How to choose your pre wedding photographer

In case you didn’t notice, the era of ‘pre-wed photos bundled with bridal package’ is fading away. The new trend is: couple tends to hire professional freelance photographer to do their prewed photo shots. It’s not an easy task to choose among so many photographers out there. Believe me. You have to be careful, otherwise you may get disappointed.

Speaking from my own experience, to choose your pre-wedding photographer you must consider these kinds of things:

1. Money, money, money.
Every couple wants to make their prewed photos to be the best photos of them ever, but everything comes with its price. Some couples may not able to spend a fortune for prewed photos only. If don’t have any money issue, just skip this point, but if you do, then you need to set the limit on how much you’re willing to spend before you can start looking for photographer within your range. Don’t worry; there are a lot of great photographers that come with reasonable price. The most important thing is, once you have decided your limitation, let it go. Do not complaint and don’t be stingy!

2. Know what style you like.
There are various styles of photography; I’m not a pro here, so I don’t know all of them. For me, I love candid journalism. I’ve never been a fan of fine art photography for prewed photos. I find it is too gloomy and sometimes scary (I might think about it though, for different occasion). ‘Studio-pose’ photos are not working for me either (Aduh, jadul banget sih). Infrared and photos decorated with ‘romantic-puking’ words are definitely out of question. ‘Photoshopped too much” photos such as giant guy and tiny girl like Thumbelina or The Mystic look a like (you know jacky chan and Kim Hee Soon movie) are a big turn off. Engga banget deh. It’s not cute at all!

3. Define your prewed photos’ location and theme.
Spend some time to discuss with your boyfriend/girlfriend what both of you want for your prewed photos. First you need to decide whether you want indoor or outdoor photos, after that pick your prewed photos’ theme. For example: if you like to have photos dominated with green color on the background, then you can go to parks or mountains. Some couples may prefer “jalan-jalan” as their theme, while others prefer formal photos. As for us, we choose ‘jalan-jalan’ and colorful for our photos’ theme. ‘Pake kaos kembaran’ like white t-shirt and jeans? Noooo….(screaming from the top of my lungs). Other colours might be considered, but I doubt it. ‘Lucu-lucuan’/’marah-marahan’ are still 'okay' as long as not inside the studio. Because that would make it fall into ‘Studio-pose’ category (see no 2).

4. A picture speaks thousands words.
The most important thing is to realize what kind of message you want to tell others who might see your photos. At first, I thought to have the most perfect photos I should be worried about the dress, the pose (should I smile? Should I laugh? Or hugged each other?), the make up (do I look different? Menor? Medhok?), the hairdo (sanggul? Urai? Ikal? Lurus?) and other ‘tetek-bengek’ things.
But now I understand, the story I want to tell is not how cute I was or how fabulous the dress was.
My perfect photo might not the one where I looked most cute, most gorgeous, or most pretty ever. But it is the one that tells how happy we were, the one where all of our feelings at that precise moment are painted all over….