On the surface, it may seem rather straight forward hiring a photographer for your wedding...find someone who's photos you like, and sign the contract.
Truth is though, your photographer will be one of, if not the closest vendor relationship you'll have for your wedding. You'll be spending all day together on one of the biggest days of your life so far, so it's imperative you genuinely enjoy your photographer, and that you feel comfortable around them.
We'll have several touchpoint before and after the wedding, including the initial consultation, your engagement session, dinner or drinks afterwards because why not, another meeting a few weeks out from your wedding, album consultations after the wedding, and not to mention other texts and phone calls, because it's important to me to be available to my clients. By the time your wedding rolls around, we're both excited to see each other, and it makes your wedding day that much better.
Let me put it to you this way. The best compliment we get is when someone (father of the bride, groomsman, your uncle, etc) pulls us aside at the end of the night to let us how great of a job they think we're doing, and to thank us for being there and for making the bride and groom so happy. I always graciously say thank you, and that it's our absolute pleasure.
In my head however, I'm thinking "You haven't seen a single photo yet pal! These could all be awful, but you still think we're good photographers solely based on the experience of working with us!"
The more this started happening, the more I realized how special it was, and that it was the thing that set us apart.