day because we are with you ALL DAY LONG. You need to feel happy with your people, so if you could be friends in real life, she’s a keeper!! If you’re awkward in front of the camera, make sure she can make you feel comfortable. This is the difference between looking like yourselves and looking like Ricky Bobby. It’s important!
