How did you find your photographer?

I found my tog at a fayre. I had already looked at a few that had been used by friends so I'd seen them in action. I had also searched local ones via the internet and bridal websites, etc.

I chose my tog because he offered me a really good price for the pakage we wanted. I'm sure if I had more money I probably would have gone with someone else.

BTW I did see a friend of a friends wedding photos on Facebook and asked who the tog was so it can be a good way to get seen. They also had a facebook group too.

I just did a search on google, for local ones and picked a few that I liked the look of.

If they had a good website it was a big plus.

Ours is my OHs brother, he's doing it as a wedding present for us. I'm guessing that doesn't help you?!

If we'd had to find one, I think we'd have probably started with the ones listed on our hotel's preferred suppliers list. We've booked other suppliers from here and have had a great service so far from them so we'd have been happy to take a look at the photographers too.

She photographed our friends' wedding two years ago and we thought she was really fun, and we loved their album, so hse was the natural choice when started planning our wedding.

I would probably have booked a tog through a wedding fayre otherwise, as it's a good way to be able to look through their full albums but without the pressure of having to book an appointment and go to visit them. Other than that, I have seen some fantastic work on here, and would have considered booking a tog from a Hitched recommendation.

Word of mouth I guess. Ours is a friend of a friend type thing and I was at a friends wedding that he was doing. Otherwise it probably would've be good old Google or Hitched!

Mine is a recommendation through here. I only had pics I saw on the web to give me an idea of what his work was like. Funnily enough it was pics (amongst others) of an airshow that blew me away!! He managed to get pics of the pilots in their jets as they were flying and that impressed me! Thankfully there was a wedding to look at and that too clinched the deal. Must arrange to meet him at some point, lolol.

Word of mouth is definately a good one as you know theyve done a great job before.

Thanks, everyone.

I'm definitely going to work on the website, so that I get a good google listing. I'm going to become a HIB on here (how could I not, I've been here for years now, it'd be disloyal not to give something back to Darren!) and look into wedding fayres.

Thanks, again. This is really useful feedback.

David and I didn't have a wedding photographer, maybe that's why I take such a personal interest in all the weddings we do, lol .

But I do know that our clients tend to be referrals, saw us at a wedding fayre (we only started doing them last year, but they seem to work for us) , or google. We come up first in the key word searches that we hoped to do well in, but it took a couple of years of hard work on David's part with SEO efforts etc. Don't underestimate the power of word of mouth too.

Good luck with it Also you might want to think about joining DWF Start, since you are in the early stages, getting imput from seasoned professional can help you with the pitfalls and guide you a bit

Teri

Mine is a friend's H, so that doesn't help either...!

but i would have looked on here for recommendations, gone on word of mouth, and by meeting people at local bridal fayres. the most important thing for me is (obviously) liking the style of the pics and liking the person. i would want to have a real good nose at loads of different weddings, so a good internet site would be a top priority for me.

I found mine at a wedding fayre. Got to see all his work and have a chat and then went round to see him at his studio and look at whole albums.

Simillar to everyone else - got recommends from everyone I knew who'd gotten married/been to weddings recently and looked on here.

Then I shortlisted the top 3 that I liked (price not always most important) - and presented the shortlist to OH and he picked the tog who's style he liked best.

In terms of what I looked for in a tog, in no particular order it was: style of photography, how well I got on with the photographer and also their price.

HTH and good luck

We are lucky as it is actually our friends who are wedding photographers that are doing ours as our wedding present. However before this when I was looking around website was very important to me, showing at least an idea of packages and cost and photo's taken. I was really turned pff by websites that didn't offer this. Sorry not much to go on but hope it help

We found ours as Wedding Ideas mag had a feature on togs... we went to see one that was recommended but lets just say they weren't for us!! In the same mag they ran a competition in association with the National Wedding Fair to win a package with our tog, I then made an association that if both are endorsing her she must be quite good... her website confirmed this not only in photo content but also tone, style and copy were very reassuring... met up with her and booked straight away.... in my view a website is a top priority!

The photographer I have chosen was recomended by another photographer!

I searched websites of local photographers and emailed the ones i liked for an appointment.

One lady said she wasn't available on my date so recomended another - who I loved!

Turns out my venue also recomends him to everyone that books there. They passed us his leaflet and we said we had already booked him!!

We booked ours at a fayre. We also looked at quite a few websites but as others have said, found that at the fayre we could speak to a lot in a short space of time and find one who suited us. Like someone else said I found it more useful if websites had a guide to prices on them.

Hi

I am a wedding photographer and website designer. Feel free to contact me. We have done several wedding photographers sites, and understand SEO and the wedding photography business backwards

Richard King

****

www.placeofdesign.com

We are getting married in Scotland so the Scottish Wedding Directory has become like my bible - I went through every photography listing and looked at websites as the first step. The ones whose photos and websites I liked went into a shortlist, and from there I emailed them to check availability and prices, which eliminated some straightaway as being too pricy or unavailable. We then went to see one, and got on with them really well, loved their albums etc and booked them. My best advice is make sure your website is spot on, with good photos, easy to nagivate etc - with planning our wedding from a distance I am heavily reliant on the web to source suppliers, and a bad website means they get crossed of the list immediately! HTH x

Word of mouth sort of ! knew of him as lives in same town and when i asked around for a tog loads of people said how nice he was - then looked at his work which was fab !

I found mine through a name and praise on hitched! Saw the N&P, had a look at the website which we liked, so we arranged to meet them (as picking someone I liked and felt comfortable with was really important to me because I hate having my photo taken!). We liked what we saw when we met up so booked them, and even got a hitchers discount which is fab ? I'm very happy with them so far! I'd echo what others have said about a good website - I know my OH would never have even bothered with anyone who didn't have a well designed, well presented website with lots of image samples on.

Hiya, I found my photographer from the site www.Ukbride.co.uk not sure what this can do for you but it is a really good site and im sure you can type your area etc so you are easier to find. have a look im not really sure what i am talking about i don't know whats good or not. he he xxxx Good luck in your business.

Hi,

to be honest the bulk of my business currently comes from Word of mouth and the Wedding Exhibitions (I do the nationals at Birmingham NEC and hopefully will be at Earls Court next year, we are also at the UK wedding Show at Excel in Feb 2009), bear in mind that the Nationals are not cheap though, once you factor in Hotel, the actual cost of the stand space, the actual stand itself, promotional materials brocuhures, leaflets and the fact I cant do any weddings that weekend. hell, you even have to pay extra if you want some lights and a power socket on the stand it soon adds up and can cost in excess of £5k - but you have to spend money to make money I guess.. I also think having a presence at the National shows gives you a certain amount of credibility as well.

When it comes to website design I did mine myself starting from scratch (and having no idea how to even design a website!) so not sure if mine would be classed as a good one or not, I think it looks nice but I am biased I guess, but I folllowed the formula of putting as much info on there as possible whilst keeping it clean and easy to navigate (also with loads of great images!!).

However, other sources of leads have come from Google (I rank on the first page for anyone looking for Queensberry albums), the BIPP website and I also have an entry in Stumbleupon, which surprisingly has garnered me some leads.

If you need any more info drop me a line, always happy to help out.

Mark - www.eyecandyphotographic.co.uk

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