Important Topics to Cover
Whether you’re a new photographer gaining experience in the wedding industry or a seasoned professional, there are a few practices you should enact in your business, regardless of your tenure. One of these practices is developing and sending a wedding photography questionnaire.
These simple questionnaires should be a vital part of your process, allowing you to gain a better understanding of the couple, the event, and your client’s expectations. By having your clients complete a wedding photography questionnaire, you can view their dream wedding through their eyes, learning what’s most important and what should top your must-photograph list.
Establish a Flow
Once you’ve established what the flow of the wedding will be like and what your clients prioritize, you can also use the wedding photography questionnaire to help you build a shooting schedule. Instead of operating reactively, the questionnaire can guide you in flowing seamlessly along with the wedding events as they unfold.
Sounds good? We think so, too. However, making a wedding photography questionnaire (or refreshing your existing one) can feel overwhelming at times. Are you asking the right questions? How do you ensure your clients complete the wedding photography questionnaire in a timely fashion and with accurate representations? What answers should alert you to potential red flags?
Here are the top 15 questions you need to be asking your wedding couples on their questionnaires:
- Where are the bride and groom getting ready? (include addresses)
- Is hair and makeup team coming to you or are you going to a salon?
- What time is the bride’s hair and makeup scheduled to start?
- Do you plan on doing a first look?
- If so, do you know where would like that to happen?
- Do you have any spots in mind where you would like to do wedding party and bride and groom photos?
- How many people are in your wedding party?
- Do you have any “must-have” photographs? (Specific poses beyond what is typically captured on a wedding day. We do not guarantee any photographs, but we will make it a priority to capture the shots listed.)
- Where is your ceremony taking place? (include address)
- What time will your ceremony start time and how long do you expect it to last?
- Are there any specific rules to be aware of for your ceremony?
- Are you doing a receiving line after your ceremony?
- Are you doing a formal exit from the ceremony? If so, what type?
- What type of transportation will you have between ceremony and reception (if in different location)?
- Where is your reception, if different? (include address)
- By creating these questionnaires, you can easily gather all of their information for their wedding day from start to finish.This will make it a lot easier to put together a timeline draft and make sure there aren’t any scheduling issues before the big day.
Want our Complete Guide to Wedding Questionnaires, with the top 30 questions you should be asking your wedding clients?
Read on – you can download the complete PDF at the bottom of this article.
What other questions do you like to ask your wedding couple before their big day? — Did you know that with Iris Works, we have the ability to automatically send your clients questionnaires before their wedding? Give us a try! Sign up for your free trial today!
Asking the right questions saves you time for you and your clients. It also demonstrates professionalism, commitment, and attention to detail. When you gather the right information, you also set expectations and inform the clients what they are getting. Some clients think you can read their minds and expect you to capture specific scenes you haven’t discussed. Planning a wedding is stressful, and it can be even more tedious with unforeseen events, wrong expectations, and last-minute changes.
As you want to prioritize your customers’ needs and make them feel extraordinary during their big day, gathering all important information is essential. It’s best that you know everything there is to learn to avoid surprises and awkward moments on the big day.
Besides knowing and understanding your clients’ preferences, wedding questionnaires can help you plan and prepare the shots, equipment needed, and other logistics to ensure a smooth and successful shoot.
By documenting the couple’s preferences and needs, you can refer to the questionnaire throughout the shoot to ensure you meet their expectations. You can go the extra mile knowing the couples’ exact needs and preferences. Wedding questionnaires allow you to capture the couples’ personalities, dynamics, and relationships. Personalizing their wedding photos and making them special enables you to provide a better experience for the couple and deliver more meaningful and intimate photos.
Asking the right questions is a skill, and it can be overwhelming. With Iris Works’ automated workflows and questionnaires, you don’t have to stress about missing the essential details. We can send questionnaires to your clients before their wedding day automatically. Give us a try! Sign up for your free trial today!
Get our FREE guide to wedding questionnaires!
Get our FREE guide to wedding questionnaires!
Thank you for always offering content to help photographers. I would however, think twice about this list. It’s fine for internal use but I WOULD never hand this to a client and ask them to fill it out. Reason: 1) Clients hate filling out forms and will never return it. In fact if I had someone hand me this list I would question my choice in photographer. 2) Many of these questions you should easily get answered without having to ask the question during a “get to know you” consultation. 3) Questions 4, 6, 8, 25 & 26 only open up a can of worms. and honestly would be expected of a novice photographer. A seasoned photographer knows how to guide a couple through the day of events and decides how to best captures those events without putting it on the couple to give them a list of guests, locations or poses. 4) Most of these questions would benefit from re-wording to acquire quality information back from the couple. Knowing how to engage with them in a way that produces an insight into who they are will in they end create a closer relationship AND provide you with a much richer level of responses/information. I”m so sorry for this long critique of the article…but it pains me to see photographers walk into situations that could have been avoided.
Hi Miranda! We’ve found in the wedding industry, it’s common to send out a questionnaire similar to this before the wedding day. We stand by most of the questions, however we did rephrase #25 to be any additional family groupings outside of a standard immediate family list. Even if information was covered during initial consults, it’s nice to know if they’ve made any changes and have a reference to go back to later. We love finding ways to streamline your business and if you are shooting 20+ weddings a year, sending out a questionnaire to get this info before consults is a great way to do that. As always, we appreciate hearing feedback!
I would agree with Megan, Once you’re shooting 20-40 weddings a year, it is SO helpful to pull out a piece of paper or pull up an email with all these details in writing. Even though we go over most of this stuff along the client journey, it’s hard to keep each client straight. Using these questions helps us to be on top of things!
Do you have information available that might alternatively help build a better relationship with the client?
I like the questionnaire although I will maybe ask half or even a fourth of these questions. I actually have a questionnaire that I use for general photo shoots but this one gives me great ideas for a separate wedding questionnaire. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! That was worth a read. Thank you much for sharing!
This is great, thank you for sharing. <3
I think this is a solid set of questions, Megan. Thanks for sharing.
Besides being organized, a questionnaire helps the whole wedding team if used properly.
By sliding in a caveat that I, as the photographer, would happily fill-out any details I already have (names of clients, phone numbers, dates, etc.). This lessens the clients’ task and would add a proof of value I have for my clients. A photographer is usually within the first 3 wedding vendors to be hired. The data collected may be used to help wedding planners put together their timeline and build relationships with fellow-vendors. It’s almost certain they don’t have anything yet as they’re almost always the first ones to be hired. I usually ask the couple to refer anyone who needs the same set of info to me so I could share what I have. This usually leads to better recall value between my co-vendors.
Of course, this is different for everyone but younger couples recently have a tendency to favor efficiency over warm and fuzzy.
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. This is really going to help me.
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Really informative and helpful tips!Thanks For Sharing and Keep Up the Good Work.
Wow! That was worth a read. Thanks for sharing this site
nice post
thanx for sharing
thanks for sharing such a great post for Wedding Photography Questionnaire.
Such a beautiful post it is. wish I could see this post before my wedding. However, this post was very much informative. Thanks for sharing such content.
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Amazing Article….
Thank you! Those 15 Wedding Questions helped me so much 🙂
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That sounds like a wonderful idea! Udaipur is a beautiful city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, known for its rich history, stunning palaces, and picturesque lakes. It is a popular destination for weddings and offers a romantic and exotic setting for your special day. Here’s some information to help you plan your destination wedding in Udaipur:
Venues: Udaipur offers a wide range of venues for destination weddings, from magnificent palaces to luxury hotels and resorts. Some popular choices include the City Palace, Jagmandir Island Palace, Lake Palace, Fatehgarh Palace, and The Leela Palace.
Wedding Planners: Hiring a local wedding planner can make the entire process much smoother. They can help with venue selection, decorations, catering, logistics, and all the other details to ensure a memorable wedding experience. They have expertise in organizing destination weddings and can guide you through the process.
Wedding Ceremonies: Udaipur offers a blend of traditional and contemporary wedding ceremonies. You can have a traditional Rajasthani wedding with vibrant colors, traditional attire, and folk music and dance performances. Alternatively, you can opt for a more modern and Western-style ceremony. Udaipur has experienced wedding vendors who can cater to different preferences.
Great post to help us with Wedding Questions!
These are really some nice advises. I have an online business and these questionnaire should help me in various ways. However, really thank you for your creative and hard work and make some of our life easier.