Happy Thursday Tips day everyone! :) In keeping with the “5 Things To Know About…” series for Thursday Tips that I’ve been doing, today we have things to know about photographers!

Let’s not beat around the bush here- photography is one of THE most important things for your wedding. We all know that. Which is why you want to be as educated and knowledgeable about the process and the people taking your photos, right? Well, like or not, I’m here to tell you a few things that you should know about photographers…

1. TIME! It’s seriously one of the most popular things that photographers talk to me about. Of course it’s always a good idea if you have a planner planning out your time for the day and creating your timeline. But if you don’t have a planner, it’s important to consult with your photographer about the timing of your wedding day. There’s the fact that the light is good at certain times of the day and that there’s only *so much* of it. And then you want to be sure to get photos your family will want AND some fun artistic photos of you and your new husband. You didn’t hire your photographer to just take photos of you for 15 minutes! Talk to your photographer early on about the time of your ceremony, when you’re getting ready, etc etc.

Oh and make sure you actually have your photographer booked for ENOUGH time. Depending on what your wedding day schedule is like, sometimes just a few hours isn’t going to get you all of the photos that you want or need.

[I am still so in love with the photos from this week's Style Dictionary shoot by Jason + Anna Photography!]

2. Photographers have to EAT! Well, all your vendors who are going to be there at your wedding working have to eat really, but photographers seem to be getting the shaft (am I allowed to say that? :-/ lol) in the food department. They’re spending anywhere from 6 to 12 hours at your wedding, and working HARD that whole time. And sometimes a plastic wrapped sandwich and a cookie aren’t quite enough to get them through the night. So please feed your photographer (and all your other vendors!) a decent meal!

3. Every detail DOES matter! In addition to the obvious details like table numbers (please no hotel numbers!) favors, menus and escort cards, details like where you cut your cake, where toasts are done, and where the DJ is positioned are things that need to be considered. Because all of those things are photographed!

4. There’s more involved than you think! More time, more equipment, more money, more hours- there’s more everything involved in photography than you think. On the outside, it’s the 8 hours of photographing your wedding. But to do that, they have to have thousands of dollars in equipment- and not what your uncle with the “nice camera” buys at Best Buy. Then, they spend hours before your wedding prepping the equipment. Then they spend hours at your wedding shooting photos. Then they spend even more hours after your wedding editing the photos. There’s A LOT more- I could go into a very detailed description of it all for you, but that’s a whole post by itself. You get the jist of it all, right? :)

5. KNOW. First and foremost, know that you get what you pay for. It’s a common theme in just about every aspect of a wedding, at least in my experience. If you go cheap, you’re going to get cheap in some way, shape or form. I can attest to that. I’m not saying to blow half your wedding budget on your photography. However, the key word here is KNOW. Know what to expect to pay for decent photography. Know what your budget is for your photography. Know what style of photography you like. Know that the photographer you like does quality work every time. Know that your photographer feels like your best friend. (Not to toot my own horn, but Every Last Vendor can definitely help you in your search using all of these things!) Knowing these things will help you and your photographer in the long run. :)

Yikes, this is a long one! I have a confession to make- I actually started this series to make my Thursday Tips posts shorter, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened! But hey, you all want to be AWESOME brides and have AWESOME relationships with all of your vendors, right? :) I guess if you’ve made it this far down in the post, you most certainly are ALREADY an awesome bride! Have an AWESOME Thursday! (I just had to use awesome one more time.)

Other blogs also posting Thursday Tips today…