I am by no means a "fancy photographer," but I love beautiful photos. I'm a point-and-shoot girl, but I manage to turn out some pretty shots. Sailing has made me even more ambitious with my photo-taking (oceans! skies! sunlight!), and we have some of my work blown up and printed on big canvases in our house. I took this one a couple of summers ago on Long Island Sound:
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| Photo by Miss Cauldron - Long Island Sound, September 2010 |
Due to my love of photos, I was really excited to book a photographer who could capture all the moments at our wedding - it was one of the first things I started working on after we locked in a venue.
I relied heavily on the internet when searching for photographers - Google search, wedding blogs, and wedding vendor reviews were my initial stops. I quickly found one of the best things to do was to scroll through photos on
Style Me Pretty: Texas and check out the photo credits for the ones I liked the most.
I knew I didn't want anything too trendy - some of the current vintage-y washes and heavily edited shots were just not for me. At the same time, I didn't want anything too stiff and formal - natural, fun, relaxed, and pretty seemed to be the mood I was liking the best. Capturing tangible emotion in the frame was really important to me, too. And the detail shots had to be creative, not just flat.
I also noticed that I was really liking photos from husband-and-wife photo teams. I'm not sure why, but several married-couple vendors hit my top ten list.
For the photographers whose blogs and websites showed me what I liked, I reached out via email to find out more about their availability and costs. After hearing back, I scheduled phone calls with the photographers who said they were available and within my budget, and I drafted a list of questions for each one. I spent a week of evenings on the phone with six different photographers, and for ones that were definite possibilities, I asked them to send me a link to a full wedding proof site, so I could see alllll of the photos they took at an event, not just the super-special ones on their blogs. Taking a look at full sets of photos really helped narrow things down!
I had a couple of possibilities after that week of phone interviews, but there was one thing nagging me - I just hadn't felt like I "clicked" with any of the photographers as well as I felt I should. (Anyone else think hiring vendors from afar is like having a phone call before a blind date?!)
Then one of the photographers on my list who actually wasn't available for our date,
Jessica Barfield, sent me a very sweet note back recommending yet another husband-and-wife team,
Sara and Rocky. I took a look at their website and concluded that yes, they fit the bill.
So, I sent them an email, and - bummer! They weren't available on our date either. But they also sent back a great and very personable email, and they recommended some friends of theirs,
Lindsey and Beto...another husband-and-wife team who had a similar approach and style.
Feeling somewhat optimistic about this chain letter of recommendations, I checked out Lindsey and Beto's
website and
blog, and they definitely passed the litmus test.
I dashed off a note, and got a fun email back from Lindsey saying they were available, hooray! When we did get on the phone to chat, she and I hit it off immediately. Plus, she grew up about 20 minutes from where Mr. C grew up in Michigan. Random! At the end of our chat, I asked for links to a couple of their full proofing sites, and I loved 95% of their shots.
It was clear to me that she and Beto were going to be our wedding photographers, and I booked them shortly afterward. Yay! One more (very important!) vendor checked off the list.
Was photography a big deal for you? How did you find your photographer?
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