When you’re planning a destination wedding, there’s a lot of things to consider. One of these is who will capture all the memories of your big day? If you’re lucky enough to be tying the knot in a beautiful location overseas, should you use a local photographer or take a UK-based photographer with you? In this post, I’ll discuss the pros and cons of both options for destination wedding photography.
“No Hablo Ingles”?
One of the main benefits of using a UK photographer for your destination wedding is that there are no language barriers. This can be extremely important, as you’ll want to be able to communicate with your photographer easily and clearly. With a local photographer, there may be a risk that some important details are lost in translation. There’s no second chance when it comes to your wedding photos. After all, as you’re not going to be doing this again! So it’s important to get it right and not risk a breakdown of communication leading to missed coverage.
Let’s Chat About Your Destination Wedding!
Another advantage of hiring a UK-based photographer for your destination wedding is that you’ll be able to meet them beforehand. This is a great opportunity to get to know each other and ensure that you’re both on the same page for the big day. With a local photographer, it may not be possible to meet in person before the wedding. To get the best out of your wedding photos you really need a photographer that matches your personality and is able to capture the essence of you as a couple, so meeting beforehand to ensure you connect with them is essential for this.
Research is Key
Of course, there are a few advantages of using a local photographer. They will know the area for one, although unless you plan on leaving a couple of hours to go around the location getting couple portraits on the day this may not be so important. Any decent photographer, wherever they’re based, should do research on your venue and surrounding locations anyway.
Hiring a photographer from the UK also means that you’ll know what to expect on your wedding day. There will be no surprises in terms of their style or the way they work. Local photographers may have a very different approach, which could result in photos that are not quite what you were expecting.
The Cost of Destination Wedding Photography
“But won’t they be cheaper than bringing someone over from the UK?” I hear you ask. This is actually quite often not the case. Wedding photography costs in the UK are surprisingly much less expensive than other parts of the world. (Don’t believe me? Check out a few US photographers!)
Depending on your destination, some local or resort photographers that venues may include in your package will actually only be providing a couple of hours coverage if you check the terms. Now, you can usually pay them to extend this – but that’s where they get you. One of my past Santorini brides actually told me that it was cheaper to pay for my destination wedding photography package and fly me out to capture her wedding than it would have cost her to extend her package-included photographer’s coverage to capture the full day! I couldn’t believe it, but it’s true of many destination venues’ packages. This is very common in locations further afield (such as Mexico, Hawaii, or the Caribbean) as usually everything happens on-resort and they have the same package photographer to capture 1-2 hours of each wedding. So check your venue’s agreement when you book!
Ultimately, if the most important thing to you is complete peace of mind on your wedding day, using a destination wedding photographer from the UK could be one of the best decisions you make.
Are you getting married abroad? I’d love to hear from you! Get in touch here. You can also view some of my previous destination weddings or my destination bucket list!
