Choosing the right wedding photographer is a difficult business.
Simply by scanning through a few wedding photographer's websites you can soon see that there are huge variations in style, quality and of course price. Look a little further and you will find more variations such as coverage, inclusion of images on disc (or alternatively sometimes very expensive prints). So where do you start?
Well, I would suggest starting off by finding a small selection of photographs who's style you like. When doing this it is worth bearing in mind that photographers who concentrate mainly on posed shots and groups will tend to require more of your time than those who take more candid shots. Are you happy to be standing in full wedding regalia for say 2 hours in the mid afternoon sun whilst all these shots are taken, or would you prefer to be in the bar with your guests relaxing?
Usually you can get a good idea about a photographers style from his or her website. By the way, if a photographer only has a very few images on their site, it is probably a bad sign!
So once you've narrowed it down to a few favourites it's time to start thinking about price, coverage, what you get for your money and potential hidden extras. You should be able to get this information from their websites, if not via a phone call. It they insist on seeing you face to face before giving you an indication of the cost that is again a bad sign! They may be planning to apply 'hard sell' when you meet them, which is not pleasant and usually results in poor value from your point of view.
At this stage you need to think about which parts of your wedding day you want covered, whether you want the images on disc and/or prints or albums. Then you can work out a total cost, at least approximately.
Hopefully this will result in at least one of your preferred photographers being affordable to you. Now it's simply a case of arranging to meet them to discuss the details and to ensure that you get along.