Dear wedding couples,

Invest on an experienced wedding photographer. 

That one person who got gifted a nice fancy camera last Christmas is now calling himself a pro. In this day and age, anyone can literally become a photographer. But it takes experience to become an effective one. With today’s technology, anyone can take 10 or even 20 great photos in a whole wedding day but it takes experience to consistently produce amazing images all through out the day. And you’re not paying thousands of $$$$ for a few good images. Photos (and videos) are the only thing you will take home out of all the $$$$ you will be spending on your wedding day so make sure to make it count. 

• Ask for full (real) wedding galleries

Instagram, Facebook and Website photos are one thing, but the actual delivery is another thing. Public online portfolio will always look great (and in some occasions, those are stolen images from other photographers) but the actual delivery will speak for their actual skills and experience. ASK FOR REAL WEDDINGS, nowadays, people will create portfolio by hiring models or asking their good looking friends to pose as a wedding couple for them to have portfolio, that doesn’t count as an experience, make sure to ask for real weddings, look for guests photos and family photos. I personally think that if the actual delivery is not consistent with their online portfolio, its a RED FLAG 🚩🚩🚩

• Research and do a price check

Experienced photographers will never come cheap. Because they know how much it costs to keep the business afloat. The gears, softwares, subscriptions, marketing costs and knowledge used to give you the best service will also costs $$$$ on our end.  It takes an average of 48hrs to edit a whole wedding plus the hours of services rendered on the wedding day itself. Try to do your Math, that person charging below the current market value of services is making X amount of dollars per hour. Ask yourself, would you want to invest tens of thousands of $$$$$ and get paid that much per hour?

•  Look for a photographer that actually cares

Your wedding is very personal and it should be about you. Your photos should celebrate you and the most important people in your big day. I would personally avoid an ADD TO CART-CHECK OUT, kind of service where a photographer will just give you a list of packages to choose from, take your money and will never hear from them until your wedding day. Creating images that celebrates you takes more than just an invoice. The photographer needs to know more about you, and what kind of photos you like and what you don’t like. A photographer that cares will always want to know more about you and your big day before talking about the numbers. I’ve seen a lot of photographers arrive on the wedding day not knowing anything about the couple, and camera click away the day and produce images that celebrates them, their skills and gadgets instead of the couple. YOUR WEDDING IS NOT ABOUT THEM, IT SHOULD BE ABOUT YOU AND YOUR PHOTOS SHOULD CELEBRATE YOU.

Overall, look for experience instead of deals. Because like i said above, your photos will be the only thing you will take home out of all the $$$$ you’ll be spending for your wedding day. Being able to produce great images in a very unpredictable wedding day requires experience, wedding photography is just a different ball game.

So far the three most common complaints I’ve seen all across social media when hiring an inexperienced (and usually lower priced) photographer are these:

1. The photos they received are very amateur looking and it does not look like any of their portfolio
2.  They got canceled last minute because of some reason. But in reality, the photographer found a higher paying gig.
3. The photos takes close to a year or more to get delivered if it ever gets delivered.

Im not saying that all the newer photographers are not good, there are actually some good ones out there. But its a hit or miss and i don’t think your wedding photos are worth the risk.