Building a Relationship With Your Wedding Photographer


When I signed up to be a featured photographer on the Northwest’s most popular wedding blog Apple Brides, they ask you to answer questions about yourself and your photography business for an introductory interview so their readers can get to know you. I began filling out the questions, then realized I wanted to write an article on what I think sets my work and myself apart from other Spokane wedding photographers. Apple Bride’s interview questions were great, and would definitely serve its purpose, but I wanted to provide something different and stand out from the other local vendors.  This is also a link that I like to share with all of my prospective brides when they inquire about my services so they can understand my mentality of their wedding.
Besides your groom (or bride), who is the person constantly at your side on your wedding day? Your photographer of course! Which is why you should LOVE your photographer. In this post, I am going to tell you why you should build a professional, but friendly, relationship with the person you are paying to stand behind a camera and document every moment of your wedding day.  As a professional wedding photographer in Spokane, I strive to build a unique relationship with each one of my couples, which I believe sets me apart from my competition. When I can get you as comfortable as possible in front of my camera, that is when we score killer photos!

Hearty Laughs1. Communication
First and foremost, communication is always the key. With today’s technology, it’s never been easier to give updates, share ideas, and ask questions. If you don’t have a wedding coordinator or planner, most likely your photographer is your “go-to” person for all the answers if you feel comfortable enough with them to do so.
I like to have an initial consultation with both of you before your wedding day. We go over every detail we can think of, laugh, fill out a questionnaire, joke, and discuss a preliminary wedding-day agenda over coffee, if we’re lucky. I also make it known that you can contact me any time of the day via phone, text message, email, Facebook, Skype, or swing by the studio. You are paying me good money to document your wedding day…but that’s not the only day I’m working for you. Use me to your full extent and contact me as often as possible!
Clean Lines2. More Humor, Less Stress
What’s life without a little (or a lot) of humor? Planning your wedding day is one of the most exhilarating and stressful things you will ever do. Your photographer should not add to the stress, they should add to the exhilaration! I have heard a few too many times from bridal party attendees that “the photographer from my last wedding was so controlling and stressful!”
I am in no way a comedian and don’t even consider myself a “funny” person, but hey, I try! I bring balance to the table-of-stress on your wedding day and leading up to it. Whether it’s on purpose or on accident, I will make you laugh with me or at me. I help control the flow of your day with a smile, a laugh and guaranteed warm-hearted snide-remarks (these are received well by our trouble-makers: the groomsmen). You will never find me adding to your stress, but you will find me joking, laughing and dishing-out playful banter. Guess what this gets you? Awesome candid photos…especially on the dance floor!!!

wedding photographer in spokane

Cigar Break3. Engagement Sessions
Its time to announce to the world that you’re engaged to be married!! An engagement photo session obviously helps you do this. It’s a great time to visit one of your favorite date spots, where you first met, or showcase a hobby you two share together. Couples are getting so creative with styling and staging their engagement sessions…the possibilities are limitless. Plus, if you shoot your photos months before your wedding day, you have the opportunity to use them in your save-the-dates or invitations.

In every one of my wedding packages, I offer a complimentary engagement session to my couples. I do this for one main reason: to get to know each other. It is so important to me that you two are as comfortable as possible with me and my camera, and an engagement session is the best way to get there. We get to spend 2 hours together walking, talking, laughing and learning about one another as I teach you how to pose, you teach me how to interact with you and you get to see how I operate behind my camera. In my experience, this helps us attain your wedding-day photos quicker, easier, and much more relaxed because we know what to expect from each other. Let’s break the ice BEFORE the wedding day.Candid Black and White

Spokane Coffee Engagement_027As a professional wedding photographer, I am not only selling you a final product of wedding images. I am selling you an experience. That experience begins from the moment you contact me and follows through far beyond your wedding day. 10 years from now, I want you to look at your beautiful wedding photos with smiles, tears, and laughs, remembering how perfect your day was and how much love you two shared with each other. We will trigger these memories through your images by maintaining great communication, sharing laughs and practicing before your wedding day.
To sum it up, we will build a friendship.End of the Isle

Secrets Under the Veil

Spokane Wedding Photography
Crystal
Crystal@CrystalMadsen.com
509-499-1090
114 West Pacific Ave #209
Spokane, WA 99201



Building a Relationship With Your Wedding Photographer | / Posted on | Tools of the Trade, Weddings

All Photography and Original Text © Crystal Madsen Photography