Country capital, a rich history, colourful markets, sumptuous food, monuments, well that’s not all about Delhi. When we talk about the city, we cannot forget the numerous beautiful weddings Delhi witnesses every year. And when you are a part of the city, how can you not imagine yourself in the beautiful wedding dress, being taken to the wedding hall by your loved ones and taking vows to spend your entire life with the most important person, who from then will be your better half.

How beautiful it is to even think about it. But to cherish all these moments, you need someone to click photographs without a break. Considering a family member of yours? That is certainly not going to be an excellent idea. Each of your family members will be busy with some of the other responses and you, of course, cannot ask somebody to ruin his/her glee on your special day and keep on clicking photographs. Another point is that the photographs taken by novice or laymen will not be as good as it will be done by a professional photographer.

So, the step to be taken by you is sorted; you need to hire a professional who can do justice to the photographs and do a complete wedding shoot. Now when you live in one of the largest cities in the country, Delhi, it is quite obvious that the list of wedding photographers will be endless. Wondering what you should be doing in such a case? The easiest way out to this would be checking out these points and hire one if he/she meets all these. So, let us go through the checklist:

• Do a Proper Homework: When you want to eat out, you look for restaurants that serve dishes which you prefer, and like that, you do quite a good research about the restaurant, the kind of cuisines they serve and the customer reviews, right? It is about finding a wedding photographer who will make your wedding days always fresh through photographs. Thorough and extensive research is a must in this case; don’t you agree with it? So to proceed with it, the foremost thing that you should do is to find the list of wedding photographers in the city, keeping proximity in mind. While doing so, try shortlisting the ones who have an authentic website. The website plays a vital role as it will reveal the wedding shoots they have done, the reviews of their clients, and even the prices they charge for the shoot. The website design will also tell you many things about the taste of the photographer. When you are on to your research, make sure you go through their social media handles. This will give you a good idea about how they deal with their clients and if they are friendly or not.
• Be Sure about the Style you want: As wedding photo shoot has gained much importance in recent times, many styles have been introduced. You need to be sure whether you want the photographs to go straight to the wedding album or you want to upload them on Instagram, whether the photographs will be black and white or they will be full of colours with very less editing on them. So, first be sure about it. If you have a style in mind which is way different from the rest of the usual styles, you must talk to the photographer about it to know if he/she specializes in it.
• Meet the Photographer in Person/Schedule an Interview: Going through their websites, talking to them over phone won’t really help you as much as scheduling an appointment with them, thus meeting them in person. This will explain a lot about them, for example, what kind of styles do they offer, the number of hours they will do the shoot, whether there will be one photographer covering the entire wedding or more, the kind of wedding packages they offer, and many more. While you schedule interviews with the wedding photographer, you must try doing this with two to three of them. This will help you to choose from the varieties and also you will have a clear idea about what do you exactly want. Make sure in the interview you talk about even the smallest details that you want from the wedding photographer.
• Go through Wedding Albums: This is something you can do when you are meeting the photographers in person. Don’t stick to the portfolio the photographers show you, or to the photo gallery, you find in their websites. Instead, ask the photographers the full albums of the weddings they have covered. You must keep in mind that the photographers you are discussing your wedding day will try to show you only the best photographs out of the lot. Also, try to ask for a wedding album to check if the style you have in mind matches with any of their or not. Something that you must do while going through the albums is keeping a critical eye. Try to catch the small things like the lightings that were used, the moments that were captured, the angles that used to take the photographs, if candid shots were there or not, the ratio of editing that has been done in the photographs. Though you and your to-be-better half are the most important people at the wedding you would always wish to see how happy your family and friends were at your wedding. So try to check if the photographers have covered all of these things in the wedding albums or not. This will help you a lot to decide if you should proceed further with them or should give a second thought.
• Ask about Packages and Compare the same: This is another thing you should do while you are discussing everything else with the photographers in person. Since you live in a metropolitan city, you will come across the number of wedding photographers and all of the different packages. So it is up to you which one you would like to go for. The packages mostly vary not only according to the popularity of the photographer but also as per the quality they offer, the types of equipments they are going to bring at the venue, the number of hours they will be involved in the affair, if they are going to bring assistants along, and of course the charges of the wedding albums and videos they are going to make, to name a few. Something that you must check is if there are any variable charges or not. Once you gather all the information you require, you can go home, take your time and then compare all the packages. Checking this with only one photographer and deciding on it may make you run at loss later. There are many good wedding photographers who do a wonderful and satisfactory job at really reasonable prices.
• Be sure of your Rights: When a professional wedding photographer decides to take up your project, he/she will certainly do a contract with you. Now what you have to check here is whether the photographer has all the rights to publish your wedding photographs as a sample in his/her website or social media pages. Also, there are many photographers who will not let you share your wedding photographs directly to your social media pages. You will have to share their posts in which they have published your wedding photographs. While there are many wedding photographers who will ask you to give them photo credit in every photograph you upload. So, it is better to ask about your rights and their rights on the wedding photographs and albums. This will clear the air beforehand and you will be able to take the right decision.
• Talk about Postproduction Details: Usually what happens in most of the cases is that the photographers make it really delayed to handover the wedding albums, which include both the soft and hard copies. If you wish something like this does not happen to you and you are already eager to see the photographs, make sure you talk to the photographers in advance about it. While you discuss this, you can also indulge yourself in asking the number of hours it is going to take in the editing part. Also, if they have any other project in hand as it will result in delaying the entire process. Another thing that you can talk about is if it is anyway possible to get the sift copies first and then the hard copy. It is the hard copies that take most of the time. And if you get the soft copies first, it will still keep your excitement alive. Otherwise, what happens with many couples is that by the time they receive their wedding albums, half of their excitement goes away and all they wait for is to get the thing in hand for which they have already paid money.
• Try Making a Plan Together: Since it is between you as a couple and the photographer, it is always a prudent idea to discuss everything with him/her. You together can make a plan for the wedding day and decide the time when your wedding photographer has to reach the venue and what are the must to cover things for him/her. You can give him/her a list of all the rituals along with the time that they are scheduled for, so that none of the events is missed out.

Keeping these points in mind while searching for a wedding photographer will certainly make the job easier for you. However, make sure you arrange everything for the wedding photographer the way you do it for other guests on the most important day of your life. After all, he/she is the person behind for which you will be able to cherish all the memories throughout your life. Another thing which will make things simpler for you is finding the wedding photographer as per the location of your wedding venue. This will avoid any kind of delay in reaching the venue. Many things are sorted once the wedding photographer is decided. And don’t worry, you are in Delhi. No matter which nook of the city you live in, you will definitely get the photographer that you are looking for.