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Overseas Pre-Wedding Photos — Hiring a Local Photographer Is the Best Value!

Pre-wedding photos in Taiwan easily run from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of NT dollars — and shooting them abroad costs even more. On top of travel expenses for you and your partner, you'd also have to cover the photographer's overseas shooting fees. Those extra costs alone could pay for several more trips abroad! From my experience, the most budget-friendly and practical way to shoot pre-wedding photos overseas is to bring your own wedding dress and hire a local photographer at your destination. Of course, how the photos turn out depends on the photographer's skill. Here are seven channels that can give couples much more affordable options!

Things to Consider for Overseas Wedding Photography

Time and Location

You'll need to think about the local season at the time of your shoot — temperature, whether it's the rainy season, and whether you want sunrise shots in the morning, bright midday sun, or a sunset session in the evening. What kind of backdrop do you want (cityscape, scenery, mountains, distant views, ocean...)? These are all things to discuss with your photographer.

Hair, Makeup and Dress

As far as I know, most packages booked through these platforms don't include outfits, except in places like Kyoto, Thailand, and Vietnam. If you want to shoot in a white wedding gown, you'll still need to bring your own. I'd suggest buying one on Taobao or through Facebook second-hand wedding dress groups. You'll also need to handle your own hair and makeup. It's a bit more work to prepare, but it saves a lot of money.

Language

Language is one of the biggest challenges when shooting wedding photos abroad. I've always communicated with overseas photographers in English — they may switch to WhatsApp, Instagram, or stick with the platform's chat system. If English communication is a struggle for you, look for packages that offer Chinese-language service; otherwise, when the photographer directs your poses in English on the day, things can get lost in translation.

Style

Take a good look at each photographer's style and shooting habits, and choose an approach you like. Some photographers love close-ups, while others prefer wider shots with more scenery — discuss this with your photographer in advance.

Price

For a one-hour private shoot arranged directly with the photographer, I paid NT$1,000 in Bali, about NT$4,000 in Japan, and NT$8,500 in Italy. That said, once you start talking, both the price and what's included are usually negotiable.

Overseas Pre-Wedding Photos — 7 Budget-Friendly Channels to Find Photographers!

Google

Google is the simplest way to search. Use Google to look up photographers at your destination — it's also a quick way to get a feel for the local wedding photography scene.

Klook

Searching for "photography" on Klook brings up plenty of related packages. It's best suited for finding photographers in Asian countries like Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Basically, as long as someone offers a photography service, you can negotiate a private pre-wedding shoot with them — you don't need to find someone specifically advertising "wedding photography." The Bali photographer below is one we booked through Klook for our trip; we asked him to spend half the session on casual pre-wedding shots and the other half on family photos. So yes, the shoot content is absolutely something you can arrange directly with the photographer.

Bali, Indonesia - Klook — ▲Klook photography experience in Bali, Indonesia — I booked this one myself; it ran about an hour, and you can discuss the shoot content with the photographer

KKday

KKday also leans toward photography packages in Asia. If you're looking at Japan, Korea, or Southeast Asia, KKday is another great option.

Hoi An, Vietnam - KKday — ▲KKday photography experience in Hoi An, Vietnam

Airbnb

Unlike Klook and KKday, Airbnb offers mostly experiences in Europe and the Americas — no surprise, since it's headquartered in California and its offerings lean toward Western-style experiences. That said, there are plenty of Asian options too, especially in Kyoto, Japan, which is a real photographer hotspot — finding a photo session there is extremely easy.

Italy - Airbnb — ▲Airbnb photography experience in Italy — this is the shoot I booked for our trip to Florence.

Get Your Guide

GetYourGuide focuses mostly on photography experiences in Europe. If you're planning to shoot in a European country, GetYourGuide is my recommended place to find a photographer.

Santorini, Greece - GetYourGuide — ▲GetYourGuide photography experience in Santorini, Greece

Facebook Groups

Facebook is the search method everyone knows best. Just type in the search bar and plenty of photographer pages will come up for you to browse and shortlist one by one. You can also join photography groups, where members are happy to recommend photographers to you.

Kyoto, Japan - Facebook — ▲Searching Facebook pages with "Kyoto photography"

Instagram

When looking for photographers on Instagram in Western countries, you'll get better results searching in English with "Photographer." Searching in Chinese works too, but you'll just have fewer options. For example, the photographer I found in Florence this way is Korean but works as a photographer in Italy, so we had to communicate entirely in English. Taiwanese photographers shooting in Europe are relatively rare, so finding one who can communicate in Chinese takes a bit more time.