Your wedding photographer is someone you will be trusting to capture some of the most cherished memories of your lifetime.

As there isn’t a shortage of people with cameras out there these days, it’s very easy to get confused in the sea of websites, pretty Instagram accounts and cute Facebook posts. So to aid you on your quest for your perfect wedding photographer, here are the Top 5 mistakes most couples make and advice on how to avoid them:

MISTAKE 1: Judging a photographer’s abilities by their front slideshow

As much as the images on the home page of a photographer’s website will give you a good idea of their general style, they are also a very limited amount of the most favourite of the best images this particular photographer has ever taken throughout their entire career. It’s a shop window, beautifully decorated and lit. Some photographers will even hire specialist companies to select and edit images for them for the sole purpose of having an impressive front slideshow.

That’s right, it means that should you choose them for your wedding, your images may not be of the same quality and finish as the ones in the slideshow because they will have simply been edited by completely different people.

Advice: Make sure you actually browse for a while before jumping to any conclusions and don’t make any decisions based on the highlight reel alone!

MISTAKE 2: Confusing styled shoots with real wedding coverage

If you haven’t done much research into modern wedding photography yet, you may not realise that some of the images on wedding photographers’ websites will not be from real weddings.
Styled shoots (or inspiration shoots) are collaborative projects between wedding professionals like photographers, dress designers, florists, cake makers, stylists etc. that are designed to produce images for advertising and press. Most of the gorgeous shots you will see from these shoots may have taken hours to construct and perfect, which is very different to producing perfect shots while working in a whirlwind that is a real wedding.

This, however, is not to say that photographers who do styled shoots are not to be trusted or are bad. Some of the greatest photo artists out there participate in such projects all the time! Just make sure you don’t fall into the trap of being only shown beautiful ‘styled’ images and no real wedding coverage at all.

Advice: If you’re not certain which images are ‘real’ and which are not, try looking for ‘featured weddings‘ or ‘real weddings’ on the photographer’s website. If you can’t find any, perhaps send them a quick message asking to see 2-3 full weddings to give you an impression of what real wedding coverage by this professional will look like – not just shots with perfectly staged models and lighting. What you want to see is a collection of images taken in a variety of lighting scenarios (preferably similar to what you will have at your wedding) and during different parts of the day – during the ceremony, the speeches, the evening reception etc.

MISTAKE 3: Getting too impressed by fancy words

If you’re looking for a high level professional, you will be coming across words like ‘published’, ‘award-winning’, and ‘acclaimed’ etc a lot. As photographers, most of us pretty much feel that it’s a must to have one impressive title or another these days to be taken seriously. And I appreciate that it’s always good to know that a photographer you’re considering has their work constantly featured in magazines or has won awards in their career. But here’s some honest truth: pretty much any photographer who produces decent enough work can get published and win awards.

Titles and badges, as great as they may be, should not be the things you rely on when making your decision. What you should think of is whether you would still be impressed by the same images if you saw them without all the big words around them.

Advice: Don’t let the titles distract you – it’s much more important that you choose a photographer whose work you love and connect with!

MISTAKE 4: Getting overwhelmed by all the ‘pretty’

As wedding photographers, pictures of pretty things is what we do very well. But please don’t let that make you lose focus when browsing our websites!

While looking through a photographer’s portfolio or blog, try not to get distracted by cute wedding ideas or detail and focus on images that would matter the most to you if they were of your big day.
If when looking through real weddings you’re seeing mostly beautiful photographs of flowers provided by flower delivery in Deer Park TX, cakes and shoes, accompanied by only a few average photos of couples, it means that for some reason the photographer is heavily relying on the so-called ‘filler shots’ (contextual images of surroundings, objects etc) to make their work look good.

Would it make you happy if most photos from your wedding day didn’t contain actual people? Or if the photos of you and your other half were lacklustre but the photos of curtains were magazine-worthy? If great shots of your jewellery, bouquet and centrepieces is what matters the most to you, then congratulations, you’ve found your perfect photographer! But if you’re looking for someone to capture emotions, little moments between you and your other half and candid photographs of guests interacting and yet you’re not seeing anything like that in the photographer’s portfolio – perhaps it’s not their strong suit?

Advice: If instead of adoring the chemistry between couples and being excited to one day be the couple in those beautiful images, you find yourself going ‘Ooh, I love this ring bearer dog!’ or ‘That hair is lovely’, take a minute to regroup and get back to actually evaluating the wedding photographer’s skills when it comes to photographing a wedding, not a perfume commercial.

MISTAKE 5: Thinking the photographer’s personality doesn’t matter

This is a big one. Obviously, loving the artist’s work is key, but wedding photography is a very personal, very people-oriented form of art. And now think about this: your photographer will be with you all day. They will deal with your closest family and friends. They will be present for every important step you take that day. So please make sure you pick someone whose personality and approach you love as much as their art.

Advice: Have a meeting and a chat with your potential wedding photographer about the way they work, ask any questions you may have and see how you feel about them, both on a professional and on a personal level. Your relationship with the photographer can make a vast difference to how you feel on the day and how you see your wedding images for the rest of your life – so make sure you are on the same page and understand each other!