10 Questions to Ask Your Wedding Photographer Before You Book
Choosing a wedding photographer is a strange kind of decision. You're hiring someone for the most important day of your life based on a website, an Instagram feed and maybe one video call. You won't know if you chose well until the day itself, and by then it's too late to change your mind.
So the meeting matters. Most couples come to it with two questions, "are you available?" and "how much?", and those are fine questions, but they won't tell you whether this person will still be calm at 9pm when the speeches run long and the light is gone.
I sit on the other side of these conversations every week. These are the ten questions I'd ask if I were booking a photographer for my own wedding, why each one matters, and, because it's only fair, my honest answers to all of them.
1. Can we see two or three full wedding galleries, not just your highlights?
Every photographer's website is their best work. Mine included. A portfolio shows you the twenty best frames from a hundred weddings, shot in perfect light at beautiful venues.
A full gallery shows you the whole day. The dim getting-ready room. The 1pm ceremony under harsh sun. The reception lit by nothing but fairy lights and a DJ rig. That's where you find out whether a photographer is consistent, or whether the highlights are carrying them.
Any photographer worth booking will happily send you complete galleries from real weddings. If they hesitate, take note
My answer: yes, always. Ask and I'll send through a few full days, ideally from venues or seasons similar to yours.
2. How would you describe your style, and how do you work on the day?
"Candid" and "natural" are on every photographer's website, so push past the labels. What you really want to know is how they behave around you. Do they pose every frame? Do they disappear into the background? Do they direct, or document, or both?
There's no wrong answer, only a wrong fit. A couple who wants editorial, magazine-style portraits will be frustrated by a pure documentary shooter. A couple who hates posing will feel wooden with a heavy director.
My answer: natural light, documentary at heart, with a film-leaning edit. I give gentle prompts when we make portraits, then get out of the way. Most of the day I'm quietly catching real moments rather than staging them. If you're "not camera people," that's exactly who this approach is for.
3. What happens if you're sick or something goes wrong on the day?
Nobody likes asking this one, but it separates professionals from hobbyists. A photographer running a real business has thought about the worst case. They carry backup bodies and lenses, they shoot to two memory cards at once so a card failure can't take your photos with it, and they have a network of trusted shooters who can step in if disaster strikes.
Ask specifically about gear redundancy and about their backup plan for themselves. The answer should be immediate and concrete, not improvised on the spot.
My answer: I shoot on dual card slots, carry backup bodies and lenses to every wedding, and back everything up to multiple drives the same night. I'm also part of a close network of Melbourne wedding photographers and videographers who cover for each other in genuine emergencies. In years of weddings I've never missed one, and there's a plan in place so you'd still be covered if the unthinkable happened.
4. Exactly what's included, and what costs extra?
The headline price is only half the story. Some photographers charge separately for high-resolution files, for print rights, for travel, for an engagement session, even for editing beyond a set number of images. None of that is wrong, but you want the full picture before you sign, not after.
Ask for everything in writing: hours, deliverables, travel, and any fee that could appear later.
My answer: my packages include your full gallery of professionally edited images in high and low resolution, a sneak peek of 50 to 100 photos within 48 hours, an initial meeting, and a private online gallery you can download, print and share freely. No per-image fees, no paying extra for the files. Travel within Melbourne and surrounds is included, and I'm happy to quote clearly for anything further afield.
5. How many photos will we receive, and when?
Two numbers matter here: how many images, and how many weeks. Both vary wildly across the industry, from a few hundred photos in three weeks to a couple of thousand in four months. Again, there's no single right answer, but you deserve to know before you book, and it should be written into your contract.
Be a little wary of extremes. A very low count can mean heavy culling of moments you'd have loved. A very high count often means unedited files padding the gallery.
My answer: 500+ edited images for six hours of coverage, 700+ for eight hours, 1000+ for a full day, every one of them hand-edited. Your sneak peek lands within 48 hours and your full gallery within 4 to 6 weeks. If you're adding film, your wedding video takes longer, 12 to 20 weeks, because a good edit can't be rushed.
6. Have you shot at our venue, or somewhere like it?
This one is less about the venue and more about how they answer. A photographer who knows your venue can tell you where the light falls at your ceremony time and where the best couple-shoot spots hide. That's genuinely valuable.
But a great photographer at a brand-new venue is still a great photographer. What you want to hear is how they prepare: scouting beforehand, arriving early, reading light quickly. If they've shot a hundred weddings, they've solved a hundred venues.
My answer: I've photographed weddings across Melbourne, the south-east and the Peninsula, and there's a fair chance I know your venue already. If I don't, I scout it before the day, either in person or by arriving early, so by the time your ceremony starts I already know where we're going for portraits and when the light will be best.
7. Will you help us plan the timeline?
Here's something most couples don't know: your photos are made or broken by the timeline, not the camera. Portraits scheduled at harsh midday instead of golden hour, no buffer between ceremony and reception, sunset happening during main course. These are planning problems, and they're all avoidable.
A photographer who cares about your photos will want to be involved in the schedule early. If they only turn up on the day and shoot whatever happens, the day is deciding your photos for you.
My answer: absolutely, and I'd go as far as saying it's one of the most useful things I do. We'll build your run sheet around the light together. I've written a full guide on this, how to plan your wedding day timeline for the best photos, if you want to see how I think about it.
8. Who owns the photos, and can we print and share them freely?
The industry standard is that the photographer holds copyright and grants you a licence to print and share personally. That's normal and fine. What you're checking for is friction: watermarks on your files, fees to unlock high-resolution images, or restrictions on printing anywhere but through the photographer's own lab.
You should be able to print your photos at any size, anywhere, forever, without asking permission or paying again.
My answer: you receive full personal print and share rights with every package. Print them, frame them, send them to your nan, post them wherever you like. The only thing I ask is that you don't sell them commercially, which is standard.
9. How do deposits, payments and postponements work?
Practical, unglamorous, important. Ask what deposit secures your date, when the balance is due, and, the one couples forget, what happens if you have to move the date. Melbourne couples learned the hard way a few years ago that postponement terms matter.
Everything should be in a proper contract you can read before paying anything. A photographer without a contract is a risk you don't need to take.
My answer: a 20% deposit locks in your date, with a straightforward contract signed online, and the balance due by the wedding day. If you have to move your date, the deposit isn't refundable but it is fully transferable to your new date, subject to availability. Life happens, and the terms shouldn't punish you for it.
10. Do you offer video as well, and how does that work alongside the photos?
If you want a wedding film, and more couples do every year, this question can save you thousands and a lot of coordination headaches. Hiring photo and video separately means two vendors, two contracts, two styles that may not match, and two people occasionally standing in each other's shots.
If your photographer offers both, ask how the team works together on the day and whether the editing styles are consistent across photos and film.
My answer: this is honestly the heart of what I do. I offer photography, film, and combined coverage where both are planned as one, so the team moves together, nobody blocks anybody's angle, and your gallery and your film feel like the same day told twice. The combined photo and film packages also come in well under the cost of booking two separate vendors.
One question you don't need to ask
"Do you love what you do?" Every photographer will say yes. Instead, watch how they talk about past weddings. The good ones remember couples by name, tell you about the nan who stole the dance floor, light up describing a ceremony in the rain. Passion shows itself. You never have to ask for it.
The real test is the conversation itself
Here's the quiet truth behind all ten questions: the answers matter, but the conversation matters more. You'll spend more of your wedding day with your photographer than with almost anyone else, including each other. If the call feels easy, if you're laughing fifteen minutes in, if you'd happily grab a coffee with this person, that tells you more than any checklist.
So book the call. Ask these questions, or just some of them, and trust how the conversation feels.
If you'd like to start with me, get in touch with your date and venue and I'll answer every one of these honestly, plus anything else on your mind. And if you're still early in planning, the packages page and the FAQs there cover the practical details.
Whenever you're ready, I'd love to hear about your day.