44 Questions to Ask a Wedding Photographer Before Booking

Start by finding photographers whose work genuinely appeals to you. Look beyond a handful of impressive homepage images and ask to see complete wedding galleries so you can judge how consistently they photograph an entire day.
Once you have a shortlist, look at the practical side too. Check their experience, reviews, packages, contract, insurance, and what happens if they’re unable to attend your wedding.
Then arrange to meet or video call them. You’ll spend a significant part of your wedding day with your photographer, so liking their photographs isn’t enough — you should also feel comfortable talking to them and confident that they understand what matters to you.
Our separate guide to choosing a wedding photographer goes into this process in more detail.

There’s no single rule, but once you know your wedding date and have found a photographer you really want, it makes sense to check their availability sooner rather than later.
Popular Saturdays and dates during the busier wedding season can book well in advance. Some couples contact us about two years before their wedding, while others book much closer to the day.
We typically photograph around 40–50 weddings each year, so availability varies considerably by date.
Our advice is simple: do your research properly rather than rushing, but once you’ve found the right photographer and are happy with their work, approach and terms, there’s little benefit in delaying the booking.

A few things should make you stop and ask more questions before booking.
Be cautious if a photographer won’t show you complete wedding galleries, can’t clearly explain what’s included in their price, doesn’t provide a written contract or has no sensible contingency plan for illness or equipment failure.
You should also know exactly who will photograph your wedding. If you’ve built a relationship with a particular photographer, check that they — rather than an associate you’ve never met — are the person named to cover your day.
Reviews are useful too, especially when you can find consistent feedback from couples across independent sources and the photographer’s own website.
None of these things individually tells you whether you’ll love someone’s photography. But together they help establish whether you’re dealing with an experienced, organised professional whom you can trust with a day that can’t simply be repeated.

Our style combines natural documentary wedding photography with polished editorial portraits.
For most of the wedding day, we work discreetly and photograph what is genuinely happening — the reactions, conversations, laughter and little moments you might otherwise miss.
When it’s time for your newlywed portraits, we become a little more involved. We’ll use the surroundings, light and composition and give you enough direction to create strong, beautifully composed photographs without turning the session into a lengthy photoshoot.
You can learn more about this approach in our guide to editorial and documentary wedding photography.

Absolutely. You don’t have to choose between natural wedding photography and beautifully composed portraits.
We photograph most of the day candidly, allowing events and genuine moments to unfold without constantly directing you or your guests. For your couple portraits, we can then use more considered composition and gentle direction to create the more polished editorial photographs you see throughout our portfolio.
For us, the two approaches complement each other. You get the real story and atmosphere of the wedding alongside a smaller collection of standout portraits of the two of you.

That depends on what we’re photographing.
During most of the wedding day, you’ll need very little direction. We want you to enjoy what’s happening rather than constantly thinking about the cameras.
For family photographs and your newlywed portraits, we’ll take more control when necessary. We can organise people, suggest where to stand or move, and give you straightforward guidance so we can create photos efficiently.
Our aim isn’t to put you into stiff poses. It’s to give direction when it helps, while still letting you look and feel like yourselves.

That’s extremely common, and you certainly don’t need any experience of being photographed.
We’ve photographed hundreds of couples with very different personalities and confidence levels in front of the camera. We’ll guide you when you need it, but you won’t be expected to perform, memorise poses, or spend the day wondering what to do with your hands.
If you’re particularly nervous about being photographed, a pre-wedding engagement session can also be a useful way to experience how we work before the wedding.

Of course. If there are particular photographs, ideas or aspects of your wedding that are important to you, tell us.
We have our own photographic style, but we’re flexible and want your photographs to reflect your plans and priorities rather than simply repeating the same set of images at every wedding.
We’ll discuss the details with you before the wedding and can offer suggestions based on the venue, timings, and what you’d like from your photography.

We’ve been full-time professional photographers since 2006 and have photographed more than 700 weddings.
That experience covers everything from intimate ceremonies with only a handful of people to large celebrations with hundreds of guests, across city hotels, castles, country estates, registry offices and outdoor locations throughout Scotland.
Experience matters because weddings rarely run exactly to plan. Timings change, weather turns, rooms can be darker than expected and occasionally something completely unexpected happens. After photographing hundreds of weddings, adapting calmly to those situations is simply part of the job for us.

Absolutely — and we think you should ask any photographer you’re seriously considering to show you at least one complete wedding.
A portfolio naturally contains a photographer’s favourite images. A full gallery tells you much more: how consistently they photograph preparations, ceremonies, family groups, candid moments, speeches, portraits, dark interiors and evening celebrations.
We have complete wedding galleries that we can show you, and all of the wedding photography displayed throughout our website is our own work.
Looking through a full day is one of the best ways to decide whether you’d be happy receiving an entire wedding photographed in that style rather than simply loving a handful of standout images.

Yes. When you book Jonathon Fowler Photography, Claire and/or Jonathon will personally photograph your wedding, depending on the package you choose.
We don’t operate as an agency where you book the business and then discover later that somebody you’ve never met has been assigned to photograph your day.
If your package includes both of us, Claire and Jonathon work together as your two photographers. If you choose one-photographer coverage, your booking will clearly state who will photograph your wedding.
It’s worth asking any photography company exactly who will attend and ensuring that this is clear before you sign the contract.

Quite possibly. We’ve photographed weddings at hundreds of venues and locations across Edinburgh and Scotland.
Previous experience at a venue can be useful because we may already know how the light changes, where photographs work well and how the day typically flows there. You can see many of the venues we know particularly well throughout our wedding venue guides and real wedding photos on the website.
However, we wouldn’t recommend choosing a photographer simply because they’ve worked at your venue before. An experienced wedding photographer should be able to assess unfamiliar surroundings, light and weather and create strong photographs wherever you choose to get married.
If a venue is new to us, we’ll research it beforehand and allow time to familiarise ourselves with the surroundings when necessary.

Yes. Jonathon Fowler Photography carries Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance, and our photographic equipment is also insured.
Some wedding venues require suppliers to hold appropriate public liability insurance, so confirm this with any photographer you’re considering.
Insurance doesn’t tell you whether somebody is a talented photographer, but it is one of the practical signs that you’re dealing with an established professional business.

Don’t compare packages on price alone. Check exactly how much coverage you receive, whether one or two photographers are included, how many finished photographs you can expect, how your images are delivered and whether extras such as engagement sessions, albums or additional evening coverage cost more.
It’s also worth checking for travel charges and what happens if your wedding runs later than planned.
Two photographers can advertise similar-looking prices while including quite different levels of coverage and service, so make sure you understand what you’re actually comparing.
You can see all of our current options on our wedding photography prices and packages page.

Wedding photography prices reflect much more than the number of hours somebody spends taking photographs on the wedding day.
Experience, coverage length, whether one or two photographers attend, the amount of editing involved, travel, albums, and other included services can all affect the final price.
When comparing photographers, we’d look at the consistency of their complete wedding galleries and exactly what each package includes rather than assuming the cheapest or most expensive option automatically represents the best value.
Ultimately, you’re paying for someone to photograph unpredictable, unrepeatable moments consistently throughout an entire wedding day — not simply for a certain number of hours with a camera.

Not every wedding needs two photographers, and one experienced photographer can provide excellent coverage.
Two photographers become particularly useful when you want both partners’ preparations photographed at the same time, different viewpoints during the ceremony and more candid coverage of guests while family groups or couple portraits are taking place.
Claire and Jonathon regularly photograph weddings together, so when you choose our two-photographer package, you get two experienced wedding photographers working as a team rather than a photographer accompanied primarily by an assistant.
Our guide to having two photographers at your wedding explains the practical differences in more detail.

Yes. Our main packages cover the most common requirements, from shorter weddings and elopements through to complete full-day photography.
However, weddings don’t all follow the same timetable. If the standard options don’t quite fit your plans, tell us what you need, and we can discuss whether a more suitable coverage combination is possible.
We’d rather work around the wedding you’re actually planning than encourage you to pay for coverage you don’t need.

Our pre-wedding engagement session is available as an optional add-on for £350 with any of our wedding photography packages.
It’s particularly useful if you feel nervous about being photographed, because it gives you a chance to get used to how we work before the wedding and see how relaxed the process can be.
It also gives you a set of professional photos together before the wedding, which some couples use for invitations, wedding websites, or simply to have some photographs that aren’t from the wedding day itself.
You can read more about what to expect in our engagement photos and pre-wedding session guide.

Travel is included for weddings in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
We also photograph weddings elsewhere in Scotland and further afield. If additional travel or accommodation costs apply, we’ll agree them with you before you book so you know the full price in advance.
Wherever your photographer is based, it’s worth asking about travel, accommodation and parking costs before signing your contract rather than discovering additional charges later.

A £300 booking fee secures your wedding date and forms part of the total price of your chosen photography package.
We confirm your booking once we’ve received your signed contract and booking fee. The remaining balance is due one month before your wedding.
Once your booking is confirmed, the package price agreed in your contract is fixed, even if our advertised prices increase before your wedding.

Yes. We’ll send you an electronic contract setting out the details of your booking before it’s confirmed.
A wedding photography contract should clearly explain the date and agreed coverage, who will photograph your wedding, what your package includes, payment terms, image delivery, cancellation or postponement arrangements and how your photographs may be used.
Read the contract before signing it and ask about anything you don’t understand. We’d recommend doing the same with any wedding photographer you’re considering.

Yes. If spreading the cost would help, speak to us, and we can arrange instalment payments before the final balance is due.
The important thing is that you pay the agreed balance by the deadline stated in your contract.

Your contract sets out what happens if you cancel your booking, postpone the wedding, or move to a different date, so you should understand this before signing.
If your plans change, contact us as soon as possible. If a wedding is postponed, we’ll discuss the new date with you and the options available based on our availability and your booking terms.
Ask any wedding photographer what happens if either you or they need to cancel, and what happens to any booking fee or payments already made. Document these arrangements clearly rather than relying on a verbal agreement.

About a month before your wedding, we’ll ask you for the practical details we need to plan the photography properly.
That usually includes your confirmed timings, locations and travel arrangements, the key parts of the day you’d like covered and your list of family group photographs.
It’s also helpful to tell us about anything that might not be obvious from the timetable — surprise events, particularly important people or details, and any family circumstances or sensitivities we should know about before organising group photographs.
We’ll review everything and let you know if we spot anything in the schedule that could make the photography unnecessarily rushed or difficult.

For family groups and any genuinely important photographs that wouldn’t otherwise be obvious, yes.
You don’t need to give us a huge checklist containing standard moments such as exchanging rings, cutting the cake or your first dance. Photographing those parts of a wedding is already our job, and working from an exhaustive list can make candid photography harder rather than easier.
What is useful is knowing about photographs that are particularly important to you — perhaps a picture with a grandparent, a group of old friends or a sentimental detail with a story behind it.
We’ll discuss those with you before the wedding so we can plan the important photographs without turning the day into a checklist.

We usually recommend keeping your formal family photographs to around ten groups or fewer where possible.
As a guide, we can normally photograph approximately ten well-organised groups in around 20 minutes, although finding the right people can often take longer than taking the photographs themselves.
That’s why a concise list prepared in advance works so well. It gives you the important family combinations without spending a large part of your drinks reception assembling people for photographs.
We’ll help you organise the list before the wedding if you’re unsure what to include.

Yes. Good photography planning should work around your wedding, not dictate it.
Once we know your ceremony time, travel arrangements, drinks reception, meal, speeches and evening plans, we can advise how much time to allow for family groups and your couple portraits.
If something looks too tight, we’ll flag it beforehand and suggest practical alternatives. It’s much easier to adjust a timetable in advance than discover on the wedding day that twenty minutes has been allocated for something that realistically needs forty.
The aim isn’t to build your day around photography. It’s to make sure there’s enough breathing room for the photographs you want without making you feel rushed.

It depends on the package you choose.
Our shorter wedding and elopement coverage is based on a set number of hours, while our full-day packages usually begin with preparations and continue through the main evening celebrations and the first few dances.
Before the wedding, we’ll go through your timings with you so we know where we need to be and when. If your plans don’t fit neatly into one of our standard packages, we can discuss the most appropriate coverage for your day.

Weddings don’t always run exactly to schedule, and small delays are completely normal.
If preparations run over, the ceremony starts late, or speeches take longer than expected, we’ll adapt as the day unfolds rather than add pressure.
If you need photography significantly beyond the coverage included in your package, additional evening coverage is available from £295 per hour. If we can see beforehand that your planned timings are likely to require extra coverage, we’ll discuss that with you before the wedding rather than springing an unexpected cost on you afterwards.

We’re in Scotland, so having a wet-weather plan is part of photographing weddings here.
Rain doesn’t mean you won’t get great photographs. Depending on your venue and what you’re comfortable with, we can use indoor locations, covered areas, available window light and our own lighting equipment.
If the weather breaks, we can also make the most of it quickly. And if you’re happy to head outside with an umbrella, rain can sometimes create some of the most atmospheric photographs of the day.
The important thing is having a photographer who can adapt to the conditions rather than relying on one particular location or type of light.

We have a network of experienced professional photographers we can contact if illness or a genuine emergency prevents one of us from attending.
Because Claire and Jonathon often photograph weddings together, our two-photographer coverage also gives us an additional level of resilience if something unexpected happens to one of us.
Our contract also covers the exact arrangements for circumstances where we’re unable to fulfil a booking.
This is an important question to ask any wedding photographer: there should be a clear contingency plan, not just hope that an emergency never happens.

Yes. We carry multiple professional camera bodies, lenses, flashes, and other essential equipment so a single equipment failure doesn’t stop us from photographing your wedding.
Weddings contain moments that can’t be repeated, so backup equipment isn’t an optional extra for us — it’s simply part of being properly prepared.
When comparing photographers, you don’t need to become an expert on camera models. What matters far more is knowing they have sufficient professional equipment and a sensible backup plan if something fails.

Absolutely. We have no problem with your family and friends taking their own photographs.
Your guests are part of the wedding, and their reactions—including taking pictures themselves—can become part of the story we photograph.
It can only become difficult when someone physically blocks an important moment, such as stepping into the aisle during the ceremony. Your celebrant or venue may also have their own rules about photography during the ceremony.
If you’re considering an unplugged ceremony, it should be because it suits the atmosphere you want, not because your wedding photographer insists.

A meal is always appreciated, but we don’t expect you to provide one.
On a full wedding day, we normally take our break while you and your guests are eating because there is usually very little useful photography happening at that point.
If your venue is remote and there’s nowhere nearby to buy food, arranging something for us is particularly helpful. Otherwise, we can organise our own food, although we may need to leave the venue briefly to pick it up.
If you’re booking another photographer, ask about their meal requirements, as some suppliers include specific arrangements in their contracts.

The number depends on the package you choose and what happens during your wedding.
Our Half Day Coverage includes 300+ edited photographs, our Full Day Coverage includes 600+, and our Full Day Duo Premium includes 1200+ because two photographers are documenting the day from different perspectives.
We focus on giving you a complete, carefully edited story rather than filling the gallery with unnecessary duplicates or near-identical frames.

We typically deliver your complete, professionally edited wedding gallery within four weeks, and often sooner depending on the time of year.
If you’re happy for us to share photographs from your wedding publicly, we can usually also post a small preview within a few days so you get an early look at some favourites.
We know waiting for your photographs is exciting, so if anything were likely to affect the expected delivery time, we’d keep you informed.

We deliver your finished photographs through a private online gallery where you can view, download, and share them with family and friends.
We supply the files in high resolution without watermarks, so you can make your own prints wherever you choose.
You receive personal printing and sharing rights to your photographs. We retain the copyright as the photographers, while commercial use, resale or publication by third parties requires our permission.

Yes. We individually check and professionally edit every photograph included in your finished gallery in our usual style.
That includes adjustments such as colour, exposure, contrast, cropping and sharpening where necessary, along with appropriate retouching.
Our approach is to create photographs that look polished while still looking like the people and the wedding we actually photographed. We don’t routinely make extensive changes to someone’s appearance or digitally reconstruct photographs unless there’s a genuine reason.

Yes. We provide your finished wedding photographs in colour and black and white, giving you both versions rather than deciding in advance which photographs you’re allowed to have in monochrome.
We create the black-and-white versions individually as part of the editing process, rather than simply applying an automatic filter.

We provide the finished, professionally edited photographs rather than unfinished RAW files.
RAW files are essentially the digital negatives created by the camera and are designed to be processed before they become the finished photographs you see in our galleries.
Editing is part of our photographic style and an important stage in producing the final work, so we deliver completed, high-resolution photographs rather than unfinished files straight from the camera.
This is sometimes described as the difference between professional post-production and a “shoot and burn” service, where photographs may be supplied with little or no editing.

Our digital wedding photography packages don’t include an album as standard, so couples who only want their high-resolution photographs aren’t paying for something they may not use.
If you’d like a physical album, you can add one of our handmade luxury wedding albums from £595.
Our albums are made in Scotland and individually designed around the photographs you choose from your wedding gallery.
You can see the available sizes, cover options and examples in our wedding photo album guide.

Once you’ve received your wedding gallery, you choose the photographs you’d most like included in your album.
We then design the album around your selection and send you a digital proof to review before we send anything for printing. You can check the layout and request reasonable changes so you’re happy with the finished design.
Once you approve it, we send the album to the manufacturer for printing and hand-finishing in Scotland.
If choosing photographs feels daunting, our guide to how to design a wedding album and choose your photos walks you through the process.

Yes. Your private online gallery allows you and your family to order professional prints directly from the photographs we deliver.
You also receive high-resolution files with personal printing rights, so you’re free to arrange your own prints elsewhere if you prefer.
We’d always encourage couples to print at least some of their photographs. Digital galleries are convenient, but there’s still something very different about seeing a favourite wedding photograph properly printed rather than leaving everything on a phone or hard drive.

Only where we have permission.
We may normally share a small selection of wedding photographs on our website, portfolio, or social media because showing real weddings helps future couples see the work we actually create.
However, we respect that some couples prefer greater privacy. If you don’t want your wedding photographs shared publicly, tell us, and we’ll respect your wishes.
The same applies if an external publication, wedding blog or other third party asks to feature your photographs — we won’t disregard the privacy arrangements agreed with you.