Essential Questions to Ask Your Wedding Photographer for Timeless Memories

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! As you embark on this exciting journey, one of the key elements to ensure your special day is captured flawlessly is choosing the right wedding photographer. To help you make an informed decision, here are some crucial questions to ask your wedding photographer:

I’ve written out some FAQs below that clients usually ask when they first meet to discuss their wedding photography.

Top Questions to ask your wedding photographer

Ten important questions about wedding photography

1. How many hours will I require for a full day’s coverage?

Let’s assume that you’d like to get photographs of wedding prep, through to the first dance. If you allow 2 hours before the ceremony for the prep photography up until the first dance this should give you a rough answer. Say you’re getting married at 1pm; I can start wedding prep photos at 11am and work through to the first dance at say 8pm, giving you a total of 9 hours. This is a fairly standard wedding photography package, if you’re having a longer day it might go something like this: The ceremony is at 12pm; I’d suggest I start at 10am and work through to the first dance at say 9pm, which would be 11 hours.

I ask clients to tell me what they want covered and what times the ceremony, drinks reception, wedding breakfast and first dance are likely to be happening, then I can judge how long I think they’ll need.

I also provide a FREE overtime hour if you overrun on timings. This really helps clients who are unsure or get delayed, so it’s reassuring for them that I’m not going to bolt as soon as their official time is up.

2. How much will it cost?

Wedding Photography Prices start from £1549.00 for about 8 hours of photography, including all the images on a USB flash drive and an online web gallery. I encourage clients to get in touch for a direct quote, as every wedding is different and I only want you to pay for what you want. Please get in touch for more details and for a quote via the contact page.

3. How long does it take for me to deliver the photos to you?

I always aim to get photos to you whilst you might still be on honeymoon and almost always deliver photos to clients within 2-3 weeks. The maximum is six weeks (or 45 days) turnaround time from the wedding date.

4. Can we see some complete weddings and testimonials?

Yes, have a look at the recent weddings archive for all my latest work. You can also check out the testimonial page and have a look at my Facebook page and Google reviews and activity.

5. Are there any extras to be added to the total price?

I don’t charge anything extra for travel provided your wedding location is within a 50-mile radius of Crawley, West Sussex or the wedding location is within a 20-mile radius of the M25. Outside this area, I will discuss with you and supply a quote price for travel, and accommodation where necessary.

All travel or accommodation fees payable are listed in the quote price given so you’ll know exactly what you’ll be paying for and there are no hidden extras. If a taxi is required on the wedding day, or if parking charges should exceed £10.00 in total for the day, then this will be invoiced after the wedding day. A £10.00 delivery charge is applicable to album and framed print orders. Make sure this is definitely one of those questions to ask your wedding photographer when you meet with them to avoid any hidden costs!

6. Are you fully insured?

Yes, with Public Liability and Professional Indemnity cover supplied by Photoshield Insurance. I also recommend that couples look at purchasing wedding insurance to cover any unforeseen circumstances.

7. Will you have a look around the venue beforehand?

I always aim to arrive for a wedding with at least 30 minutes to spare so that I can look around and get my bearings for the best shots for the wedding day. I’ll also do a lot of research of wedding venues that I haven’t visited before, and we’ll discuss ideas in a phone call/video chat around 1 month before the wedding. If you’d like to meet me at the venue before the wedding, there is an option to have a consultation at the wedding venue to discuss the photography.

8. Will there be just colour photos or black and white ones too?

I provide a general mix of colour and black and white photographs for all my clients. I produce all the images in colour first, then also produce a black and white edit, then the final edit is a mix of the two.

All my photographs are edited afterwards, tweaking the colours and contrast, cropping images for optimal composition, some light retouching where appropriate, and I also reorder the images to best tell the story of your wedding chronologically and visually. It’s important to have a good look through a photographer’s portfolio to view how the finished images will look. Take a look at my recent weddings to view how the final edit might look.

9. How many photographs will there be?

Once the day is over, I will process and edit all the photographs taken and reduce them to between 200 – 500 photographs depending on the number of hours I am booked for. The number of photos tends to work out at around 25-50 photographs per hour that I am booked for.

I will then edit the photographs, tweaking the colours and contrast, cropping images for optimal composition, producing a black and white edit and I will also reorder the images to best tell the story of your wedding chronologically. If you have any special editing requests, then please do ask. I will supply you with re-edits of up to 50 images at no extra charge if you wish for further work to be done on receiving the images.

I will also supply 100-300 in a separate folder as a final edit of the day. This folder contains copies of the photos mentioned above but will provide you with a selection of my personal favourites. This edit is uploaded to the website for others to view. 

10. What happens if it rains?

Don’t worry, I have shot plenty of weddings that have experienced some element of wet weather from drizzle, showers and full on storms! Have a look at my full info page on wet weather wedding photography to view some sample wet weather weddings and find out how I still capture great wedding photography in the rain.

Any more questions to ask your wedding photographer? Read on…

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And a few more Wedding Photography FAQS…

Some of these questions to ask your wedding photographer come up less frequently when I chat with potential clients, however, these questions to ask your wedding photographer are still quite important!

11. Who will own the copyright?

This is one of the best questions to ask your wedding photographer. Can we print the photos ourselves if we want to? Can we copy them and send them to friends and family? Yes! As a wedding photographer, I retain copyright based on UK copyright law. But you are given a license to use the photographs for any domestic purpose. This license allows my clients to do ‘whatever they wish to’ with the images, they can print them, share them with friends, upload them to social media etc.… As long as they’re not being used for commercial use.

The best example is if you want them to be published in a magazine, or give images to a wedding vendor. This is usually fine with me (and great for my publicity!) but they need permission from me to do so as they are still my professional work. I would need to discuss the arrangement with the third party so that everything is fair for all involved.

In summary, the images are for personal and domestic use only, which is really only what my clients want to use them for anyway.

12. How do we book?

If you are interested, contact me to check availability, learn more about the price options and request a quote for your photography. Then we can arrange a meeting somewhere convenient to you, such as a café, pub or your home to talk through your requirements and how things will run on the day, as well as show you some examples of recent weddings printed in the wedding books.

After this, we’ll formalise your booking with a retainer fee (usually around £300.00) and signing of the contract, which will outline the payment schedule and terms.

13. Anything else?

I’ll be at your wedding in a suit and tie, I believe professionalism is very important, but also great camouflage for capturing those spontaneous moments.

Thought of a question to ask your wedding photographer that isn’t listed? If you have another question then just send an email to Philip@pbweddingphotography.com and I’ll get back to you ASAP, and I’ll add it to this page too!