Sharing Our Wedding Photographer, How We Found/Chose Her, More Engagement Photos & My Tips So Far On Building Your Wedding Vendor Team.

As a photographer, choosing a wedding photographer felt like the most daunting task of the wedding planning process. Spoiler alert: we found a wedding photographer we adore, she photographed our engagement photos a few weeks ago (pictured here- ahhh we are obsessed) & we couldn’t be more thrilled. Here’s how I found her, why I chose her & my best advice for how to choose your wedding photographer and vendor team!

I’m always browsing art and photography online, it’s just who I am. That being said, I didn’t get engaged with any wedding photographers in my mind. Being a photographer myself, finding and committing to a wedding photographer felt like the most daunting of all wedding planning tasks. Since we’re not getting married in Chicago, we made the choice not to use any Chicago vendors which meant starting from ground zero.

So. Here we are. Ground zero. I actually didn’t search for any wedding photographers. As we found our planner and started the process, the frighteningly accurate algorithm on Instagram did its job. All of a sudden, my ‘for you’ page was filled with beautiful wedding photography by Pacific Northwest photographers. I found one I loved, Hannah found one she loved that I also loved & our wedding planner shared four that she thought fit the bill of what we were looking for.

I knew I wanted someone with a creative eye, an affinity for the little details & somebody who is an expert at capturing genuine emotion, moments in time & motion. I wanted a photographer who had a mix of styles, who was both photo journalistic and editorial. Who was natural yet edgy AND somebody who shot both digital and film. Above all, I wanted someone who we genuinely like and have fun with. This, is my number one most important quality in all of our wedding vendors. Someone who is kind, fun, collaborative, creative and supportive. I want our wedding to be like our life, without drama and filled with wonderful people who we love being around.

So, of the original 5 photographers we had found, we narrowed this down to 2. One of the photographers on our planners list I had actually followed for quite sometime. I loved her work and her vibe. We also had something big in common off the bat, we both share photo tips and don’t gate keep tips and information from our audience so I knew right away she wasn’t a competitive person… I scheduled a call with her. It was my first, and my last call with a wedding photographer.

My biggest piece of advice when choosing vendors for your wedding is to speak with them, face to face, or on FaceTime if you’re not in the same state like us. No matter how talented someone is, if you don’t like speaking with them and don’t feel instantly comfortable with them, in my opinion it’s a NO. There should be no stress on your wedding day so building a team of people who make you your most comfortable is key.

With this in mind, I got on a FaceTime call with Summer of Summer Grace Photography for what I thought would be a quick call. Almost an hour and a half later we hung up the call. We smiled and laughed and geeked out about creative shit like we were old friends. I talked with her about my biggest worry which was, in being a creative & a photographer, my mind just works in images and I wanted a photographer who I could be collaborative with. Someone who took the reigns and was exactly the type of talent we were looking for, yet someone who would discuss ideas, compositions and styling with me without feeling like I was stepping on toes (the last thing I would want to do). Summer totally embraced the fact that I am a photographer and it doesn’t bother her one bit, you could tell.

I was so excited after the call that I knew I didn’t need to take any more. Originally, I wanted to understand every single possible option and speak with as many vendors as possible. After this call I realized, if I find someone who’s style I love, who is a wonderful human, who’s fun and excited, who’s available on our date and within the budget… why would I keep looking!? So I changed my approach in finding our vendor team.

We are so THRILLED to have found and to be working with Summer and her amazing second shooter AND fiancée, Jake for our wedding festivities. We were able to meet in person a couple of weeks ago and they shot these engagement photos which we couldn’t be happier with.

Finding other vendors hasn’t necessarily felt as kismet as it felt with Summer. My biggest advice in finding wedding vendors is to know what’s important to you and what’s not. To find vendors with the style & talent you’re looking for but most importantly, kind humans who are passionate  and fun to be around. Find vendors you trust and your gut feels settled about. Find vendors who are confident (not cocky) and collaborative. And last but surely not least, find vendors who represent you and your partner WELL. Don’t choose someone because they are who everyone uses, choose the vendors YOU want to use. This is your wedding and nobody else’s, do what you want. Don’t forget that.

xx Ali