If you’re new, just starting out or years in but still struggling to get booked for wedding photography gigs – you’ll want to read through this entire article about questions to ask wedding photography clients!

Asking good questions is the key to starting off a solid conversation with anyone. 

With a prospective client, the right questions can also be what makes couples want to hire you to capture their wedding day. 

Over the years, we’ve narrowed down some of the best questions a photographer should ask a wedding client that helps showcase your interest in their lives and wedding day, show off your knowledge and professionalism, and turn your free consult call into a solidified booking for your business. 

But we won’t stop there!

After the wedding photography consult goes well and your client books with you – we’re also going to give insight into key questions we ask our clients in the time after they book. These questions help us continue to engage with conversation, as well as help us collect key info we’ll need from our couples to ensure their wedding day goes smoothly and successfully. 

Read on to learn more!

Why Should Wedding Photographers Ask Their Clients Questions?

We know – this is kind of a silly question to be asking but hear us out!

One of the best pieces of advice we’ve learned in our photography businesses is that we should enter the conversation planning to listen more than we talk. 

This is especially true for consults where we also want to sell potential clients on the dream of working with us. 

By asking questions, you are prompting your prospective clients with an opportunity to share more about themselves. You’ll also collect useful information that you’ll need to make better decisions and recommendations to serve them well. 

Most importantly – by asking your clients questions, you are showing interest in them and their wedding plans. This is huge as many wedding vendors drop the ball on this (and we hear about it from our clients from time to time). 

Questions a Photographer Should Ask Wedding Clients – Before Booking

We have highlighted below 12 questions we ask our prospective clients before they book with us – usually on a consult call. 

Every photographers process will be a little different. If you have a really personal brand, you may want to ask some more questions to personally connect with your clients. For photographers wanting to come across as strictly professional, you may even reign in some of these questions, too. 

The questions below can serve as a great guide to get you starting conversations to showcase your value and expertise. We also provide explanations as to why we ask these questions, to help you better shape your future conversations. 

1). How’s your day going so far?

It’s easy to start a conversation by breaking the ice. For most couples, this will lead to some light banter. In many circumstances, this will open you up to great info to know like their current jobs, time availability, and other little details that may be useful throughout your call together. 

2). When did you get engaged?

This is another breaking the ice conversation that gets the couple talking about their relationship. You will often get a little story about how they met and how their engagement came to be – setting up a great backdrop to talk about their present-day concerns about their wedding!

3). How did you find out about us?

If it’s not clear through their initial inquiry, it can be great for your future marketing plans to know where the couple found you. Was it through social media? Your website? A friend? A wedding venue referral? 

4). What made you decide to go with your wedding venue?

We like asking this question because it can help us better understand our prospective client when they explain what made them choose their venue vs. others out there. You may also be able to get revealing information that can help you determine if there is value alignment with the photography service you wish to offer. 

For example – if you’re couple chose a very rustic, barn venue in the country and loved it because it’s simple and fun to get friends & family together, that might jive with you perfectly if this aligns with your personality and photography style. However, if you are a big city wedding photographer who’s style is very fine art and high fashion, with most of the venues you work at being in the city or at large ballrooms, you may find your personality and photography style may clash with your clients vision (whether they realize it or not). 

5). What did you like most about your wedding venue?

This is another way to phrase the question above. 

6). Are you having everything for your wedding at one location?

Now we get into some basic logistics. As a wedding photographer, you’ll want to know if all of the wedding festivities will be held on site or at multiple locations. This information will help you determine your wedding photography travel fees (if any need apply). 

It’s common for wedding days from start-to-finish to be hosted at one location (all inclusive venues). 

It’s also very common for preparations to begin off site (at a hotel, AirBNB, personal home, etc.) and for everything to move over to a wedding venue for the ceremony and reception. 

It’s also common to have getting ready at separate locations, ceremony at a certain location (such as a church or park), then the reception at another venue. 

7). Are you planning a first look or not?

Depending on how far in advance the couple you are speaking with is looking to book, they may (or may not) have given thought to the idea of a first look. This is a great opportunity to hear their initial thoughts and educate them on the pros and cons. 

In sales, using questions like these provides you with opportunities to engage with your clients and position yourself as an expert. 

8). Are you planning for a sparkler exit?

Knowing this will help you help your clients select a package that will be suitable for their wedding day. For example, if they are planning a sparkler exit (and want it photographed – as most do), you’ll want to make sure you offer a package that includes enough time to have this included. 

9). What are you most looking forward to on your wedding day?

This is an open-ended question that is a good way to get potential clients to open up and share more about their wedding day vision. 

In many of our consults, clients end up sharing how much they are looking forward to just getting married, having their favorite friends & family around, taking beautiful pictures, having a great party, and just having an awesome day in general! Hearing it from your clients makes for a really fun part of the conversation. 

10). Are we the first photographers you’ve spoken to?

This question is great for many reasons. It helps you be aware of your prospective clients current thought process – are they just talking to you because they want to book you OR are they talking with a few photographers to gauge what is the right fit for them? 

According to Shoot & Thrive’s sales expert Marshall, this is also a great question to ask early into a consult call as it can help inform some of the next questions you ask…

For example, if they’ve already spoken to 5 other photographers, he often will skip questions he knows is being asked by other photographers to help him stand out (like how they got engaged), and instead switch it up to different types of questions to get to know them more. 

11). What are you looking for in a wedding photographer?

We love hearing couples talk about what they are looking for, in their own words. This can be a great way to make sure you will be a good fit for them and reaffirm that you are a good choice for what they are looking for.  

12). Have you given thought to ____ ?

Discuss all services and products you want to highlight before closing out a consult call if things do not come up naturally. Common things to discuss that may not organically come up include engagement sessions and wedding albums.

Questions a Photographer Should Ask Wedding Clients – After Booking

Now that you’ve been successful at booking your wedding clients, it’s time to continue asking the right questions to shape their experience working with you. 

The questions below will typically be asked through email, client meetings leading up to their wedding date, or in their wedding questionnaire so you have the core info you need to put together a wedding timeline. 

13). Do you have a location in mind for your engagement session?

If a couple has booked a wedding package with you that includes an engagement session, and you haven’t solidified plans, getting in touch to talk location planning is a good next step. 

To give an even better client experience, consider making engagement session location blog posts to help give inspiration. 

14). Are you interested in prints or albums?

This is a great question to incorporate into an automated email marketing campaign for your current clients. 

For many wedding clients, most photographers experience a period where there is a lull in communication – especially when booking clients 1+ years out. You may initially talk about an engagement session and planning, but after this everything is quiet until you begin prepping for their wedding day (usually 1-3 months before their wedding). 

You can share an email asking about this or take it even further and attach a brochure showcasing your standout prints or albums. This extra touchpoint can make the idea of buying one from you even more enticing!

15). What will be your married address?

This is good information to have on file to send thank you cards, USB flash drives, prints and wedding albums. 

16). What is your most anticipated moment of your wedding day?

By providing an opportunity for your couples to share what they are looking forward to most on their wedding day, it can also give you things to consider as you plan their wedding timeline and make sure you are on your toes to capture these key moments. 

Common moments people look forward to:

• First kiss
• First look
• Seeing a special family member (such as grandparent)
• First reveal of bride in dress to bridal party or parents

17). If you and your partner had to choose one photo from your day to walk away with, what would it be?

We typically aim to stay away from lengthy shot lists. This question provides one solution to give clients input on the most essential photo they’d love to see. 

In our experience, when our couples fill out their response, we often see responses like:

• First kiss as a married couple
• First look reaction
• Having fun on the dance floor
• Epic sunset photo

18). What is the dress code for your wedding day?

When we ask this, we keep provide 3 options for our couples to select:

• Casual (Jeans, T-Shirt)
• Semi-Formal (Khakis, Polo, Sundress)
• Formal (Suit & Tie, Dress)

Knowing this information can help you to better dress for the wedding day as a photographer. Generally (and there are different perspectives on this in the industry), we try to blend in with the guests by dressing in a way that is professional but aligns with our brand and the feel of the couple’s wedding day. 

19). Are there any special family relationships that we should be aware of to avoid drama or mishap?

While this might feel a bit personal, it’s actually one of our favorite questions wedding photographers should ask their clients leading up to their wedding day. The insights you receive will range from “no drama” to special considerations you can have in the back of your mind. 

Feedback we’ve received from clients in the past include…

• Bride’s father is deceased
• Mother-in-law is very demanding and should not have a say in photos
• Groom does not get along with brother who will be in attendance
• Parents are divorced and not amicable

20). Are there any special elements that would be added to your day such as surprises that we otherwise wouldn’t know about?

Finally, this is a great question to ask to give your couple an opportunity to share any other special plans that might be in the works that would be beneficial for you to know about. Common surprises we’ve seen include fireworks displays, gift exchanges, and similar. 

While we’ve honed in on some great questions wedding photographers should ask their clients after booking in this section, if you want to go even deeper we recommend checking out our article about the best questions to ask in your wedding photography questionnaire for clients. In that post, we do a deep dive about all of the key questions we ask in our questionnaires so we can better prep for their wedding day!

Conclusion

In the journey you create with your clients, you will find yourself asking a lot of questions. As wedding photographers, a good part of our job is learning to communicate effectively and getting the core information we need from our couples so we can serve them to the best of our abilities. 

We hope this post has been able to highlight some of the key questions you should be asking to help you get to know your clients more – both before and after they book!