Picking Photographers

You would think that picking photographers would be easy, right? You look at their pictures, you look at what they will include (like high res images!), you look at their price, you figure out if all of it is in your range, and then you choose. But where do you start?

I’m currently looking for photographers to meet with while we are in town over the holidays (with what little time we’ll have!). Most of them have nice photos on their websites, and some are more to my liking than others. Most of the prices are around the same range, as I just move on if I find someone outside of our price range (I don’t even look at their albums). I guess the best thing to do is meet with a handful of the most promising and then make a decision? Or just pick the first one we meet and like? I really love photography and am a little picky about photographs (photographers who can’t frame a picture nicely or deal with varied lighting correctly need not apply!), so I don’t want to end up with subpar photos. If we could have done better ourselves, I will be very sad in the end.

So does anyone have suggestions on choosing a photographer? Sure, there’s advice online and in books, but I’m looking more for advice from people who have done it before for their own wedding (or a family member’s wedding). Is there anything you wish you had found out? Or anything you are glad you asked about or considered when choosing your photographer?