When we have a potential client for a wedding, and we do a consultation at a local coffee shop, I always ask: “So what is your vision for this meeting? Do you want me to just tell you about our business, or do you have a list of questions for me?” Normally, they’ve thought of a couple of questions to ask but are at a loss beyond that. They’ve scheduled a meeting because they know there’s probably lots they should cover, but they’re not exactly sure what.
I typically cover topics with them of things I know they should be asking. Some clients will come in very prepared with a list of questions they’ve printed out that they found online, but it’s still usually lacking a lot of important questions. I know that I will cover that information with them, but it concerns me for other couples out there talking to wedding photographers.
Therefore, I decided to write up this list for couples to use when consulting a potential wedding photographer. I think it’s very important to ask these questions before putting down a deposit with a photographer.
Here are 20 Questions to ask your wedding photographer at your consultation:
1. Do you have event insurance?
Many venues now require event insurance, so if you find out down the road that your photographer doesn’t have event insurance and your venue requires it, you may get stuck paying for insurance for them, which may be an added expense you weren’t expecting.
2. What is your rain plan?
Making sure your photographer is capable and confident in handling bad weather is important, as there’s no guarantee that you’ll have nice weather on your wedding day, but you want to make sure you get nice photos no matter what. We once had a wedding that it literally rained all day long, and we actually got some of our favorite photos ever at that wedding.
3. What is your plan in case you get sick/ have a family emergency?
This isn’t likely, but obviously, photographers are humans, and they could possibly have an emergency, so you want to make sure that they have a backup plan in place. For example, we have a couple of photographer friends that we know we could call in case of an emergency.
4. How many photos will we receive?
Some photographers put a limit on how many photos they edit and send over, so you will want to be aware of this. We don’t put a limit. We feel like if it’s a good photo, we should edit it and send it over, because it may be an important photo to our couple.
5. Will our photos be watermarked?
This may seem silly to ask, but I’ve heard horror stories of couples getting their galleries back and having a watermark on every single photo. You obviously do not want that, so you will just want to confirm this with the photographer.
6. Do we have full printing rights to our photos, or do we have to go through your printing service?
Photographers will differ on this. I don’t think this is a make or break thing; however, I definitely think the next question will be a big consideration if they only allow printing through them.
7. If so, what are the printing rates?
If the photographer only allows printing through them, you will want to know the rates. If you are planning on getting any prints, canvases, albums, etc. it will be important to get the pricing on those. If those items are completely out of your price range, then that may be something to consider.
8. Will we be able to download all of our photos in high resolution?
You will want to make sure that A) you are allowed to download all of your photos free of charge and B) those downloads are high resolution. This won’t be a huge deal for things like posting to social media, but if you’re planning on doing any kind of print, you will definitely want your photos to be in high resolution so that you can get quality print products.
9. How long will our gallery stay up?
This is another one of those questions that’s really not a deal-breaker. I think it’s just important to be aware. Some photographers leave galleries up for ten years, some for one year, and some for one month. You will just want to know this upfront, so you can be aware of how long you have to download your photos and back them up. You should also ask what happens if you missed that window.
10. Are we able to share our gallery link with friends and family and can they download photos?
You will probably be excited after receiving your gallery and want to share it with your friends and family. You will want to make sure that it will be accessible to them and that they will have permission to download photos as you do.
11. How long will it take to receive our gallery?
This is a really important question as I’ve heard horror stories with this one too. I’ve known couples that haven’t received a single photo after six months! We put in our contract that you will receive your gallery within 40 days, but we actually usually deliver much faster than that.
12. Do we get a sneak peek?
If so, how long does it take to receive that? Again, going off of the question above, you probably don’t want to wait forever for your photos, but if you do have to wait a bit, it would at least help to know that you’ll receive some sneak peek photos. We always send a sneak peek within 48 hours of the wedding.
13. What does the booking process look like?
Booking processes can look different from vendor to vendor, so you will just want to make sure you have all the details of the steps you need to take to make sure you’re booked if you decide to go with this photographer.
14. What is the retainer fee?
The retainer fee is like a deposit but typically referred to as a retainer fee because it’s non-refundable. Pretty much every photographer will require a retainer fee to secure your date on their calendar. This means that they will now be turning down other potential clients that reach out for this date because you are making a commitment to book them for that date. You will just need to ask what the amount is to make sure that you have that to be able to pay that upfront during the booking process.
15. Is the balance due at the event or are we required to make payments along the way?
Some photographers will not require you to pay off your balance until the event date, and some photographers will require you to be making payments along the way. There’s definitely a shift in the industry to requiring payments along the way. The reason for this is because photographers don’t want to be cancelled on one month before the wedding date, at which point there’s no way they’ll be able to book another event, but they’ve only made a small amount from the retainer fee. You will just want to be aware of this, so you can plan accordingly with payments.
16. If payments are not required are they allowed if we choose?
If your photographer does not require payments along the way, you may decide you’d like to make payments instead of paying in full, so you will just want to ask if this is a possibility in case you decide to go this route and what the process would be for getting it set up.
17. What precautions do you take to back up our photos?
SO IMPORTANT!! I have seen too many wedding photographers on Judge Judy that have lost someone’s photos. I actually personally know someone that had this happen to them, and they don’t have a single photo from their wedding day. You will definitely want to ask the photographer this question, and they should be able to confidently answer you with several things they have in place to protect your photos. For example, we record to two memory cards the whole wedding day in case a memory card is corrupted. We immediately download the photos to our hard drive when we get home. We also pay for a software that constantly scans and backs up our computer in an online storage system. That’s three locations for photos at all times- memory card, hard drive, and online storage. Shooting someone’s wedding is not something that should be taken lightly as these are once in a lifetime memories that should be handled as such.
18. Would you consider yourself more journalistic or editorial?
This is a personal preference question that you will want to consider. Is it more important to you to have gorgeous detail shots or to have all the emotions and moments documented? Basically, do you want a more curated gallery with everything looking perfect and cohesive or a gallery that’s a little less than perfect that focuses more on the storyline of the day.
19. Will you guide us through posing?
This is another question that probably sounds silly because that should definitely be part of a photographer’s job is guiding their clients, but I’ve heard plenty of stories of photographers that gave little to no guidance, so you will definitely want to ask this question.
20. Are there any other fees on top of this package price?
I think this is important just to make sure you’re not blindsided after signing a contract with fees you weren’t aware of. For example, the package price we display is the price our clients pay. We pay the taxes out of that money. However, some photographers add taxes to the package price and make their clients pay the taxes, so you will just want to be fully aware of all fees upfront. You may think of additional questions you’d like to ask, but I hope this is at least a good jumping-off point for you if you’re looking to hire a photographer for your wedding. This is such an exciting time for you but can also be overwhelming, so coming up with a list of questions shouldn’t be something you’re left to figure out.
