Somewhere around the middle of most of my consultation calls, after we’ve gone through the usual stuff, I get some version of the same question.
“So… what should I be asking you?”
I love that question. Because the honest answer is that the list you found online is mostly fine, and mostly useless. Are you available on our date, are you insured, how many weddings have you shot. Every photographer worth hiring can answer those in their sleep. You’ll ask three photographers and get three identical answers and learn nothing.
So I give couples the harder ones instead. I’ll be honest with you about why: if you ask another photographer one of these and they don’t have an answer ready… I find that pretty funny. And you’ve learned something real.
Here are the questions to ask a wedding photographer that actually tell you something. Two questions, and two things to look for.
1. “What’s your backup plan?”
Not for the photos. For you.
What happens if they get sick? If their car doesn’t start? If something happens to them in the middle of your wedding day?
You’re not looking for a scary story. You’re looking for whether they’ve thought about it at all. There’s no reshoot for a wedding day, so “we’ll figure it out” isn’t an acceptable answer.
My answer is that I bring a second photographer to every single wedding. Every collection, no exceptions.
Most people think of that as extra coverage, and it is. More photos, different angles, having the ability to be in two places… e.g. somebody capturing your grandmother laughing while I’m off with you two. But the part nobody thinks about is that a second photographer is also a safety net. If something happens to me, there is still a professional photographer at your wedding.
Which brings me to October of 2025.
We keep our gear tucked out of sight in the corner of the reception room, which at this particular venue meant underneath a metal spiral staircase. I was crouched down getting my cameras ready for introductions, stood up too fast, and caught the corner of the stairs with my head. Split it wide open. A table of guests nearby saw the whole thing.
“Are you okay?”
“Oh yeah, totally.” touches head, looks at hand, lots of blood
Hmmm. Maybe not.
This was minutes before intros. So while I was on my way to urgent care, Jules, my second photographer that night, didn’t miss a beat. Introductions, first dances, toasts, she got it all.
Five staples in my head later, I made it back in time for dancing… where I received one of my favorite hugs ever from the bride 🙂 I wasn’t going to let a little head wound keep me away from the party.
Here’s the moral to that story: even with my emergency, Kassie and Matt never had a gap in their coverage. Not one minute. And they never had to think about it, because the answer to “what happens if something goes wrong” was Jules… who was already standing in the room.
2. “How do you protect my photos?”
This is the one that trips people up the most, and it’s the one I’d most want answered if I were hiring someone.
Ask what happens to your photos from the moment they’re taken to the moment you see them. Where do they live? What happens if a memory card fails? What happens if a laptop gets stolen or a hard drive dies six weeks after your wedding?
Here’s why I care so much about this one.
Every camera I use writes to two memory cards at the same time, so your photos exist in two places before I’ve even lowered the camera. I’ve done it that way for years and never really thought much about it… until the night I sat down to load in a wedding and half the day was missing from my second photographer’s camera.
I knew she had absolutely taken those photos. The card had corrupted them.
So after a brief and very quiet heart attack, I went to the backup card. And there they were. Every single one. I was able to breathe again.
That couple never knew. And I never had to send the email I am most afraid of sending, the one that starts “hey, so I don’t have your wedding photos.”
When I get home from weddings, the photos go onto my hard drives (a RAID system for all you nerds out there), on an emergency hard drive in a fireproof safe, and online. So if my house burns down… that would suck, but you’d still have your photos lol
It’s not exciting. Very few couples ever ask about it. But when my wife watches me run all my backups and the word she lands on is “paranoid,” I take that as a compliment.
3. Ask to see a full wedding. Not just the portfolio.
This one’s less a question than something you should insist on.
Every single one of us posts our best work. That’s what a portfolio is. A selection pulled from tens of thousands of photos, shot in perfect light, on our best days. Of course it looks incredible.
What you actually want to know is what the other thousand photos look like.
So ask for a complete gallery from one wedding, start to finish. Getting ready through the last dance. Look at the middle of the day when the sun was harsh. Look at the dark reception and make sure they know how to use flash. Look at the photos nobody would ever pick for Instagram. Those are important too.
That’s what your gallery is going to look like. And if a photographer hesitates to show you one, that hesitation is your answer.
4. Make sure you actually like them.
Haha, I know. It seems obvious. But I’m serious, and this is the one I’d put above everything else.
You are about to spend eight to ten hours with this person on one of the most important days of your life. They will be three feet away while you’re getting ready. They’ll be there when you see each other for the first time. They are, functionally, a guest at your wedding who happens to be holding a camera.
Let me tell you about my cousin.
He and his wife hired a photographer with a real reputation. Award winning, genuinely prestigious, and the photos they received were beautiful. No argument there.
But their photographer was awful to be around. They made the day about themselves. Grumpy, no fun, and everyone felt it.
So now, years later, any time somebody brings up their wedding photos, he says the same thing. “Oh, the photos are great… but.” And then he tells the story about the photographer. Every time.
My cousin has objectively gorgeous wedding photos. But he can’t look at them without remembering how the photographer made him feel.
That’s the part nobody warns you about. It’s not about how good the photo is. It’s about how the photo makes you feel. And how it makes you feel has a whole lot to do with who was holding the camera.
So pay attention during the consult. Did they ask about you two, or did they talk about themselves? Did you laugh? Can you picture ten hours with this person and not dread it?
If the answer is no, the portfolio doesn’t matter.
If you’ve read this far, you already know what to look for. Send me a message, and let’s find out if we get along 🙂
