The 10 Most Common Questions Couples Ask When Hiring Dublin Wedding Photography

Hiring a wedding photographer is a big decision, and we want to make sure you feel confident and comfortable every step of the way. Before we take any booking we like to meet couples and chat with them about their wedding day plans, especially what they want us to prioritise. That initial meeting is also a chance for couples to get to know us, and for us to get to know them. We’ll take the opportunity to walk them through a typical wedding day and what our suggestions would be for their wedding venue based on their plans. This can be refined closer to the wedding day when we send out our wedding form and put together a suggested shooting schedule for them. It’s very flexible and we’re happy to change things around, even on the day itself - we’ve done hundreds of weddings and it’s never been a problem to adapt to last minute changes. Anyway, here are some of the most common questions couples ask us during that initial meeting.

1. How would you describe your photography style?

When it comes to wedding photography our approaches differ considerably: Jill is exceptionally good at editorial style photos, setting up couples, family groups, and casual portraits of guests; Mike is better at documentary type photos, grabbing moments as they happen, portraits of individuals, and those candid off the cuff candid grab shots using whatever natural light is available. Either of us are more than capable of shooting a wedding on our own, but there’s far more variety of shots when we both work together - and it’s also far more fun for us and the couples we work with.

2. How many weddings have you photographed, and have you worked at our venue before?

We’ve been photographing weddings professionally full-time since 2014 and we do 25-35 weddings most years, so around 250-350 weddings at a guess. Before that we’d also photographed weddings for families and friends — we met in college while studying for our degrees in photography and design. Aside from wedding photography we also do commercial food and product photography in our studio for national and international clients - Jill’s recently shot for Neven Maguire’s newest cook book ‘Eat Out At Home’.

WRT wedding venues, we’ve photographed at many of the most popular venues in Dublin and the surrounding counties. If the venue is new to us we would always suggest making a visit with the couple prior to their wedding day. They’ve obviously chosen their wedding venue for a reason, and it’s up to understand why and how to make the best use of it. We would always look to talk to the people who work there and find out what their favourite locations are, they can be a mine of information that we might miss if we don’t take advantage of their knowledge.

3. What’s included in your wedding photography packages, and what’s the cost?

We offer a range of packages designed to suit different needs and budgets. All packages include a pre-wedding consultation, full-day coverage by two photographers, all editing and processing of the wedding images (between 300 and 600 depending on the hours worked), and we also give couples all files we shoot on the day not just the ones we select for processing — something most wedding photographers refuse to do. The price we quote when you book is the price you will pay, unless you add in additional photographic work (such as an engagement shoot) which we would provide a separate quote for. So, no, there are no hidden costs.

4. Can we see a full gallery from a recent wedding?

Of course. We don’t publish every photo we take at weddings in our gallery, just those moments that give a sense of the kind of work we do. Often missing are those family group photos and casual portraits of guests, which can be more personal and private. Some couples prefer that we do not show their wedding photos online, and we respect their wishes without question. If you’d like to see a full gallery of wedding photos from your wedding venue simply request a meeting here at the studio and we’ll see what we can put together something for you that will show everything from preparations to first dances.

5. Do you have backup equipment and a plan in case of an emergency?

Yes, of course — who wouldn’t!
There’s two of us and we use separate cars to begin with. This has proved handy in the past when, on two occasions, weddings cars have broken down, or the bride and groom don’t have a car booked, and we’ve been there to help out. When it comes to cameras, we both bring two bodies each and multiple lenses - these cameras shoot onto two separate memory cards, so if one fails we should have a back up on the other card. We also bring two big studio lights in case the weather becomes less than ideal, so we can set up inside if we need to. On the night of the wedding, Mike will back all the wedding photos up onto a computer, and two separate external drives; we also keep all image data on the memory cards until couples have received their wedding photos. We keep copies of all files on those two external drives for 12 months, just in case something happens to the couples’ copy - such as maybe a groom losing their laptop, or accidentally deleting everything.

6. How much time should we allocate for photos, and can you help us with a timeline?

For the best part of the day your wedding photographer will be working away without requiring you to stop what you’re doing: Preparations - just do your thing and we might ask for a few minutes here and there; Ceremony - ignore us completely and focus on enjoying your time; after the ceremony you’ll have some time to have a drink and greet guests at your reception; Wedding Portraits - these can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes, it really depends on the couple and the location; Bridal Party and family group photos - this really depends on how many group photos are needed, whether you want lots of formal groups or more casual group photos on the fly. Properly organised with a handful of formal family groups photos we can do those if 15 minutes, but do keep them to 5 or 6 for that to work. After that, everything we do is simply documenting what happens. We certainly don’t want to be holding couples back from enjoying their wedding day, because that’s where all the fun photos really are. Once we get your wedding form back we’ll put together a suggested shooting schedule for your day, so you’ll see your wedding day laid out hour by hour and know what to expect.

7. How do you handle group and family photos?

The best way to handle group photos is to keep them to a minimum, essentially just immediate family works best (parents, siblins, and children). Adding extra family photos adds time, not just to take the photos but also to gather the people necessary — which can be the bottleneck for any group photo. In order to make things as efficient as possible we always suggest the couple allocate two people, usually a bridesmaid and a groomsman, to gather the individuals ahead of them and make them aware that they are needed. When we’re taking the photos Jill usually positions people while Mike takes the photo, it works well having two photographers to get this done quickly so couples can get back to their celebrations and guests.

8. Will we get the digital files, and how many photos can we expect?

Couples get all digital files shot on the day: all camera RAW files and all camera JPG preview files. Typicaly we shoot anywhere for 2000 to 6000 images on a wedding day — it depends on how many hours we work at a wedding. Of those perhaps one tenth are selected to be processed (we shoot multiple shots of every set up) , and all of those are processed in colour with a selection also processed as black and white. Those selected files are processed as High Resolution JPGs suitable for high quality prints, and Low Resolution JPGS suitable for viewing and sharing online.

9. How long will it take to receive our photos, and do you offer albums?

During the low season ( November to April ) it takes 2-4 weeks to turn things around. During the High Season ( May to October ) it can take 4-6 weeks, sometimes a bit more or less. After your wedding day we’ll send you a couple of images to keep you going until we get to process everything. We will be in touch when we start editing your images, and it usually takes 3-5 days to work our way through what we need to do to get the best from those image files.

10. Can you offer any advice on how to make our wedding photos the best they can be?

• Relax and Be Yourselves: The more comfortable and relaxed you are the more natural your wedding photos will be. As mentioned above, we’ll only be taking those wedding portraits for a very small part of your wedding day so the best thing you can do is forget about us.

• Seeing Each Other: Lots of couples are anxious or a bit nervous before the wedding ceremony, so it’s perfectly natural. That said, we’ve seen it so many times that we love the moment each couple sees each other at the ceremony, we can visibly see them relax into being a couple and they are there for each other.

• Trust Your Photographer and All The Other People You’ve Chosen: You’ve done everything you can and chosen the people and places that you’ve made a connection with. Now, trust them. It’s likely they’ve done this hundreds of times before if they’ve been in the industry for a number of years. Look at not just their portfolio, but also their reviews and what people say about them on their social media accounts. Everyone working on your wedding wants you to have a great day, and they will work hard to step up and make you fell special.

• Don’t Worry About Your Guests: Your guests will be having a great time, it’s a big day out with two people that mean something to them, their families and friends. Kids especially love weddings, to them it’s the biggest party they’re ever attended and they’ll be excited.

• Communicate Any Special Requests: If there are specific shots or moments you want to capture, let us know beforehand. We’ve had all sorts of requests and it’s best for everyone if we know of any special requests before the wedding day, or if you have booked any extra entertainment besides the main band or DJ.