I hear this complaint from engaged couples all the time.

They're scouting out wedding photographers and bombarded with seeing so many "me too" similar images that the photographers they've seen all become one big blur.

Do you find wedding photographers look all the same?

Here's something a bride calling me said yesterday: "There's the hanging dress shot, the couple jumping shot, the ring shot, the bride dipped backwards shot..."

With so many photographers treating weddings to cookie-cutter poses like those there's a backlash from couples refusing to be forced into that mold.

You know what they want to see more of instead?

Ask them to describe to you their method for knowing just which moments to photograph.

They're looking for a more powerful, meaningful connection in their wedding photos.

So if you're a wedding couple looking for more significant photos with meaning, then here's what to do when you interview photographers:

It can't be a non-answer such as, "Oh, I'll just know" or "Leave it to me, I've done it before." It won't come from a pre-conceived list because your life's moments are organic, not planned. It can't be the extremely vague, "I'll get moments with you and your family."

Which moments? That's what we want to know. And do they align with what you feel are the moments you want to see in your photographs?

And maybe those moments you want to have documented won't all be glaringly obvious. They'll happen spontaneously without an announcement or fanfare. Maybe they'll be tiny little moments (with very huge meaning). They'll flash by in a fraction of a second.

How will the photographer know so that it ends up in the camera?

You want to hear a plan. A working structure. The photographer's M.O.

It's not going to get into the camera by sheer coincidence. If it only could, then all your guests would be producing that kind of work too.

And so would all professional photographers.

But they don't.

So ask.

In fact, they say the difference between an amateur and a professional is that the professional is able to consistently achieve the desired results. And that's because they have a system, a method and a strategy, that gets them the results they must achieve for their clients.

You need to check your potential wedding photographer has a way of getting the photos you want and isn't simply winging it, pointing their lens at the wedding and merely firing away.