When I receive inquiries about wedding shoots, I see a bevy of questions about how I work or what you'll receive.  I figured I might as well post a short list of some of these questions and their answers to save you some time if you're considering me as a wedding photographer...

 Q: How much do you charge per hour?

A: You'd be hard pressed to find a wedding photographer who actually charges by the hour.  When you hire a photographer for your wedding you're paying for more than just the 8-14 hours of shooting on the day of your wedding.  What you really pay for is the years of experience it took me to get to where I am, the classes I had to take and am still paying for, the equipment and backup equipment I use to photograph all day long, the computer and hard drives I bought to save and edit your photos, the software that allows me to organize and process all my shoots, the time I spend carefully adjusting each photo I deliver, the cost to deliver the photos to you, and the taxes I pay to the state and federal governments for what you payed me.  I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but I think you get the point.  Each wedding is different, and just because your wedding coverage might not be as long as somebody else's, that doesn't mean I don't put the same amount of work into it. 

Q: Is there a limit to the length of your wedding day coverage?

A: Nope!  When I say I'll photograph your wedding, I mean I'll be there from the second you start with hair and makeup until the very last song at the reception.  That is, unless you'd rather have less coverage.  

Q: How long will it take you to get the photos to me? 

A: It depends.  If your wedding is in the middle of a busy season during which I have other weddings to edit, it might take 4-6 weeks.  If your wedding is during a slow period, i may be done in a week or two.  There's no solid answer for this one, just know that I'm always working as hard as I can to get you the images in a timely fashion.  

Q: Do you have liability insurance? 

A: Yup! 

Q: Can I send you some photos I like so we can make sure we get them for my wedding? 

A: Sure you can, but I won't promise that we'll get them.  This is actually a pretty insulting question to ask a photographer.  It might seem harmless, even sensible to someone not working as a wedding photographer, but its like asking a chef to change the way he cooks a certain plate so it tastes the same as another chef's cooking.  We as wedding photographers are constantly working on developing and improving our style so that we can stand out and be hired by clients who appreciate us for the way our images look.  If you'd like your wedding photos to look like something you've seen on Pinterest or another source, your best bet is to find the photographer who took that photo and see about hiring them.  

Thanks for taking the time to read these.  Hopefully this post will save some people some trouble before contacting me or any photographer.  If you have any questions you'd like answered, post them in the comments and I'll make another blog post to answer them!