10 questions you should ask your wedding photographer before booking

An honest checklist from a photographer. This is how you find out if a photographer is right for you, before you sign the contract.

Choosing a wedding photographer is one of the most important decisions you'll make. The photos are the only thing that remains after the day is over. The flowers wilt, the cake gets eaten, and the memories blur after a few years. The photos remain.

Still, I see many couples booking a photographer based on Instagram alone, only to discover afterwards that they don't know what they actually ordered. How many photos do you get? Who owns them? What happens if the photographer gets sick?

Here are ten questions I think every couple should ask before signing the contract. I've written them as if you'll ask them of me, but they work just as well with any photographer.

1. What's actually included in the package?

This sounds obvious, but it's surprisingly often unclear. Do you get photos from the whole day, or just parts of it? Are preparations included? How far into the evening does the photographer stay? Is a second photographer included, or is that an add-on?

Ask for it in writing. A photographer who can't answer this precisely probably hasn't thought it through carefully enough themselves.

2. How many photos do we get, and when?

The number varies enormously. Some deliver 200 carefully selected photos, others deliver 800. Both can be right. What matters is that you know what you're getting.

Also ask about delivery time. Two weeks is optimistic for most photographers. Six to twelve weeks is normal. If someone promises a finished album in a week, I would be skeptical of how thorough the editing will be.

My own answer: I typically deliver between 400 and 600 finished edited photos, with a delivery time of around eight weeks. If you also book video, it usually arrives 12 to 16 weeks after the wedding, since editing and color grading take longer than people think.

3. Who owns the photos?

A question many don't think about, but which can become important later. Are you allowed to print the photos yourself? Can you make a photo book with a different supplier? Can you post them on social media?

With some photographers, the answer is no to several of these. With others, including me, you get full usage rights to the photos after delivery. The only thing I ask is credit if you share them publicly.

4. What happens if you get sick on the wedding day?

It rarely happens, but it happens. Flu, food poisoning, a broken wrist the day before. Ask what the plan is.

A serious photographer has a network of colleagues who can step in if the unthinkable happens. Ask to hear specifically who these are, or how the backup system works.

5. How much experience do you have with weddings specifically?

There's a difference between a good portrait photographer and a good wedding photographer. A wedding day is chaotic, the light changes constantly, and you get no second chance if something is missed. It requires a different kind of calm and preparation than a planned photo session.

Ask how many weddings the photographer has covered. Ask to see a full wedding gallery, not just the highlights from Instagram. That's where you see whether the quality holds up throughout the whole day.

6. Can we see a full gallery from a previous wedding?

This is the most important question on the list. Instagram only shows the very best from hundreds of photos. A full gallery shows how the photographer handles bad light, group photos, chaotic dance floor scenes, and all the less glamorous parts of the day.

If the photographer hesitates or only shows selected favorites, I'd dig deeper. There's no good reason not to want to show a complete delivery example.

7. How do you work on the day itself?

Some photographers are very discreet and fade into the background. Others actively direct and set up scenes. Both approaches can produce beautiful photos, but they give completely different experiences.

Ask what you can expect. Will the photographer ask you to pose? How much direction will there be for family portraits? How long will be set aside for portraits of the two of you?

My own approach is mainly documentary. I like to capture the day as it is, with as little interference as possible. But when we do portraits, I take charge so you don't have to think. If you want an idea of what this looks like in practice, it helps to read about the wedding day timeline. There I go through how I divide the time throughout the day.

8. What's your editing style?

The photos that come out of the camera aren't what you get. All photos are edited, and the photographer's editing style matters at least as much as the composition.

Does the photographer prefer light and airy photos, or dark and moody ones? Warm tones or cool ones? Natural colors or a particular color palette?

Ask to see photos from different seasons and lighting conditions. It's easy to make nice photos on a summer evening in June. A winter wedding in gray December light is a completely different matter.

9. Do we meet before the wedding?

You'll spend many hours together on the day itself. The photographer will be there when you get dressed, when you cry at the altar, and when you dance late into the evening. It's a fairly intimate role.

A meeting well ahead of the wedding isn't just about practical planning, it's also about chemistry. If it feels uncomfortable to sit in the same room as the photographer for an hour, you'll notice it on the day.

I always have at least one meeting with couples before the wedding, and gladly more if you'd like. It costs nothing and makes my work much better.

10. What's the most important thing we haven't thought of?

This is my favorite question, and it works as a litmus test.

An experienced photographer has seen 30 weddings. You've probably never been to a wedding as the couple before. There's guaranteed to be something you haven't thought of, and the photographer probably knows what it is.

If the answer is "no, you've covered most of it", I'd be skeptical. If the answer is something concrete like "I often see couples forget to set aside time to eat" or "you're underestimating how long family portraits take", you've found a photographer who has actually been there many times before.

One last piece of advice

Price is important, but it's not the most important thing. The most important thing is finding a photographer who understands you, whom you trust, and whose photos you'll be happy to look at again in twenty years. (If you're wondering about price levels, I've written an honest breakdown of what a wedding photographer costs in Norway.)

The photographer is perhaps the only vendor you'll spend several hours with on the day itself. Choose someone you actually want to be around.

Good luck with your search.