Hiring a photographer without meeting him?

Ehh I would meet with him first. It's important to see if you are comfortable around him because if you feel awkward you will see it in your photos.

Could you at least Skype/Facetime with him? You want to make sure you "click" with your photographer and you guys get along. Mine felt like an old friend so easily. You really want that vibe with the photog more than almost any other vendor.

I just talked to mine over the phone before we signed the contract. He came highly recommended and I couldn't be happier. Stay tuned for my BAM! I'm hoping Monday!

IMO, if you scheduled a phone call and chatted about everything, it will be OK. I have worked with couples via phone and met them in person for the first time the day of their wedding and all went well. The key is communication.

I am sorry about your FMIL. I hope she recovers well.

I'd say you should meet with them. I know it isn't super convenient, but I think its pretty important. I think the photographer is really someone that you need to "click" with.

I do almost all my meetings by skype now, but I think you really do need to meet in person, see portfolios and see how you click.

It's better to meet them, but not always a geographic option....do a skype or phone call at very least. You can't believe everything those mile long lists say, but that is valid if you can.

A meeting is important because without it you can't get a feel for the vendors personality

We ended up hiring ours without meeting him but we live out of state. We had many people recommend him to us though so we felt comfortable doing so

We hired ours through a studio (George Street Photography) which is more of a national chain with independent contractors. We saw the photographer's portfolio and went with the company because it has the best rates for the type of photo/video package we wanted, but I requested to do an engagement shoot with that specific photographer first. I had HUGE amounts of stress and worry leading up to it, wondering what I had done, but we ended up clicking well during the engagement shoot and we are very happy with the pictures! My advice is just know that if it's stressing you out now to think about hiring someone sight unseen, it will probably keep stressing you until you meet them. If I hadn't done the engagement shoot I would have been absolutely tearing my hair out and stressing about it before the wedding, and no one needs that.

Yeah we used Skype for our photographer meetings. I do think it's important to meet first. We chose a photographer who was friendly and laid-back, but definitely had the professionalism that we needed. Skype helped us make our decision almost immediately. We picked someone we would want to spend time with on our wedding!

I had already worked with our photographer in a previous wedding and LOVED his photos and his personality. I didn't meet him "again" and went a ahead and booked him.

You could always email him or call him to express your interest, see if your date is available, and then explain your situation. He may be able to skype or even meet you half way but you definitely want to meet or communicate more than an email/phone call with the photographer.

Our photographer is on the west coast of Florida and we live on the east coast. He was much more affordable then the photographers that live near us in the 'Ft Lauderdale' area. We did a Facetime meeting and I asked him a bunch of questions/concerns that I had. He was extremely helpful and I felt comfortable enough afterwards to hire him. I think it's really great if you can visit them in person and see their work in person too, however I think in this day of age with technology, Facetime/Skype is a great substitute that allows you to search for vendors outside the area.

If you can't meet face-to-face then at least Skype. Always keep in mind pics via a website may not be exactly what you see in person. I've heard a few horror stories about those sort of things.

If possible I would skype but I would at bare minimum have a phone conversation. You could at least tell if you had a strong negative reaction right off the bat which would be really bad on the day and could make you really miserable considering this person will literally be following you around most of the day.

We booked ours without meeting her. She is about 2 hours away as well. She seemed very nice in all other communication and we liked her photos. We're not worried about not having met her first.

I would meet them first. Just because you like his pictures, doesn't mean you'll like him. Photos are very important to me and I would want to work with someone I got along with and was easy to talk to.

I didn't meet with mine. But they can highly recommended by our family friend who is a professional photographer who will be attending our wedding. I met a few and spoke with quite a few more before we went with them. We spoke on the phone for about 45 mins. We got a great rate since they are friends. Otherwise there is no way we could have afforded hem since they are very pricey.

Meet halfway? Skype? It's very important to have something more than a phone call/email exchange with him. You might end up just like not liking his vibes and thatll ruin your pictures.