3 Questions You Must Ask Your Wedding Photographer

Couples in New England can often find wedding planning overwhelming. One moment you’re celebrating your engagement and the next you feel like you need to be an expert on graphic design, project management, wine tasting and art history; all while maintaining very firm opinions on different napkin folds. It's enough to make heading to Vegas and getting hitched by Elvis seem like a reasonable option.

Fortunately, with Ryan Richardson Photography you’ve already found your favorite Boston wedding photographer (so send us an e-mail to book)! We offer beautiful images, candidly captured for your wedding day and will help make at least one piece of the wedding planning puzzle a lot simpler. But if you’re set on checking out a few other photographers, here are three important questions couples should ask every photographer...

1) What Do You Love Most About Shooting Weddings?

Every photographer shoots weddings for different reasons and discovering those reasons can illuminate how they might fit into your wedding day. More than perhaps any other vendor your photographer will be there right by your side throughout your wedding day, so a clash your personality and vision can mean you're going to get less from your photographer then you might otherwise.

For your favorite Boston wedding photographer, Ryan Richardson Photography, I like to tell couples that I'm getting paid $25,000 an hour to eat cake and that's the best job in the world. What I want couples to know is that I think weddings are about the fun, sweet parts. I’m not photographing weddings to take over your day and to make it picture perfect for my Instagram; I’m there to help you remember the celebration and the feelings of your wedding day. Though I’m sure we’ll get more than a few great shots for the ‘gram.

2) What’s Your Backup Plan If You can’t Make the Wedding? 

Professional photographers can have insurance, they can have backup equipment, and you can prepare in a lot of ways for the worst. However, an insurance payout doesn't help you recapture the moments that slipped away because your photographer wasn’t there. So what's your photographer’s back-up plan if they can't make your wedding?

In my years as a wedding photographer, I've had the privilege to work with any number of other great professionals in my network. I have dozens of capable and confident photographers that can help take over your event in case of an emergency, even with very little notice. So your wedding will be left in good hands and then we’ll take back the images to edit them consistent with our tone and style. These are also the same colleagues I draw on for second shooters or assistants, because every angle and moment should be treated equally.

3) What is Your Delivery Timeline? 

I've spoken with plenty of couples around Boston getting frustrated after their weddings because they have no idea when their pictures are coming - often it's because they failed to ask this simple question. More often it's because the photographer failed to set expectations and educate them what’s going to happen after the wedding day. So much of this question depends on what is ultimately being delivered. In wedding photography, there's no one standard for editing or delivery. Some photographers will turn around after your wedding day and pour everything out from their camera onto a flash drive. At the other end of the spectrum are photographers that create artistic masterpieces with each image for in-person sales through albums and beautiful wall art.

At Ryan Richardson photography our typical delivery time for a wedding gallery is four to six weeks after your wedding. For your final delivery I curate a selection of images that I’ve digitally corrected so they’re ready for sharing digitally or printing. For clients that are interested in artistic retouching, we do offer to go one step beyond with our print and album services (and clients that order albums and prints will also get digital copies of the finished files).

These three questions will get you started finding a great photographer, but if you really want to accelerate your search then send us an inquiry to tell us about your wedding and learn more about what Ryan Richardson Photography can do for your day.

Ryan Richardson is a wedding and engagement photographer serving Boston and beyond; including Cape Cod Weddings, New England Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings and Rhode Island Weddings.