Kyle Hepp

June 15, 2009

There are a lot of things that go into choosing a wedding photographer. A few important things that you should (duh!) make sure of before you hire someone is that A. You love their photos, and B. They have backup equipment.

And, then of course, it could be helpful if said person has had experience shooting weddings before, but that’s not necessarily a requirement. My first wedding was just over a year ago, and the bride and groom hired me with no prior wedding experience. Yet, we still rocked it out You can see the photos in my wedding photography  portfolio under Amanda and Waffle. But, I also wasn’t a total newbie photographer in general when I first shot a wedding. I knew how to pull a good photo out of low light, I knew how to use a flash correctly and I knew my camera inside and out. When Amanda asked me if I did weddings I told her, “I never have before, but I can do yours if you want. And I wouldn’t say that I could do something if I weren’t 100% sure that I could.”  Thank god she decided to give me a chance and start a whole new career for me!

Now, a little over a year into the game, and a wedding or two under my belt, I think I can safely say that after loving your photographer’s photos and making sure that he or she has back up equipment, the next most important thing is how well you get along. Because honestly…honestly…that person is going to be with you the entire time on the most important day of your life. And if your photographer loves you and you love your photographer, your pictures will be better. Trust me on that one. You can see a different kind of intimacy come through in the photos if you are comfortable and genuinely like the person capturing your day. I’m serious. That’s a big part of why I include a “Getting to Know You Session” in all my packages because it literally lets me get to know my bride and grooms and make sure that come time for the big day we will all feel good around each other. They won’t have problems being themselves around me and that I won’t have problems talking to them if I need anything on their wedding day in order to get the shot.

I’ve never photographed the wedding of a bride and groom that I didn’t totally love. And I think the feeling is actually mutual, so woohoo for that! When I was in the hospital after getting run over, I got phone calls, care packages, emails, facebook messages and even a hospital visit from a lot of my brides. They all went above and beyond!!!  I am so grateful to know that not only am I lucky enough to photograph these amazing people’s weddings, but that they stay a part of my life even after the dust on their big day has settled. I hate to be that corny, but I say it because I’m really happy that it’s true. I am blessed to love what I do and to love the people I do it for.

On some weddings, I am simply an unobtrusive photographer. I stay out of the way and capture the day as it unfolds. The bride doesn’t need or want anything from me other than to photograph her day, which I am more than happy to do. In other weddings, the bride will ask me to help her zip her dress, I’ve searched for missing members of the bridal parties, and I’ve wiped tears off the cheeks of a bride right before she walked down the aisle, and I’m happy to do that too. It all depends on what each bride wants. But because I love them all in their own way, I’m willing to do whatever that woman needs from me to help make their day go as smoothly as possible, whether that’s to simply be the photographer or to be there as a friend too. On one hand, as a photographer, I’m just a vendor, sort of like your florist or caterer. On the other hand, I’m just a vendor who will be there for your most intimate and most important moments. Your flowers and food will be gone by the next day, but you’ll have your pictures forever. I don’t overestimate my own importance, it all depends on what a bride and groom see as a priority. People who hire me are generally people who value photography over other aspects of the wedding day, but I’ve also been a part of weddings where the party was most important to the couple! And that’s cool too. Like I said, I’m there to click my shutter as anything and everything goes down however you want it to go down

I’m not saying this so that you’ll hire me. In fact, I’m saying this so that if you love my pictures, but are so annoyed by the way I come across on my blog, that you don’t hire me. I’d rather you be with someone you love love loooooooove for your wedding!

I just wanted to put this out there because I’ve met with couples who clearly want to ask the right things. They’ve done their homework, they’ve been on websites like The Knot and they’ve read up on articles like What Questions to Ask a Wedding Photographer. They’ll come ready to bombard me about with questions about what kind of equipment I shoot with and how long I’ve been doing this and where did I get my training from, etc. Which is all well and good. I know people are curious and I don’t mind answering their questions.

But, I think sometimes people miss the overall point. Do you love your potential photographer’s pictures? Do you really like hanging out with him or her enough that you’d want him or her alongside you on your wedding day? And then of course, does he or she have proper backup equipment because you do not want someone’s camera dying right before you say, “I do,” and that photographer not having a way to capture the moment! NIGHTMARE. Unfortunately, I’ve heard of that happening to far too many people.

Packages are usually customizable to add in things that you might want, you can usually prioritize price if you really want to make it work, but those three things I mentioned above are the biggies to me. So hopefully this article was helpful to any future brides out there when it comes to choosing their photographer. I hope you all learned a very important lesson…love your photographer’s pictures, love your photographer as a person and love your photographer’s backup equipment…or else don’t hire that person