Question for the photographers of the forum

I shoot weddings all over the country but if it was a local one, I would also welcome a meet! It is nice to meet the couple so if they do end up booking, it doesn't feel like a stranger is walking into the room on the wedding day but someone they know instead.

I would spend as much time as that couple would need to feel comfortable. It's a big investment so they have to be sure. Emails are the same and i'd always aim to answer those as quickly as possible, answering any questions they have no matter how trivial they think they are. Does that help?

As standard I always encourage pre consultations with clients, I like to get to know them and vice versa, I think it's important to know if we're on the same page because photography is a subjective thing and I'd hate to photograph for someone who didn't like what I produced, so I make sure they see a full wedding and know how I work so that they will enjoy the photos they get at the end. It doesn't work in my favour to take a booking with someone that won't like my work etc. so I have turned down people before if I felt I couldn't deliver the right style.

I've gotten on really well with some of my clients as a result of consultations etc., I've exchanged short messages before and they sometimes post on my FB page. I'm a supplier but also a human being and I definitely like them to keep in touch and know what I'm up to. Everyone works differently though I'm quite an open book so I like to get personal with people.

I do offer a skype consultation for those further away or if the diaries don't meet up, it's not the same as in person but sometimes it's necessary.

In terms of how long you'd look, I guess see whether you like the style of work they offer, some people find the one for them on the first try, some are still searching after months, so it's not a case of searching for X amount of time, but finding someone in your price range that you love really

Hope that helps!

About 60% of my bookings don't involve a meeting prior to booking. However nearly all of them will book an engagement shoot prior to the wedding.

I generally gauge whether a meeting is required from my side by their enthusiasm. If their opening message says something like "Hi, we really love your work..." then I'll sign them up without a second thought. If they say something like "Hi we are getting married in 'x', if you are available can you provide a quote for x", then I'm not filled with optimism, and would want to meet them prior to booking.

Your photos are stunning!

Thanks for all the replies so far, yes this does help but in some ways throws up more questions. We really would want a prospective photographer to meet us in person because what we are offering is not the standard wedding, it would be unusual in a number of ways and we want to make sure that we are comfortable with them and they are comfortable with us. I don't know whether it's the type of photographer we have been emailing but most of them don't seem very keen...

We always encourage couples to meet us before they decide to book- just so they can get a feel for who we are and whether or not they actually like us.

More often than not by the time they contact us they're already familiar with our work. They've already trawled our blog, website and any online features so already know they like the style we offer etc. The meetings are generally more to confirm that we're not headcases I guess! If they're not already familiar with what we do, we'll link them to some online galleries or features and have a bit of a chit chat back and fourth. If they're happy and we're happy, then we'll suggest a meeting.

We generally suggest meeting at their home as we appreciate that working full time can make it difficult to fit things in, but in coffee shops, bars etc isn't out of the ordinary either. We've spent anything from 15 minutes, to 2 hours with couples at a meeting It depends if they have lots of questions, if they want to look at lots of full weddings, or if we just get talking.

That said, the vast majority of our weddings are local (by which, I mean within about an hour of where we're based) for the few weddings a year we shoot which are further afield, we offer to skype, or meet half way- but often couples are happy to book prior to meeting in these cases.

Hi! I'm not a TOG but I wanted to quickly add my pov as a bride to be!

We met our TOG (Marianne) and I'm so glad we did. Neither OH or I are comfortable having our photos taken but she put us right at ease and made us feel very comfortable with her.

She was able to show us some of her newer photos which was fab as we really liked this editing style in particular and and explain how she works. We were more than able to picture her at our wedding as our TOG!

my personal opinion is that as your TOG could be very involved in all aspects of your day from getting ready to last dance, if you're having one, its important to make a connection with them.

What kind of thing are you going for HW7? (if you don't mind sharing)

Could it be that you're contacting the wrong "type" of photographer? Those with a more traditional style maybe, if you're going for something different?

We might all be able to advise if we had a bit more information ?

I can't imagine why they wouldn't be keen, maybe they have a lot of jobs on their plate. Plenty of photographers do like to meet up though so don't give up hope! I'm sure as well if you pushed them for it within reason, and said it was important to you that they'd come around.

I'm really curious as to what you mean by not a standard wedding. Please tell me it's a jedi wedding. I have a bucket list of unusual weddings I'd love to photograph lol

I actually have had this sort of thing from a recent bride, where she said people were funny about shooting for her because half the wedding party are deaf so she felt cautious to test the waters with me. My response was... why on earth would I freak out about that?! We met and had an awesome time chatting with the help of an interpreter and I'm super excited to be shooting for her later this year!

Thank you! ?

Hmm.. I think it would useful to hear more about the wedding.

It's always nice to meet couples. Sometimes it isn't practical to do so because of the distance though.

A good stepping stone would be to talk by phone. Too many couples rely on email only which I think is a bad thing. Email conversations are terribly time consuming for both sides when often a phone call is more productive.

You can tell a heck of a lot about someone from just their voice.

Then if the price is acceptable I'd arrange to meet up to show full galleries and if they want them, albums.

I always like to meet. It is a sort of bonding that means that on the day, the bride and groom can relax and totally trust their tog.....Of course, there are occasions where this isn't possible, although then telephone conversations help, although are not as good as face to face........its one of the reasons why "most" of my work is done locally (although I do travel as well). A recent wedding was for Sandysounds daughter in Grantham....never met either in person before although had several phone conversations and emails and all went nicely......

Peter

As long as distance isn't an issue, we always offer to meet a couple after they enquire, sometimes it's at their house, sometimes at ours, sometimes at the venue. An enquiry meeting usually takes around an hour. As somebody else said, they'll already be familiar with our work and the packages we offer, but it's so important to make sure we all get on in person.

Am intrigued by your wedding, what have you got planned? Have you asked the photographer if they'll meet with you?

Not quite, although I have plans to make my entrance to a string version of the star wars theme and I wanted to get married on May 4th (that always sets the geeks apart from the rest, seeing who gets the reference) but OH wasn't keen on a Sunday wedding. If only I'd asked him a few years earlier, we might have been married last Saturday.

I'll try to describe this as accurately as I can, I think that our wedding is not all that typical because there won't be a lot of the things that I think photographers love. There won't be any long white dress, bridesmaids, flowers everywhere, all that kind of thing we won't be having. So any photographer we choose will have to be comfortable focusing mostly on the people who will be there and getting those split second moments that will really be the highlight of the eventual album for us, because they won't have all the obvious pretty things to take photos of.

Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I want to see any prospective photographer's reaction to hearing about our wedding or I might question whether they were just accepting the booking because we were prepared to pay for them. It's alright having a cake maker who doesn't like your wedding, they don't have to like your wedding in order to produce a good cake, but if your photographer thinks your wedding is the most boring wedding they have ever photographed then that's a different story. I don't want the photographer to be jumping up and down with excitement and all that, I just want to make sure that they don't obviously hate our plans.

I can't imagine ANY wedding Photographer who loves their job hating this kind of wedding. THIS is what it is all about. THIS is what we love capturing! The 'little details' are captured because the couple have put a lot of time into them and are usually important to the couple but if they are not there, then the whole time can be spent on capturing the emotion, laughter, tears and celebration of the day!

I'm getting married on May 4th next yr and my ushers want to use light sabers (sp?) to direct people to their seats :-)

(Star Wars day?)

One of my brides next year is having her wedding cake sculpted in the shape of the alien from Alien bursting out of a traditional wedding cake (like how it bursts out of tummys) which I'm pretty sure is going to be the coolest thing I've ever seen. Don't worry, not every photographer is excited only by big white dresses. I do shoot a lot of traditional weddings but I also shoot themed and more alternative ones, I love all weddings really because it doesn't matter what you look like going up the aisle or what the decor is as long as everyone's having a good time and is happy etc. so I don't think yours sounds boring.

I do also shoot in the style you're referring to, capturing candid moments so feel free to have a look at my work, I do travel around England within reason.

Do ittttttt!!!

To be honest (and I'm sure most other photographers will agree with me......), we don't really "love" taking photos of the details, yes it's important because couples spend a long time choosing the details, but it's not what the day's about at all. So even though your wedding is different in this sense, it's still about two people getting married, which is what most photographers like to photograph.....

So many wedding blogs focus on these details, and I think that sometimes gives a distorted views of what a photographer likes to capture, because blogs tend to be more about inspiration for couples rather than the marriage itself.

I really don't think any photographer will hate your plans, we photograph so many weddings and all of them are different in one way or another ?

I think you've hit the nail on the head here.

Yes, I like that I have photos of my 'details' but it's the photos of my guests and the moments captured during the ceremony etc that really make my photos for me.

Coincidentally, I've recently had an order for a Star Wars cake topper for the May 4th next year.

May the 4th be with you

DW basically took the words right out of my mouth.

If you have a look through a few whole, real weddings, details will generally make up a portion of the photos, but shouldn't really give the impression of being the primary focus (IMO) as that isn't what the day is about. Of course, if it's there we'll capture it, but it isn't often the photos of table settings or favours that people cherish in years to come, it's the ones of the people they love having a great time. They are also the photos that set apart real photographers from just someone with a camera.

We had a very sad email recently from a couple informing us that a few days after their wedding, their grandfather had passed away. They commented on how precious the photos of him were and how cherished they now are. I don't think we've ever had that reaction to a photo of some flowers after they had wilted, or from a cake after it had been eaten. It really puts things into perspective when you look at it like that I suppose.

(We actually shot a May 4th wedding last Saturday! Although I didn't hear *that* saying once ☹️ )

Simon and Alison

So many wedding blogs focus on these details, and I think that sometimes gives a distorted views of what a photographer likes to capture, because blogs tend to be more about inspiration for couples rather than the marriage itself.

I think that the reason for this is that it is easy to get a good looking shot of a piece of detail, as you can poke it about, move yourself around - take 10s of shots, taking your time, But when it comes to people - that will show how good someone is, and the fact that you are being shown loads of details is that they have not got any good enough of real people, loads of the time I see sets of images of the details and think -nice -nice and then it comes to the Bride and groom shots and !!!!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This

Peter

I'll put that one in my pocket! ?

HW7, your does sound like a wedding photographers wedding to be honest. All you have to add to the mix is moody lighting and Wow!

These are not the photographers you're looking for...

Sorry, chaps, I couldn't help myself! If you're going to have a May 4th, Star Wars themed Wedding you HAVE GOT to have a shot of you 'Vadering' with the Groom and ushers!

For the uninitiated, it's where the guys appear to be suspended mid air in a choke hold, as vader looms on! I think it would look BLOODY AMAZING as a themed wedding picture.

Sorry, I'll go back to my corner now!

http://hadoukening.net/vadering/

Sounds awesome!!! Would need one with the bridesmaids dressed as ewoks too. You know, just for balance and all that ?

If the ushers are using Light sabres, you can come in under an arch of light sabres, and pose with a light sabre for the cake cutting...

Seriously, I will stop now.

I'm looking for a 'Like' Button, Simon, then realised, that's Facebook, isn't it?

I did one Star Wars themed wedding where the main course was Ewok steaks.......sadly they were a bit Chewy.........

<g>

Peter