Minneapolis Wedding Photographers
On your wedding day, you should be thinking about how head over heels in love you are – not stressing about how your wedding photos are going to turn out. As a top reviewed Minnesota wedding photographer we work hard to make sure you’re comfortable before you ever step in front of the camera. We know that couples who are relaxed and having fun look their best!
We understand how important of a decision it is to choose your Minneapolis wedding photographers and so we want to give you some inside knowledge that will hopefully help you make an educated decision. Just like with any big decision, you want to make sure that you do your research. The Knot has a fairly comprehensive list of photographers, but is by no means complete. Between the Knot and searching on google you can easily discover several hundred active Minneapolis wedding photographers. How are you supposed to make a good decision?
I’m going to start off by assuming that you’re someone who wants awesome photos of their wedding day. You want photos of you and your new spouse as well as photos of the family. It’s going to be a fun occasion and so you want to make sure to get great photos of your guests and all the events of the day. This is also assuming that you’ve put a lot of time, thought, and energy into picking a venue for this big event.
The biggest difficulty with choosing a wedding photographer is that you’re choosing something that is a little bit intangible. Granted, you can arrange ahead of time for reprint rights, albums, and hours of coverage. However, the style, quality and your experience is not guaranteed, and there is certainly no warranty with photography. Additionally, there are no standards, licenses or mandatory education for wedding photographers so it’s understandable if you feel a bit overwhelmed.
So where do you go from here? If you’ve decided that you do indeed value photography and would be extremely sad and disappointed if you didn’t LOVE your photos then you’ve already made the first major choice.
Choose a full time photographer:
Choose wedding photographers who make a full time living with their business and who photograph weddings as their primary focus. Like I mentioned previously, there is no license needed for wedding photography, but a pretty decent standard to find out if someone is good at what they do is if they can make a living at it. Secondly, if you want great photos throughout your wedding day, you’re going to want a photographer who knows how to work in a large variety of lighting and weather conditions. Taking photos outdoors in perfect evening lighting is a lot easier than photographing in a dark ballroom. If you’ve been to a few weddings you’ve probably experienced the difference it can make to have a wedding photographer who is confident and attentive VS someone who is clearly out of their element. When someone is photographing weddings full time there is a much higher chance that they’ll have the ability to handle the wedding day stresses with ease and will have invested in the proper equipment. Unfortunately, this is still not guaranteed, which leads me to my second point.
Choose an experienced Minneapolis wedding photographer:
We’ve established that you really value photography, and that you want someone who has the proper equipment. You’re not interested in hiring someone who is using your big wedding day as their creative fling on the side. You’re looking at photographers who shoot weddings as big part of their business and you’re noticing that it’s hard to tell the difference between the portfolios of people who’ve been in business for 5 years and photographers who are in their first full time year. We took great photos when we first started out, and you’ll still find a number of photos that are years old as part of our portfolio. However, what photographers gain with experience is in the details. We’ve photographed in rain, snow, summer sun, 100+ degree days, with emotionally distraught brides, and more. We’ve had several cameras break during weddings days ,hard drives die, been sworn at by drunk guests, and worked with un-cooperative event staff. We’ve photographed couples of all heights, shapes and sizes. 250 weddings later I can say that every wedding we photographed this year we were better prepared for than the year before. Between facebook, yelp, google, the knot, and the wedding wire we have over 100 5 star reviews and no negative reviews to date. When you hire an experienced, well reviewed wedding photographer you are ensuring that your photographer learned how to handle all these difficult things with someone else, and came out on the other side while giving their clients a great experience.
Choose a photographer who’s style you love:
We’re talking about how to hire wedding photographers, and I put photography style all the way down the list at number three! Unfortunately for a lot of photographers, taking creative photos is all that they have going for them. If you’re looking at photographers who are organized enough to run a business, and have been making happy Brides and Grooms for a number of years you can feel confident that they’ll give you the same treatment. How sad would you be if you found someone who’s photos you loved online, but couldn’t do the same thing for you? When you’re looking at style keep these things in mind:
Do I see all the types of photos that I would want from my wedding day? Many photographers have signature approach or style. Make sure that not only do you awesome photos, but that you also see a variety of photos that encompass different things you care about. Some photographer care a lot about details, some only shoot close up images and some only shoot wide shots. Some photographers only shoot candid images and won’t guide a couple to help them look their best. Some photographers won’t do formal family photos and some have really stylized editing. Find images that speak to who you are, and then make sure that this photographer is able (and willing) to take all the types of images that you’ll want from your wedding day. If you haven’t yet, you can view our wedding photography gallery here.
Find a wedding photographer that you get along with:
Making sure you have a great rapport with your photographers is really important. These are people who are going to be there with you on one of the most important and emotional days of your life. Not only that, but in many cases this person will help you plan the schedule for your wedding day and can influence how enjoyable big parts of the day will be for your friends and family! You’ll want to find someone who can act professionally so as not to be a distraction at the wedding, take charge and organize large family photos when necessary, be creative under pressure, and hang out with you in close quarters during some really intimate parts of your day. Choosing a Minneapolis wedding photographer that has a fun, professional personality will help you enjoy your day. However, if they don’t meet the other qualifications listed above you’re not going to end up with awesome photos no matter how nice they are. We offer couples the option to do an engagement session without booking a wedding package. This gives couples the option to make sure they’re confident in their choice before making the full commitment.
Understand your wedding photographer’s pricing
There is a big variety in how photographers structure their wedding packages. I frequently here about couples end up spending thousands of dollars more than they planned because they didn’t understand the structure of their package. Make sure you know the following things:
- Do I need to pay for a second photographer or assistant
- Am I getting two photographers or “two photographers”
- Do you have re-print rights and full res files from the wedding and engagement
- What is the turn-around time for edited images
- What are the prices for albums
- Are there charges for travel
- is the engagement session included
If you’ve already answered the previous questions, as well as understand the photographers pricing structure you’re in a really good position to make an educated decision.
Why you should choose a husband and wife wedding photography team
I left this one until last because I know other Minneapolis wedding photographers who I respect and do great work. You don’t need to hire a husband and wife team to get great wedding photos, but I’d like to tell you why it provides a better experience than working with a solo photographer. First of all, in the case of DnK Photography, you’re hiring two full time lead photographers. Both of us shoot weddings independently as well as together. This way we’re able to split up and cover twice as much at the same time. You don’t have to chose whether to prioritize the brides getting ready photos over the groom, because they’ll both be covered. You can be confident in getting tons of awesome photos from a variety of perspectives. You don’t have to choose whether you like a photographer who shoots close, intimate shots or a photographer who likes big picture and candid photos because you can have both! When we shoot together we deliver a blend of styles that flow together to provide a fully encompassing look and style to your wedding day. There are no other types of teams who will charge a price for two lead photographers that is competitive with packages from one lead photographer. I guess it works out that way because we just like working with one another so much!
I hope that this was helpful in making your decision hiring Minneapolis Wedding Photographers a little bit easier. Make sure that you spend a few minutes and look at our wedding photography gallery. We’re both so proud of the work we do, and have so many amazing memories. We hope that you feel the life and love in our work. If you like our photography style then head over to our wedding photography pricing page, There you’ll get a better idea for what we charge, but please contact us for full pricing information and availability.