Sample #5

How To Plan A Wedding - Choosing Your Photographer

As we are almost over with preparing your reception for the present, now is time to consider the future. What will you remember from your wedding?

Choose your pictures before the wedding

First thing, you need to define what kind of pictures you want.

I have included a request-list of most of the general pictures you may want from your wedding. Have a look at it and see what you want for you own  wedding specifically.

When discussing with your photographer, you should hand him the list of what you want as a minimum, yet let them the freedom to capture instant moments.

Can Your Friends Do It?

Regarding whether you should ask your friends for taking pictures, i would actually recommend that you don’t.

Look at all the efforts you put on this big day. You want to remember the best of it, and using a pro will be of the essence. Here are several reasons for not asking your friends to take the main pictures :

- Unless they are professional themselves, your friends will probably lack some skills to make profesionnal looking pictures. The difference is often very easy to tell.

- Outside of technical matters, key skills of professional photographers reside in their ability to capture the instant. On this matter, someone who’s been shooting dozens or hundreds of weddings will feel what has to be shot or not, in addition to your request list.

- Even if you ask a friend who is not officially invited, he will get bored after a couple of hours, and will also want to enjoy the party from the inside

Finding the right person

An easy way to find your wedding photographer is if your married friends can recommend one to you. Yet, as your own likes may be different, keep an eye on other possibilities.

You can notably search the web to get a list of photographers near your home. As most artists now have websites, you will get a first look at their work without even the need to move.

(Continued in the book...)