5 Things Wedding Planners Do Before They Refer You as a Photographer

1. First and foremost, we want to make sure the photographer is a good fit with the client’s aesthetic and vision. We want our clients to love the style of photography and to see themselves in the imagery.

With social media, it is easy to curate only our best work, but I want photographers to send me full galleries. It’s one thing to see a pretty bouquet shot and beautiful sunset portraits, but what does it look like when the photographer photographs an indoor reception when the lighting isn’t so great? I want to see all lighting scenarios to feel confident that the person I hire will do an excellent job start to finish.  

2. After style, personality is the next thing I look at when considering a photographer recommendation. A few years ago I had a client who hired a photographer with a hipster vibe for their black tie wedding. This photographer showed up in sandals and ripped jeans, and my clients were mortified. While the bride and groom loved their images, the photographer’s casual attire and occasionally immature personality
made them uncomfortable—especially the bride’s parents, who had a more conservative demeanor.

When making a recommendation, I seek to make sure the photographer’s personality will be a fit with the couple and their families. The best photographers are those that can be a chameleon and can fit in just as seamlessly at a black tie wedding as they could at a backyard BBQ wedding.

3. Trust and respect are huge for me. I want photographers to know that their clients and vendor teams are watching, so be sure you are representing yourself in a manner that makes you proud.

In the beginning of my career, I had a photographer show up hung over and late to a wedding. Later, I saw photos online of her out at a bar at 4 a.m. the night before our wedding together. I know it seems obvious to get a good night’s sleep before a wedding day and to arrive on time, but there are still vendors who are disrespectful when it comes to this.

I am looking to build a team of vendors that I can trust to do an excellent job for our clients. Behavior like that will make me not want to refer you in the future.

4. I also look at price when making my vendor selections. The photographer must fit into our overall budget.  

If photography is our client’s number one importance, we will allocate more budget for it. But if they tell me they care most about the band, we cannot go over the top on photography. 

When making recommendations, we have to understand our client’s priorities as a whole, and price does come into play on both ends of the spectrum. Price yourself appropriately for your years of experience and level of service.      

I sometimes have clients with huge budgets who are expecting a photographer with an elevated client experience, so I look accordingly. I have other clients who say photography is not their number one priority, thus I am looking for someone who may not be charging as much.  

We seek to work with photographers in a wide range of rates to accommodate all of our client needs.

5. Finally, it is incredibly important for me to have a photographer
who will respect the timeline. I often work for over a year with my clients on a timeline, and when a photographer goes rogue, I will never refer them again.  

It is always the goal to have beautiful photos, but it is important for photographers to know that we are on the same team and that we must work together.  

We want our client’s priorities to be first and foremost, and strong communication on the wedding day will ensure that will happen.

Jolene Greenbaum Peterson is the founder of Laurel & Rose, an event planning firm based in Boulder, Colorado, and southern California.

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