Wedding client questionnaire template for photographers

Most of what goes wrong on a wedding day was knowable 6 weeks earlier: the step-parent nobody mentioned, the 40-minute drive between venues, the grandmother who needs a chair. A questionnaire gets those answers in writing while there is still time to plan around them.

This one has 8 sections and about 40 questions. Send it 4 to 6 weeks before the wedding. Cut anything you already know.

The questionnaire

Please send this back by [date]. Short answers are fine. Skip anything that does not apply to you.

1. Basics

• Your names, spelled the way you want them in the gallery
• Wedding date
• Best phone number for each of you
• If I cannot reach either of you on the day, who do I call? Name and number.

2. Logistics

• Getting-ready address for each of you, and the time you plan to be dressed
• Ceremony address and start time
• Reception address and start time, if different
• Planner or coordinator: name, phone, email
• Videographer: company and contact
• Travel time between locations, as you understand it
• Parking or access instructions at any location
• Will the ceremony be unplugged, with no guest phones?
• Is anything happening before I arrive or after I leave that you want covered? Sunrise, an after party, a brunch.

3. People

• Wedding party: full names, role, which side, in the order they will stand
• Your parents: names, and how they should be introduced
• Grandparents who will attend
• Anyone else who matters and will be there: godparents, a mentor, a best friend who is not in the party, children
• Anyone who dislikes being photographed and would rather I keep my distance

4. Family situations

• Are any parents divorced, separated, or remarried? Should step-parents be in the parent photos, in separate photos, or both?
• Is there anyone who should not be photographed together?
• Does anyone have a mobility or health issue I should plan around?
• Has anyone important passed away, or is anyone unable to attend, whom you would like to honor in a photo?
• On each side, who knows every relative by sight and can call names during family photos? Name and phone number.

5. The day

• First look: with each other, with a parent, with the wedding party, or none?
• Sunset time where you are, and do you want 15 minutes outside then?
• Ceremony length, and any traditions or moments I should know about: a ring warming, a unity ceremony, a reading, a song
• Reception events in the order you expect them: entrance, first dance, toasts, parent dances, cake, bouquet, exit
• Who is giving toasts?
• How are you leaving, and when? A sparkler exit, a car, nothing planned.

6. Must-haves

• Up to 10 photos or moments that matter most to you. Be specific. “Grandma seeing me dressed” is better than “candids”.
• Any detail you spent real time on: a handmade item, a family heirloom, something on the outfit
• Anything you have seen at another wedding that you want, or do not want

7. Do not photograph

• Anyone who has asked not to appear in photos
• Anything you want kept private: a pregnancy, a health condition, a guest’s job
• Any part of the day you would rather not have photographed

8. Delivery

• Whose email should receive the gallery?
• May I share a few photos publicly after the day? Which platforms, and is there anything I should never post?
• Any vendors you would like me to send photos to?

When to send it, and why then

Send it 4 to 6 weeks out. Earlier, and the answers are guesses: the ceremony time is not final, the wedding party is not confirmed, the planner has not built the timeline. Later, and there is no time to act on what you learn. If the reply says the 2 venues are 50 minutes apart, you need weeks, not days, to fix the schedule.

Send it as a form, a shared document, or a private link, whichever the couple will finish. A PDF attachment gets printed and forgotten. Give a return date 2 weeks before the wedding, and chase once, by text, 3 days after that date.

Unless the couple has a planner running all logistics. Then send sections 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 to the couple, and get sections 2 and 5 from the planner’s timeline.

What each section is for

Basics and logistics feed the timeline. You want addresses you can put in a map, not venue names, and you want the couple’s own estimate of travel time so you can check it against a map.

People fill in your roster. Names spelled the way the couple spells them, in the order the wedding party stands, because that order is what you call at the altar.

Family situations is the section couples are most relieved to be asked about in writing. Nobody wants to explain a divorce on a phone call. Ask once, in a form, and the answer arrives without awkwardness. The answers go straight into your family photo list.

The day confirms what the planner’s timeline says, from the couple’s side. Where they disagree, ask the planner.

Must-haves are the 10 things you cannot miss. Keep it to 10. Thirty must-haves is a shot list, and couples do not know what they want thirty of. There is a separate must-have moments list if you prefer to send that part on its own.

Do not photograph is the section most questionnaires leave out, and the one that saves you from a hard conversation after delivery. A guest who asked not to be photographed, a pregnancy that is not announced, 2 relatives who are not speaking. You need to know before the cull, not after the gallery goes out.

Delivery settles whose inbox gets the gallery and what you are allowed to post. Ask now, while the couple is thinking about the wedding and not the honeymoon.

What to do with the answers

Read them the day they arrive, not the week of the wedding. Then:

1. Build or correct the timeline.
2. Write the family photo list with real names and send it back to the couple to confirm.
3. Fill in the vendor contact sheet from section 2 and the planner’s vendor list.
4. Put the must-haves and the do-not-photograph answers somewhere you will see them on the day and again during the cull.
5. Send the second shooter anything that changes their assignments.

The unlesses

• If the wedding is small, 30 guests or fewer, cut the questionnaire to sections 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7. A 40-question form for an elopement will not come back.
• If you have already had a long planning call, send only the sections you did not cover, and say so in the email.
• If the couple does not return it, do not send it again. Call them. Ask the 5 questions in section 4 and the first question in section 6, and write down the answers yourself.

For a longer discussion of which questions earn their place and which to cut, see what to ask in a pre-wedding questionnaire.