The Best Questions To Ask When Looking For Your Calgary Wedding Photographers

Finding the right wedding photographer in Calgary, or anywhere, can be a real challenge. There are so many factors to consider from what products are included to availability to style and, of course, price. No need to panic, we are here to help! There is a perfect photographer out there for every couple. The same photographer won’t be right for everyone because every couple and every wedding day is different and unique. So to help you narrow the field down to the right wedding photographer or team of wedding photographers we’ve complied a short list of key questions that can help to save you time and find out if this wedding photographer is the right wedding photographer. Good luck on your search and we hope you find the perfect fit for you, your partner and your wedding day!

Are you available for our wedding day?

First things first. Can these photographers actually come to your wedding day? This can save you time with meeting photographers that aren't even available for your day or help you avoid a photographer that was trying to fit in more than one wedding on your wedding day! Make sure to specify the year of your wedding, as people sometimes plan  over a year in advance. Also if you are communicating through email type out your wedding date with the month name and full year (ie July 10, 2024 instead of 6/10/24) as this can avoid confusion as to which date you're asking about.

Who will actually be there to photograph the wedding?

There are lots of different types of people and companies that photograph weddings. There are large companies that send whichever photographer is available for your wedding date right down to single people who photograph your wedding and do everything by themselves (some who have a full-time job on top!) So find out if the person you are meeting with is a company representative or the photographer. Also will they be photographing alone, with an assistant, with a second photographer or are they photography partners? You definitely want to find out if you get along with the people who you will be spending a big portion of your wedding day with and if they are actually the right person to be answering your other questions!

What is your wedding photography style, working style and editing style?

There are tons of different wedding photography styles and how your finished wedding photos will look can be determined by a few different factors. It's definitely important to find out what type of photographer or photographers you are hiring. Are they documentary, traditional portraits, light and bright, dark and moody? There are tons of different styles of photography and even more different names for them all! Check out this blog for more details on photography styles.

You might also want to think about what you have planned for your day. If you really like light and bright photos made outdoors in summer, but you're having a winter wedding where the sun goes down at 4pm in Calgary it is worth knowing if your photographer has experience doing their style on your type of day.

You want to see if you connect with how their finished photos look and if they feel like something you can really see yourself in and see yourself wanting to hang on your wall and display in your photo album. It's important to love the finished photos and like the colour, style and mood of them. Even more important though is the working style of the photographer because that is where you can really run into a difference of opinion. Are they more of a fly on the wall or do they take charge and pose to get perfect portraits? This is very important to think abut as well because this is how you will be spending your wedding day, and no matter how great the photos are if all you think about when you look at them is how horrible you felt while taking them then they aren't very good at all. The final thing with style is their editing style. This is yet another thing with a wide range of practices with wedding photographers. Will they be heavily editing the photos to get highly stylized images, will they be looking for dark and moody tones or light and airy ones? Do they edit more in black and white or more in colour? Do they edit skin or keep everything natural?

These are all preferences to think about and can play a major part in how the finished photo looks. You'll want to know if they have a standard package and what you get with that and if you can customize your package to meet your specific needs. Also if there are any additional fees for changing plans or adding or subtracting services or products.

What do you do about unforeseen circumstances?

What can really separate an experienced professional wedding photographer and someone starting out in the business is how they handle the things that are unexpected on a wedding day. There are plenty of things that can happen on a wedding day that aren't exactly what you planned. Things like unexpected weather, vendors not showing up, lost guests or road closures. You won't be able to ask what your photographer would do in every possible scenario, but think of a few that are more likely to happen on your wedding day and ask how they would handle it. Do they have a plan for bad or unexpected weather? (No weather is out of the question in Calgary and the Rocky Mountains!) Do they have experience with dealing with family drama? How do they backup theirimages so they don't get lost? Even if everything goes off without a hitch it can give you a lot of piece of mind knowing that no matter what comes along your photographer can handle it!

What is included with the wedding photography collections?

Once you've determined that a photographer or team of photographers is is available for your wedding day, professional, fits your needs and has a style you like you can start to get into the logistics and details. Just like with everything else with wedding photography there are many different ways of doing packages and many different things that can be included or not included with a collection of products and service. Things that may be included are number of hours of wedding photography, digital images, usage rights for digital images, an engagement or get to know each other session, travel times or distances, albums, and large or small prints. This can also be a good time to find out what would be a timeline you can expect for products and services.

When will you receive your finished digital images or albums? When is the engagement session? Will you have another meeting before the wedding day?

Bonus Question:

Do we like them?

This isn't a question for the photographer, but actually a question to ask yourself and your partner. Do you like the photographers? Did you get along? Are they people that you like the idea of your whole family meeting? Do you trust them to act appropriately for your wedding, do their job and produce the amazing photos that you will look back on for the rest of your life? Trust your gut as well as your brain, and make sure you've got the right people there for you before, during and after your wedding day because wedding photographers will be working with you for much more than just one day.

Of course these are just a few questions that can help you figure out if the photographer you are meeting with is the right fit for you and your wedding day. There are plenty of other questions that can dive into more details and specifics. These six questions are a great place to start to give you a good idea of if this photographer has the professionalism, style, experience, services and products to be the right fit for you, your partner and your wedding day.