First, understand that wedding photography is an investment. Everyone you know will look at your wedding images- probably online and in an album. Your children will look at your wedding album someday! This is a very important part of family history, and you can’t call “do-over.” Saving five hundred dollars on photography so you can have fancier centerpieces won’t make sense in the long term. The quality of the images and how they are presented will last a lifetime, and you’ll never regret spending enough to do it right.

If you don’t have good reasons to trust your wedding photographer, you won’t be able to relax and enjoy your wedding day! Some of the following tips are related to trust as well. Make sure you feel comfortable with the company you choose.

2. Budget is always an issue, whether your budget is large or small. A good company should be able to provide you with good quality and have flexible packages to suit most budgets.

3. An Engagement Portrait session is a great way to develop a good relationship with your photographer. You’ll not only spend some time together and begin a working relationship, but you’ll see some results: that should help you develop some trust in his/her skill and creativity.

4. Personality is very important. After all, you’ll spend a lot of your wedding day together. If you don’t enjoy your photographers’ personality, you haven’t found the right person to photograph your wedding.

5. Ask about experience. Your wedding photographer should have many years experience from dozens or even hundreds of weddings.

6. Find out what professional organizations they belong to: membership in professional organizations are a good indication of the photographers’ dedication to his/her craft, and most professional organizations emphasize ethical business practices.

7. How about back up? Does your photographer have plenty of back up equipment on your wedding day? Ask how your wedding day digital image files are backed up.

8. Photojournalism or Portrait Style? You may have a preference for candid “in-the-moment” shots, or prefer the more classic, elegant posed images. Whatever your preference, look for two photographers working together- one photojournalist and one portrait artist. The fact is: you need both. A single photographer can’t be in two places at once, and you need a balance of both styles to really tell the story of your day. Many photojournalists can’t or don’t use advanced lighting techniques or don’t know how to pose. You need these skills if you want great looking group shots, and beautiful romantic images with great lighting.

9. Look for great lighting and composition. Do the images look well composed, with directional lighting like you would see in a painting? If the images look like what your friends take with their phone- run away.

10. Ask to see whole weddings, not just “best of” collections. Great photographers tell wedding stories from beginning to end.

11. Look for beautifully designed, high quality albums. Are the pictures arranged in an artistic way? Does the album tell a wedding story beautifully and with impact?

12. Finally, make sure you can communicate with your photographers. They should be friendly, open, and good listeners. This is your day and your opinions and wishes should be heard and respected. If your photographers meet all these criteria, you can relax: you’ve made a great choice. Now you can look forward to having fun on your wedding day!

1. Don’t be scared! You don’t really need to be an artist or graphic designer to make good choices. Bold colors are in too, especially for Michigan Winter Weddings when pale colors can look washed out.
2. Look at the wedding and reception site colors. If your reception hall has lime green shag carpet, then hot pink will look great! (If your reception hall has lime green carpet, something is already very wrong).
3. Look through interior design books, bridal magazines and websites for color combo ideas.
4. Take your clipped out or bookmarked ideas to a paint store and get chips that match. Maybe buy a painters hat or brush while you’re there to help out Mr. Paint Store Guy.
5. Choose a theme. You can establish a theme by focusing on a particular season or geographical location. Hint: a beachside wedding on Lake St. Clair might call out for Lake Placid Blue.
6. Use one or two colors as your unifying element. You can use different color combinations in table linens, centerpieces, chair coverings, invitations etc. if you always include one or two consistent colors. This helps to pull everything together in a cohesive “look.”
7. Help your vendors work with you to unify your color theme. Take samples from one to another e.g. show your invitation from Livonia to the cake lady in Farmington and take your color samples with you when you shop for bridesmaid dresses in Dearborn etc.
8. Be repetitious. Sometimes repetitious is boring, like in conversations about cats, but not here. When the color theme repeats itself throughout all of your details, it creates an air of elegance and shows everyone that you’re thoughtful, organized and creative.
9. Last, consider the mood colors can create: do you want your wedding reception to be elegant and serene, or playful and fun?

There, now you’re not scared anymore, and your wedding and reception will look great!
Now what about tuxes…?

1. This may seem obvious, but make sure you love the photography! Look for detail in white dresses and dark suits. Is the color pleasing to your eye? Is there nice lighting- like you might see in an Old Masters painting, or does it look flat: like typical on- camera flash? Look for good composition: is it artistic or just a good snapshot?
2. Make sure you are looking at the work of the photographer who will photograph your wedding. Many places show you samples created by one person, but then schedule someone else to photograph your wedding. This could lead to major disappointment.
3. Look at a complete wedding or two- not just a “best of” collection.
4. Look at sample albums similar to the type you are considering investing in.
5. Have a good conversation with the photographer. Are they listening to you, or just telling you all about what they do? You should enjoy the company of the photographer you choose to photograph your wedding-after all-you’re going to spend quite a bit of your wedding day with this person! Are they easy going, sincere and attentive? A good listener?
6. Do they have an office, or did they ask to meet you in a coffee shop? Most full time professionals have an office to meet with clients. If they don’t, they are probably either part timers, or worse- Brokers. Wedding photography brokers sell you cheap packages that include albums, but you won’t know who your photographer is until a few weeks before the wedding. The samples you looked at are generic- not the work of the person you end up with. The albums are usually not made of top quality materials either. Good Luck!
7. Finally-your wedding photographer should be a member of at least one professional organization. These organizations promote high quality standards and ethical business practices.

Wedding photography is too important to leave to well-meaning friends, relatives or enthusiastic amateurs. Your children and their children will look at your wedding images-it’s a part of your family history. Saving a few hundred bucks now won’t make sense in twenty years or more. “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”  Benjamin Franklin

I think Benjamin summed it up very well. Let me know what YOU think!