This is the single most important question a couple can ask a studio, and it is the one most rarely asked.
What happened
A great many studios sell you the work of a lead photographer and then staff your date with whoever is free that week.
The style looks the same in a portfolio.
The judgement is not the same at all, and judgement is what you are buying: knowing to turn around from the couple to catch the mother watching, knowing the garland is about to go up.
So ask for a name, and ask for that name to be written into the contract.
Ours is.
And ask the follow-up nobody asks: what happens if that person is ill on the day.
Every honest studio has an answer to that and it should be in writing too, whether that is a named backup of equal standing, or what you get back if neither works out.
A studio that has never thought about it is telling you something about how often it thinks about you.
Why we are writing this down
Most of what a wedding cinema and photography learns disappears into the next booking. We write it down instead, so the next family asking the same question gets a real answer rather than a brochure.
Will the photographer we met actually shoot our wedding. This is the single most important question a couple can ask a studio, and it is the one most rarely asked.
EnquireA written answer the same day
Tell us the date. We will tell you if it is free.
The month, the city and roughly how many events. That is enough for a real answer about the date and a coverage plan with a figure on it.
What happens after you send this
- The date, answered first. Free or not free, in writing, usually the same day. If we are not free we say so instead of stalling, and we will say what we would look for in whoever you book instead.
- A coverage plan for your events, not a package number. Which events need two cameras and which need one, where the light runs out, and what that comes to. The figure arrives with the reasoning attached.
- A call before anyone signs anything. Twenty minutes on how you want the day to feel and how much camera you actually want in your face. Some couples want to forget we are there; some want to be directed. The answer changes what we quote.