You’re engaged and you’ve decided to have a destination wedding in Costa Rica!
Costa Rica is such a beautiful place for a wedding, from the beaches, volcanos, and jungles – it is truly a tropical paradise. You’re dreaming of your perfect wedding day and already imagining reliving it again and again through the photos. So it’s important to have the right photographer to capture your day. Well, you’re in luck! Costa Rica has some of the best, talented, and authentic wedding vendors that love what they do.
When the time comes to pick your wedding photographer, we will provide you with a detailed list of talented photographers. It may be hard to even know where to begin but we will also give you recommendations for the ones we think would best suit your style, budget, personality, and destination. Grab a glass of wine and let’s chat about five tips for choosing a destination wedding photographer in Costa Rica. Keep these tips in mind as your browse our vendor files!
5 Tips to Picking Your Destination Wedding Photographer
- Photography Style:
The first step to selecting the perfect wedding photographer is narrowing down the wedding photography style you are drawn to. Take a quick through our wedding photographer vendor packet to see which images are most appealing to you. Are there any images that you love or ones that really speak to you? Is there an image where you could picture yourself and your fiancé? While browsing the vendor list, make a list of your top 3-5 favorite photographers or a “Love” and “Like” list of those you can imagine capturing your destination wedding experience.
- Budget & Check Availability:
Ahhh, yes the budget! From your favorites list of photographer options, take note of each photographer’s pricing and how it fits in with your wedding budget. If the photographer is not in your budget range, don’t immediately cross him/her off (especially if they are one of your top choices) as your planner may be able to help with the budget. Deciding on your priorities and allocating money where it matters most to you.
This is also a great time to share your favorites with your planner, so we can check availability to make sure all of the photographers you are considering are available on your wedding date. And we may have some other suggestions based on the style you are drawn to.
- Learn about your photographer:
From your favorites list, it’s time to check out each photographer’s website and social media accounts. By browsing through websites and social media accounts, you can learn a lot about the photographer’s personality, as well as check out their most recent work. Really take a look through each photographer’s website, from the home page, about page, portfolio page, and definitely the blog posts of their most recent work. Next, head over to their social media accounts (especially Instagram and Facebook page). You may just find out that you have something common with a photographer, or better yet, the photographer feels like a long-lost friend! It’s super important that you not only like your wedding photographer’s photography style, but also the photographer’s personality. There’s nothing better than having a photographer you just click with by your side on your wedding day.
Bonus points: Check if your photographer and videographer have worked together previously!
- Full Wedding Album Example:
Now that you done some research, ask your planner if she has full album examples for the photographers you really like (or ask the photographer for a full wedding example). By browsing through the full day wedding albums, you will be able to see all the images the photographers delivered to their clients and how they cover an entire event – not just the highlights of the wedding day posted on a blog or social media. This is a very important step as wedding day photos are an investment – you should have a really good idea of what type of images you will receive from your wedding photographer.
- Connect with Top Choices:
After you’ve narrowed down your top choices, this is when our planning team likes to connect you with the photographers for a phone call or video chat. Remember, your wedding photographer will be with you practically your whole wedding day, so it’s super important that you connect with your photographer!
We also recommend having a pre-wedding shoot if at all possible, ideally with your wedding photographer if possible. This way you feel more comfortable in front of the camera. And if you happen to shoot with your photographer, that makes you that much more comfortable on the wedding day as you’ve already shot with them previously.
Are you currently looking for photographers to add to your list? Contact us! We would love to recommend some to you!
Thank you to Kristen with Samba to the Sea for collaborating with us to make this blog!
Posted in Wedding Planning Tips
