Choosing a wedding photographer is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. The photos are the only thing left when the day is over. The flowers wilt, the cake gets eaten, and memories blur after a few years. The photos remain.
Even so, I see many couples book a photographer based on Instagram alone, only to realise afterwards that they don’t really know what they’ve ordered. How many photos do you get? Who owns them? What happens if the photographer gets sick?
Here are ten questions I think every couple should ask before signing the contract. I’ve written them as if you’re asking me, but they work just as well with any photographer.
1. What’s actually included in the package?
This sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly often unclear. Do you get photos from the whole day, or only parts? Are the preparations included? How late into the evening does the photographer stay? Is a second shooter included, or is that an add-on?
Ask to get it in writing. A photographer who can’t answer this precisely probably hasn’t thought it through carefully enough either.
2. How many photos do we get, and when?
The number varies enormously. Some deliver 200 carefully selected images, others deliver 800. Both can be right. The important thing is that you know what you’re getting.
Also ask about delivery time. Two weeks is optimistic for most photographers. Six to twelve weeks is normal. If someone promises a finished album in a week, I’d be sceptical of how thorough the editing is.
My own answer: I usually deliver between 400 and 600 finished, edited photos, with a delivery time of around eight weeks. If you also book video, it usually comes 12 to 16 weeks after the wedding, since editing and colour grading take longer than people think.
3. Who owns the photos?
A question many don’t think about, but which can become important later. Are you allowed to print the photos yourselves? Can you make a photo book through another supplier? Can you post them on social media?
With some photographers, the answer is no to several of these. With others, including me, you get full usage rights to the photos after delivery. The only thing I ask is credit if you share them publicly.
4. What happens if you get sick on the wedding day?
It rarely happens, but it does happen. Flu, stomach bug, a broken wrist the day before. Ask what the plan is.
A serious photographer has a network of colleagues who can step in if the worst happens. Ask to hear specifically who they are, or how the back-up system works.
5. How much experience do you have with weddings specifically?
There’s a difference between a good portrait photographer and a good wedding photographer. A wedding day is chaotic, the light changes constantly, and you don’t get a do-over if something is missed. It demands a different kind of calm and preparation than a planned photo session.
Ask how many weddings the photographer has shot. Ask to see a complete wedding gallery, not just the highlights from Instagram. That’s where you see whether the quality holds up through the whole day.
6. Can we see a complete gallery from a previous wedding?
This is the most important question on the list. Instagram only shows the very best out of hundreds of photos. A complete gallery shows how the photographer handles bad light, group portraits, chaotic dance floor scenes and all the less glamorous parts of the day.
If the photographer hesitates or only shows selected favourites, I’d dig deeper. There’s no good reason not to want to show a complete delivery example.
7. How do you work on the day itself?
Some photographers are very discreet and disappear into the background. Others actively direct and set up scenes. Both approaches can produce beautiful photos, but they create completely different experiences.
Ask what to expect. Will the photographer ask you to pose? How much direction will there be in the family portraits? How much time is set aside for portraits of the two of you?
My own approach is mostly documentary. I like to capture the day as it is, with as little interference as possible. But when we do portraits, I take charge so you don’t have to think. If you want a sense of what this looks like in practice, it helps to read about the wedding day timeline — there I walk through how I split the time across the day.
8. What’s your editing style?
The images that come out of the camera aren’t what you get. Every photo is edited, and the photographer’s editing style is at least as important as the composition.
Does the photographer prefer light and airy images, or dark and moody? Warm tones or cool? Natural colours or a specific palette?
Ask to see photos from different seasons and lighting conditions. It’s easy to make beautiful images on a summer evening in June. A winter wedding in grey December light is a different matter entirely.
9. Do we meet before the wedding?
You’re going to spend many hours together on the day itself. The photographer will be there when you get dressed, when you tear up at the altar, and when you dance late into the evening. It’s a fairly intimate role.
A meeting well in advance of the wedding isn’t just about practical planning; it’s about chemistry. If it feels uncomfortable to sit in the same room as the photographer for an hour, you’ll feel it on the day too.
I always have at least one meeting with couples before the wedding, and more if you’d like. It costs nothing and makes my job a lot better.
10. What’s the most important thing we haven’t thought of?
This is my favourite question, and it works as a litmus test.
An experienced photographer has seen 30 weddings. You’ve probably never been at a wedding as the couple before. There’s guaranteed to be something you haven’t thought of, and the photographer probably knows what it is.
If the answer is “no, you’ve covered most of it”, I’d be sceptical. If the answer is something concrete like “I often see couples forget to set aside time to eat” or “you’re underestimating how long family portraits take”, you’ve found a photographer who’s actually been there many times before.
One last piece of advice
Price matters, but it’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is to find a photographer who understands you, whom you trust, and whose photos you’ll be glad to look at again in twenty years. (If you’re wondering about price ranges, I’ve written an honest walk-through of what a wedding photographer costs in Norway.)
The photographer is probably the only supplier you’ll spend several hours with on the day itself. Pick someone you actually want to be around.
Good luck with the search.
Wondering about something not on the list? Get in touch and I’ll happily answer, no obligation.