Wedding Advice: The Photographer

Planning timeline
This should be one of your first priorities. Photographers tend to book up fast, the best ones a year out. I would recommend anywhere from six-12 months beforehand.

Suggestions
-Find a photographer that you wouldn't mind having at your wedding! An engagement session is a great way to get aquainted with your photographer's style. I did not do this personally so either way you can't go wrong.

-Look at their portfolio and make sure you like their style. Photojournalistic, traditional wedding style... each photographer will put their own spin on the images and again with post-processing. I love attention to detail shots and my photographer takes absolutely beautiful macro images (ex. super up close crystal clear shots of engagement ring) so that is why I chose him.

-Make a list of what package items you want and find a photographer to match them. Do you want the album included in the price, or not? Do you want an engagement session included, or not? What about a photographer that works with an assistant or alone, or one that operates on a time schedule (8 hours max, 7 hours max, unlimited time). I wanted an album included, an engagement session included (we did re-bridals instead later in the summer though), an assistant photographer (for multiple angles!), and an unlimited time allotment. Turns out the time isn't necessarily important; my venue timeline was from 5:30-10:30 so I met up with my photographer at 2:30 so that was only 8 hours anyways!

-Know that most photographers will not release the full collection of high resolution images until 1 year after the wedding (pretty standard). This is because they want you to print through them! It sounds annoying and restrictive -- but understand that their prints will be soooo much better than those you would send to CVS, Walgreens, or Walmart. My photographer also includes 6 8x10 prints in my package which is nice, because then I can send one to 3 sets of grandparents, both our parents, and then keep one (plus order more prints! :).