Although Yelp is perhaps best known for its crowd-sourced reviews of restaurants, the website also allows its users to review a wide range of businesses — including professional photographers. As wedding season ramps up, Yelp has revealed its list of America’s top 100 wedding photographers in 2024.
Yelp explains that January through March is the busiest time for Americans to plan their weddings. Accordingly, during those three months, users search for wedding photographers at a significantly higher rate than the rest of the year. Picking the perfect photographer is crucial as couples seek to preserve the best and most beautiful moments from their wedding, so it’s no surprise that one way to do that is to scour the internet for reviews and opinions.
Yelp’s top 100 list has been built using multiple factors, and it’s not simply the top 100 highest-rated wedding photographers across the United States. Ensuring a level of geographic diversity played a role, as photography businesses in nearly every state — sorry, Alaska and the Dakotas — are on the list.
The crowd-sourcing site also considered the total volume of reviews over multiple years, ranging from January 2019 through December 2023. To dial in the final list, Yelp worked alongside its “community experts.”
The number one wedding photographer of the year, per Yelp, is IMF Visions in Honolulu, Hawaii. The company has 119 reviews, with all but one rating the business five stars.
Nearly every company on the list has a five-star average rating, with the rest sporting 4.5 stars.
Tips for Choosing a Wedding Photographer
Couples should look beyond just ratings when choosing a wedding photographer, of course, as they also need to ensure that the overall aesthetic they want is something a business can deliver. For couples, the most important thing is finding the best wedding photographer for them, not necessarily the “best overall.”
Deciding if they want photos or photos and videos is also a key factor. Not every wedding photographer offers video services, and it may be that the best solution is to hire photo and video businesses separately.
For a bit of extra inspiration, looking at the winners of wedding photography contests is a surefire way to find exceptionally talented people. Wedding photography is undoubtedly a specialized skillset, and it is well worth spending the time and effort to locate the perfect match for one’s budget and preferences.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.