You're looking for a photographer for your Big Day- you've seen lots of websites, priced a few of the ones you liked better, maybe got some quotes. But unless you have worked with a lot of photographers or have some background in art, you may be finding it pretty hard to compare the photographers and the different packages they offer you.
Which is why the final decision often comes down to price.
Is low price a good way to choose the photographer who you will entrust with your most precious memories? Obviously not. So is the best way to choose to compare the portfolios of different wedding photographers?
Not really...Nobody displays their poor work and failures, although some people who don't have enough work to show (or enough quality work) actually post other people's photos on their websites and claim it as their own. Some get caught, but a lot get away with it.
If you can't go by samples on the web and if price is not the answer, how can you sift the good wedding photographers from the dross? What about positive reviews and recommendations? Trust them if you can view the originals or can talk to the people who are supposed to have supplied them, otherwise they are like photos on a website - and just as no one puts up their dud photos, nobody posts their BAD reviews.
Qualifications? Experience? Professional equipment? It's not about any of those things. In reality, a positive wedding photography experience depends on a number of factors which have little to do with photography. One of these is a professional approach to the business of wedding photography - diligence in ensuring their business can deliver what you ask includes things like paying appropriate taxes, and maintaining the right levels and kinds of insurance, and being prompt and reliable with appointments and communications.
Hire a company or an individual nine months out from your wedding and you want to be sure they will still be in business when the time comes to take your photos. I know it costs
me just under $1000 per wedding to pay the bills that keeps my business in business. Other photographers will have different cost structures, but I'd be wary of anyone who isn't charging enough. They may or may not be able to use a camera, but they aren't making enough to pay for repairs and maintenance or back-up equipment; and if something can possibly go wrong.... 
Once you are satisfied your potential photographer is professional in the business sense, you will probably want to know if they are professional in the other sense. That is hard, but they should at least be accredited by one of the major Photography bodies. For wedding photographers, that means The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) or Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI).
There are no licensing systems or laws that require a photographer to join these bodies, but anyone who wants you to take their claim of professionalism seriously should be a Member of one or other (better yet, a Licentiate of higher). Although not specifically a Wedding organisation, Membership of, the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers also marks a committed professional photographer.
You can quiz photographers on all these things and they can show you evidence of their professionalism - their time in the business, their indemnity insurances, their Memberships. But even this doesn't cover the one thing that, more than any other, determines whether or not you will have a positive photography experience on your wedding day. That falls to you, because t
he most significant factor contributing to a great wedding photography result is the quality of the relationship between photographer and client.
The photographer's technical and artistic technique contributes maybe 20% to the images you receive, and you probably contribute about the same in terms of your expectations and the clarity of the way you express what you want to your photographer. The other 60% comes down to the strength of the relationship between the wedding photographer and the wedding party, especially the bride.
So how do you find that right photographer?
The simple answer is to find someone with whom you are comfortable. Photographers are not just technicians. Photography is a uniquely interpersonal process. You are the best judge of the quality of that relationship. Be choosey.
Give yourself enough time to see how you feel with them. Use the phone rather than less personal communications like email or texting. Meet them face to face only after you have a bit of a "feel" for who they are, and don't spend all your time with them talking about the mechanics of the job.
Your wedding is a life affirming, often life-changing event. Choose wisely and your wedding photographer will capture emotions and memories because they are empathically part of your wedding day - the best anyone else will do is just take pictures.
