Picking a photographer

I picked our photography based on his style of photography. I'd seen far too many wedding photos that looked like they were out of photoshoots - ultra bright, very staged poses, etc and thus wanted photos that actually looked real and had a softness to them. I only contacted photographers with the style I wanted, then chose a photographer based on budget and how I felt we connected through correspondence.

Otherwise, I think it helps to have the same photographer do both the engagement and wedding depending on how they turn out - if you like your engagement photos then you know your wedding photos should be the same quality, whereas if you aren't happy with the engagement photos it'll give you an opportunity to go elsewhere. If you do this, I would suggest not booking the photographer for the wedding until after you've received your engagement photos and are happy with them.

Other than budget and availability I wanted to know their style and personality. If I couldn’t have a conversation with them I didn’t want to spend my entire wedding day with them. And I wanted to see sample albums to know that I would like the final product. Ours even sent us some from the venue we are using! Oh also responsiveness. Ours responds within hours, which I love because I am so impatient!


We are not using ours for engagement pictures but I have heard it’s nice to do that so you can spend time with them before the wedding. We got our engagement pictures done before even choosing our date or venue.

Everything for me was based on personality click. Our photographer felt like an old friend, so I was super comfortable having her around and part of all my precious moments.


I’d definitely recommend trying to use the same person for both photo sets— the engagement photos work as a trial run (if something goes terribly wrong here, there’s still opportunity to find someone else!)

We picked our photographer based on her editing style, price, and availability. We used her for engagement photos too so we could get to know each other (since she'll be with us all day long for our wedding!).

I am going with the same photographer that did my engagement photos because of the pricing, experience, and editing style. I LOVE how she takes her photos so I am using her again. It all depends on what you are looking for in your wedding photos. So definitely make sure you are looking through a photographers work so you can see if it suits what you are looking for.

I think you should definitely try to get the same photographer to do both just so you guys can meet beforehand and get to know how each other works before your wedding day. Some people actually discover that they want to choose a different photographer after seeing how the engagement shoot goes, so it’s better to test this out prior to the day!

Some photographers have it so when you book your wedding you get a short engagement session, thats how mine is. I picked mine because I loved his style when browsing his gallery online and kept going back to it and his pricing wasn't super over the top like some quotes I got

We chose our photographer based on his photography style/portfolio and his personality; it was super important to us that we found someone that was able to vibe with us, and meshed well with our personalities, in addition to loving his photography style. After searching through photog suggestions on sites like WeddingWire and TheKnot, we found our match! He did offer to roll an engagement shoot into the package, but one of my best friends is a photographer, and she had already graciously offered to do our engagement shoot for us. Happy hunting, I know you'll find the right one! :]

Thank you so much everyone for your comments! I like the points about the engagement shoot as a trial run and finding someone you click with. appreciate it

I picked our photographer because I love her pictures. The fact that shes an acquaintance who is only charging me $500 is another huge bonus.

To add on to the all of the great advice offered here: when interviewing photographers, ask how familiar they are with your venue. That made the ultimate difference when we selected ours. We essentially "clicked" with both photographers we spoke with, but what pushed us to select ours was how much she knew about the venue-- she shoots 10+ weddings there each year, knows the venue coordinators-- and has even shot events for the coordinators themselves in the past, knew the best time to capture sunset photos at our location, etc.

I chose mine based on package pricing and style. I followed wedding hashtags on Instagram for my area and started following photographers to see what I liked. Many of them have their website in bio so I could check pricing right away.

The engagement and wedding photographer should be the same person. Typically you book them first and then schedule the engagement session.


Personality and style are very important. They will be with you all day and night so you need to click with them and photos are the only keepsake you will have besides memories which fade.
Browse Instagram in your area for photographers to see what style jumps out at you. Some people like dark and moody, others prefer bright, some prefer crisp lifelike, and others prefer muted.

View Quoted Comment Thank you all so helpful!!!