Finalising Your Date, Your Venue & Reception First!

Before you start booking all the other service providers, including the photographer, get your date, venue and reception sorted out. Some couples make booking arrangements with the service providers who they would like use for their wedding before finalising the venue. Some venues can all ready booked by other couples and you end up looking for a new date, loosing all your service providers including your photographer.

After your engagement, take the calender and come up with a few suggestions of days you would like to get married. Decide if you would like to get married in the winter or in the summer. Most venues are busy during the summer season, but most are not during the winter and you might get a winter discount.

Contact the venues and find out what days are available. Saturdays are usually the favourite day to get married, because it is in the middle of the weekend. Try Fridays, Sundays, during the week and Public Holidays if most of the Saturdays are booked.

Then drive out, have a look at the venues and have a meeting with the owner or the manager of the venue. If you have found one that you love, start making the final arrangements. Once you have your venue booked and the date finalised, you can start looking for a photographer and other service providers.

Choosing your Wedding Photographer

Before you rush off and booking a photographer, here is a few pointers that you should think about before you make your final decision.

Meet the Photographer: It is important that the couple arrange a meetings or contact the photographer before they make their final decision. Discuss your needs for the wedding and get to know the photographer better. Ask him if you could see examples of his work so that you can get a feeling for the style he shoots.

Personality: It is important that the photographer and the couple click on a personal level. The photographer is person who will be with you for most of the time, more than some even more than your family members & close friends. If you are annoyed with your photographer, it is not going to get any better. If the couple are comfortable with the photographer, they can maintain a great working relationship throughout the wedding and can even produce fantastic photographs together.

Style: Each photographer has a different style of shooting a wedding. From formal/pose to candid/photo journalistic style. Choose a photographer whose style you love and are comfortable with. The style that the photographer uses to shoot and edit his work, is the style that you can expect for your pictures.

It is important to choose the right photographer for your wedding. If the couple books the right photographer, the results of the wedding photos can fantastic. Your wedding photos should bring back beautiful memories of your special day. So think twice before making your final decision.

"Invest in a artist... photography is Forever!" - JB Sallee, Photographer

Book your photographer a.s.a.p!

Book your wedding photographer as soon as you have finalised a date and a venue. Most couples leave the wedding photos a few months, even weeks before your wedding. By that time most photographers are already booked. The best time for the couples to start looking for a photographer is a year in advance. So don't disappoint yourself! If you are comfortable with a photographer and you love his style of photography, contact him to arrange the final booking arrangements.