Most brides have a general idea of what questions to ask a potential wedding photographer. The first (and most important) thing is: What's your style? If your wedding photographer doesn't have the same sensibility about wedding photo's as you do there's no point moving to question #2.
However, even after you have exhausted all the obvious questions about price, etc, there are still two that most people don't think to ask that can be very important:
1. Are you insured?
That's right. Your wedding photographer needs insurance. Let's suppose that old Aunt Edna with the bad eyes trips over the photographer's bag and breaks her hip. Her lawyer will tell her to sue the person with the best ability to pay and you can bet that your $500 Craig's List wedding photographer doesn't have a lot of money.
So she sues you.
Make sure your photographer has liability insurance (I carry a million dollars worth).
2. Do you bring back-ups?
There's no stopping the ceremony because your photographer's camera just died. Make sure he has a backup for every major piece of equipment (camera body, lens, flash, memory card).
The answers to these two questions will tell you if your photographer is serious about his profession or just trying to make some extra money and really, do you want the guy who is taking pictures of the most important day of your life to be doing it because he thinks it's an easy way to make some extra cash?
Booray Perry is a wedding photographer in Tampa
