Finding photographers!

We looked at photographers on here and theknot. Based on reviews we then looked at portfolios and prices. Our engagement session was included in the price along with 8 hours of photography the day of. Our package came out to be $1500

Look here and on the knot! Ours is coming out to 1800 for 8 hours of shooting, two shooters, and an engagement shoot. Make sure you look at their portfolios and decide on the style you want. Our biggest thing was making sure we got along with our photographer and the package was to our liking, but there are some photographers that asked for over 3k. It just depends on what you want.

View Quoted Comment So, I’ve been looking here and some other places and the styles that I’ve liked and things are so so expensive. Some of them were more than my venue! I’m getting married at dusk, in a forest.... I can’t find many people who having things like that on their sites.

It depends on a LOT of factors.
- Area
- Hours of coverage- 2nd shooter (highly recommend if it’s in the budget)- Editing style (i recommend looking into wedding editing styles just to get the lay of the land with regard to hiring a photographer.)- Packages (does it come with an engagement shoot or is that extra?)- Number of photos delivered
Keep in mind when looking at prices that editing photos is extremely time intensive and that’s why photographers charge so much.
My photographer and her 2nd shooter will be giving us 8 hours of coverage at our wedding and I had the option of doing an engagement or boudoir shoot, included in the price. We already had a photographer for an engagement shoot so I chose to do the boudoir shoot. (Haven’t done it yet.) The shoot and the wedding coverage will be $2,200. Here’s a pic from my contract of what my package entails.
Let me know if you have more questions!

View Quoted Comment There are so many factors! I am definitely willing to “splurge” a little in a good photographer. It’s the only area where I’ll go above budget if I feel a good connection and love their style.

View Quoted Comment What styles do you like? (You can even just post inspo pics that you’ve liked)

I found all of my vendors through Instagram! I followed my venue and every time they posted a wedding I would look at which vendors were tagged. From there I found 4-5 photographers I liked and then reached out to each one. My package was $3775 for 2 shooters for 7 hours plus an engagement shoot.

I looked on weddingwire under vendors and contacted a good amount of them in my area to see about pricing. I also went to a bridal expo and talked to some photographers.

The photographer we ended up going with was actually recommended off of weddingwire by someone who commented on my post and was in my area. She said she is using a photographer and was only paying less than $1,000 for engagement photos and 8 hour coverage on the wedding day WITH an extra shooter! AND my photos turned out BEAUTIFUL (just got my sneak peek and waiting on them all)

My best advice is to keep doing your research, but also ask around and see what other brides on here and that you know (social media) are doing and if they know any deals!

I found mine by looking at pictures my venue had posted and then looked into the photographers whose photos I liked. And then filtered out based on pricing etc.

Photographer was legit the hardest thing for me. And our situation was very strange. My friend who recently got married recommended her photographer. He’s just establishing himself so his top package was $1500 (8hrs of coverage, 2 photographers, engagement shoot, album. 50 prints, and framed photo) and then before I could book, he raised his prices (by $2500!). He (thankfully agreed to honor the first price I saw. We booked him purely based on recommendation and price.


I’d say take a look at editing styles, think of if you want them there for getting ready -exit and if you want something like an engagement pics that you may pay for if not included. Some photographers were cheaper than him but their editing was not my style etc

I contacted my venue and asked them if they had any recommendations. There was one photographer who I loooved. She was booked unfortunately, but she gave me someone who used to work with her as her second shooter. They both have similar styles so I contacted her. I couldn’t be happier with our decision to book her! We are paying $3,200 for 8 hours with a second shooter and engagement session.

View Quoted Comment So, I like a lot of different styles which is why I think I’m finding it so difficult. And I’ve looked at all the photographers the venue suggested and they’re way over priced for us, I really liked one and she never got back to me... so no on that one! I am going to a bridal expo on Sunday... however... I am not getting married where we live, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work. Lol

Believe it or not, I found our photographer on Instagram! It’s an awesome tool to check out lots of examples of their work, and you may even find someone who is “up & coming”, thus less expensive.

We went over our budget for a photographer, mainly because we wanted to make sure we get good photos but didn’t budget enough for it in the first place. The way I started my search was by finding a photographer whose style I liked, reaching out to her, finding out she was booked, but following up with her recommendations. We interviewed a few people. The girl that we were going to book became unavailable right after we talked to her, but then I just happened to stumble across an amazing photographer here on WW. Anyway, long story short, look around, talk to someone if you like their style. If they aren’t available then they may be able to point you to someone with a similar style. Another thing that we did is have the photographers that we interviewed send us full galleries of weddings in similar conditions as ours so that we can get a feel for what we are paying for.


The package that we ended up booking included our engagement shoot, 8 hours and a second shooter at the wedding, and a wedding dress adventure shoot at a waterfall after our wedding.

View Quoted Comment Okay! That’s an awesome idea! How did you find them on there!?

View Quoted Comment That’s a great package! Thank you!

I was lucky in this situation, as my aunt is going to be our photographer. She took our engagement pictures and they turned out GREAT!!

View Quoted Comment We are having a DW in New Orleans, so I just started searching hashtags like “neworleans photographer” “nolaphotographer” “frenchquarterphotography”, etc. You could also search for your venue on Instagram and look at the photos people have tagged themselves in there- if it is a wedding venue, there are sure to be lots of them! Just click on the pictures that you like/look like the style & quality you are looking for, and see who the photographer is. I snooped through TONS of good photographers on insta that never showed up on google searches for photographers in that area. And, unlike photographer websites that only have a small selection of photos, Instagram accounts have lots more pictures of their work. (P.S. it is also a great tool for finding wedding coordinators, hair/make up artists, florist, venues, etc.) Good luck!!!

View Quoted Comment Such a good idea!!! That’s my only social media so, thank you!

View Quoted Comment Oh this is awesome! We have a friend who is a photographer but, we would have to pay for his airline, hotel stay, and then pay him on top of that and we just aren’t looking to spend that much! But I’m so glad your aunt can do that for you!