I meet with prospective clients interested in booking their wedding every day. Many times, clients can’t wait to ask a list of questions they printed out online and others  it’s impossible to squeeze a single question out of. Recently, I spoke to a couple on skype and they asked me “what do clients normally ask you?”. Since the answer to this question really depends on each bride and their wedding, I couldn’t give a direct answer. I decided I would put together this short post that reviews some of the most important questions that should be asked during your consultation with potential wedding photographers.

1. What are the turn around times on images? 

Nobody wants to wait around months for their wedding images. Ask how long it will take to get the images from your wedding and how they’re delivered. We work very quickly and efficiently enabling us to get a preview of the clients wedding up on our blog the very next day after the wedding and the final images to our clients within 2-3 weeks! We deliver all of our images on a leather bound stainless steel flashdrive enclosed in a suede lined watch box, something you would see when buying a luxury watch.

2. How many photographers will be at my wedding, will you be there or will you be sending someone else?

This is an important questions since many times portfolios are displaying a particular photographer. Be sure you know who will be showing up on your big day! 

3. What is involved in the engagement session? Travel restrictions. outfits changes, length of session?

Every photographer is different but you’ll want to be aware of any additional fees that may occur during your engagement session. We include travel for engagement sessions within 50 miles of Boston. We always encourage outfit changes to give you a more dynamic range in your imagery. A typical engagement session will last anywhere between an hour to two hours depending on how willing the client is.

4.  How do I book you for my wedding day, what is the deposit and when is the balance due?

To lock in your date with us it would be a $1,000 deposit with the remainder of the balance due 30 days before your wedding. Again every photographer is different but be sure to ask the question so you are not lost when it comes time to book!

5. How do we know how much time we need you on our wedding day?

Ask your photographer if he/she creates a timeline that will outline every detail of your wedding day. This timeline should include when the bride and groom should start getting ready as well as finish up, what time the photographer will show up, start and end of first look, start of family pictures etc… A large part of your day will revolve around pictures, make sure your photographer is organized and great at time management. 

6. How do we design our album once the wedding is over? Do we have control of the look and feel?

Do you want your photographer to design the album and order it without any control or do you want full control of the layout and image selection? We allow our clients to choose which images they want from their wedding day (guiding them in the right direction) then we will design the album layout. Once the album is designed, our clients can view the album on a cloud based proofing site that allows them to make notes and change request, giving the client full control of album design. 

7. How many photos do you typically shoot during a wedding?

This is a hard question to give an exact answer to and will be completely based off of the wedding timeline. A good answer to this questions and one that we use as a general rule, is 50 images per hour. This is how many images you can expect to net. Yes, we will capture more than that but many of them will be duplicates that you will have no use for. If you are having an eight hour wedding, you can expect to see around 400 images, usually this number will be bigger though. 

8. What type of gear are shooting with and do you have backup gear?

If you want to impress your photographer while making sure he is using legit gear on your wedding day, ask him if he is shooting with a full frame or crop sensor camera. If he says crop sensor or doesn’t know the answer, run as fast as you can! Be sure your photographer is using pro-level gear and has backups of everything. Your photographer should be using fast aperture lenses (2.8 or better) as well as have a host of lighting options for all situations.