Does It Matter If Your Photographer Has Worked At Your Venue?

When it comes to hiring a wedding photographer, there’s so much advice on the internet and so many things to think about before making this important decision. Do I like their style? Do our personalities vibe? Are they within our budget range? And, of course, have they photographed a wedding at my venue?

All these things are valid and important, well, except for one!

It really doesn’t matter if your wedding photographer has worked at your venue before. Let me explain.

When I first started photographing weddings, I read the same articles, blogs, and tried to get as much advice on the subject as I could, just like you currently are. I wanted to gather as much information as possible and in doing so, I found that a lot of articles that gave tips on hiring a wedding photographer told their readers that it was important to ask if a photographer had photographed a wedding at their venue before.

At first, I thought to myself that this made perfect sense. If a photographer had experience photographing at a venue, they would be a better photographer than one that hadn’t. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The most important thing needed to create beautiful photographs is lighting. Regardless of how beautiful a location or how familiar I am with a certain venue, the light always dictates where I choose to photograph my couples. And as we all know, lighting changes throughout the day and can be different at the same location throughout the year. Beautiful light at a venue in the summer can and will be totally different at the same spot in the fall.

So even if I have photographed 20 weddings at a particular venue, I will photograph them differently each and every time because I’m searching for the best light possible on your wedding day. Likewise, if I’m photographing for the first time at your venue, I will approach it the same way. I will seek the best light possible because that’s what you’re paying for.

At the end of the day, I’m not photographing your venue, I’m capturing your love story. I’m capturing you and your partner making things official. I’m capturing all the candid moments of you getting ready, your father walking you down the aisle, your first kiss at your ceremony, all the fun at your reception, and everything in between. And while I do love photographing weddings at certain venues, whether I’ve worked at your venue before or not isn’t what’s important, it’s capturing your wedding day as beautifully & authentically as I can…wherever it may be!