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When hiring a wedding photographer, is it customary for them to travel to meet you?

v1roncov1ronco member
First Comment
in Wedding Photography and Videography Forum
We're looking at wedding photographers and one that I like's studio is over an hour drive from the main city (we're in Vancouver), which they advertise their services in. We'd like to do a meet and greet before hand to see if we 'gel'.

I would expect that as the client, the vendor would make an effort to come meet us rather than ask us to go meet them in their area. After all, the wedding will be in Vancouver, and in a client-vendor relationship the vendor is supposedly trying to secure the client's business so they should be going the extra mile.
Am I way off here?

In non-wedding scenarios it's always the vendor who accommodates to suit the client's needs, not the other way around. I love their photography but I find it odd that they want us to haul to Maple Ridge and aren't willing to make the effort to meet us in Vancouver, for thousands of dollars of business. It's almost like they're doing us a favour, rather than genuinely wanting our business.

Thoughts? Maybe the wedding world works differently?
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Re: When hiring a wedding photographer, is it customary for them to travel to meet you?

  • JoanE2012JoanE2012 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    We met our vendors at their location. I imagine if they had to travel to all the clients that were potentially interested in them, they spend a lot of time and money on it. Most couples meet with several people for each vendor, so I can understand why they're not going to travel for everyone that calls them.
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  • manateehuggermanateehugger member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    I would have never expected to meet our photographer (or really any other vendor) anywhere except his or her office. 

    Wedding vendors have hundreds of clients. It would be incredibly inefficient for them to travel to all of them.
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  • emmyg65emmyg65 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    We met our florist at her home (which is also her workplace), even though it was an hour away from us, and Skyped with our photographer (based 4 hours away). I suppose you could ask the photographer to come to Vancouver, but you'll come off a little high maintenance.
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  • beachyone15beachyone15 member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its First Answer
    I think the opposite. I would think that as a potential customer, you would meet them at their place of business.


    Daisypath Anniversary tickers



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  • photokittyphotokitty mod
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    I agree with PPs, most photogs meet clients at their studio or a convent place for them. It is typical for photogs to charge mileage to travel to a wedding if it is out of town, so I would expect to either meet them in their location or pay their milage for the meeting. If they haul out to you and your don't sign wight hem they would be wasting not only their time, but now gas money as well.
    :kiss: ~xoxo~ :kiss:

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  • mocarski002mocarski002 member
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Comment 5 Love Its
    Our photographer met us in our town which I was very suprised. He lives like 45 minutes away. We met at a Starbucks. I felt bad and offered to meet him at a halfway point but he insisted on meeting us where we live.

     

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  • MissChloe225MissChloe225 member
    5 Love Its First Comment First Anniversary
    Mine drove about 45 minutes to meet me at a Starbucks in my town, as well.  Another photographer that we considered had us drive to meet her (farther from our home, but in the city where the wedding will be).
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  • hyechica81hyechica81 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment First Answer
    for us we waited till the last possible time to find a photographer our wedding was this past june and we booked ours in december.. there were a few from the bridal shows i saw all but one was out of my price range then there were ones i found online i fell in love with a few biased on the client photos online but again when i contacted them they could not work with my low budget.  we ended up going with the guy from a bridal show my dad knew the previous owner of the business as my dad is a retired wedding photographer and the previous owner did video and they would work a lot of weddings together. 

    he was not to far from us so we met him saw some work liked what we saw and booked him a few other people who wanted to meet with us wanted us to travel 45 minutes to see them and when we suggested halfway halfway to them was still almost 45 for us and not travel for them 


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