How to know if your wedding photographer is the real deal!

Here’s something worth knowing: it’s relatively easy to look like a wedding photographer without much experience behind it. A DSLR, a preset pack, a polished website template, and a few styled shoots can produce a very convincing portfolio… on the surface.

So no matter who you’re considering, ask to see full wedding galleries. Not one. Several – three, five, ten if you want. Start-to-finish coverage tells you everything a highlight reel won’t. How do they handle an overcast ceremony? A dark reception hall? A schedule that ran an hour behind? Real weddings are unpredictable, and a photographer’s full gallery will show you exactly how they perform when conditions aren’t perfect.

It’s a completely reasonable ask, and any photographer worth hiring will be happy to share them.

Pretty photos are great. A photographer who can problem-solve in real time is better.

Ask your photographer how they handle uncomfortable family dynamics – divorced parents, estranged relatives, blended families. It comes up more often than you’d think, and how they navigate it matters. Before your wedding day, they should be working from a family photo list you built together, not winging it in the moment.

And when it comes to the actual portraits, anyone can make beautiful images in perfect light. The real question is what happens when the sun is at an awful angle, grandma can’t walk far from the door, and the flower girl has officially lost it. A seasoned photographer already has a plan for all of it before you even have to ask.

After 15 years, I’ve seen just about everything a wedding day can throw at a photographer – and I come prepared for all of it.

I carry liability insurance and provide your venue with a certificate. I bring backup camera bodies, lenses, flashes, batteries, and memory cards. I also keep band-aids, bobby pins, chapstick, and an umbrella on hand, because wedding days are nothing if not unpredictable. I shoot on two cards simultaneously, so I leave every wedding with a built-in backup, then upload to multiple hard drives, Dropbox, and the cloud.

I’m a fast boutonniere pinner. I can sew on a button in a flash. I’ve made last-minute calls for pouring rain, lightning storms, 45mph winds, 98-degree heat, ripped dresses, hurricanes, ambulance calls, and a global pandemic.

If you want someone who’s genuinely ready for anything on your wedding day, you’ve come to the right place.