When to book your wedding photographer.

I’m often asked how soon should you book your wedding photographer and the best advice I can give is, if you want to be able to book the suppliers for your wedding that you really want, then you couldn’t book them too soon.

Things like your wedding band and your wedding photographer often book up  a year in advance. If you’ve done the hard work online, you’ve taken recommendations from friends, and you’ve looked through photographer’s work, then I think as soon as you set the date and as soon as you’ve booked your church, and your venue, then your next step should be to book your wedding photographer.

You can spend hours online looking through different portfolios, different photographers’ work, and really if you see something you like, the chances are someone else will see the same thing. They could well be getting married on the same date as yours too! I would suggest if you like something, meet the photographer and book them as soon as you can. Otherwise, if you leave it too long, you might get back to the photographer that you really like and they’re booked already. All that time that you spent researching your options is pretty much wasted and you have to go back to the drawing board and you have to do it all again.

Also, it’s worth remembering that photographer’s time is limited. If you have a wedding stationery business you could probably work two or three weddings on the same day because everything is planned and printed in advance, but the wedding photographer can only be in one place, on one day. They might have a wedding on the same weekend as yours and it might be at the other side of the country. In that case it would limit their time as well as it is probably  impractical for them to get back for your date.

They may not be booked on your date, but the bookings they have before and after your wedding might also determine whether they are actually free to photograph your wedding.

Just to give you an idea, typically brides get in touch with me as soon as they have their venue booked. They’ve probably been following me on Instagram, looking at my blog, and then as soon as the date is set, they get in touch. We try and meet up if possible but mostly we speak over Skype and we get the date booked in the diary as soon as  possible.

When you’re planning for a wedding there’s so much to do. You start off with small lists and before you know it it’s quite a long, comprehensive list of things to do  and people to meet, Really, the big things like wedding photography give you such a sense of relief when you have them booked and it gives you the chance then to move onto the next job, to keep the planning process flowing, and to just make your engagement as enjoyable and as stress-free as possible.

For more useful hints and tips in planning your wedding In the meantime, keep an eye on my blog here for more hints, tricks and tips, and also check out my Instagram. My Instagram handle is @edenphoto and you can keep up with all my work there, see all my recent weddings and lots of lovely inspiration for your day.