Husband + wife wedding photography teams are pretty common these days and I think there can be a lot of confusion about whether or not they are actually “better” than photography businesses that are run by solo/single wedding photographers.  Transparency is key because when someone advertises that they are a “husband + wife photography team”, it can actually mean two different things:

• Some people simply market themselves as a “husband + wife team” – but in reality, only one of them is a full-time wedding photographer.  The other partner has a completely different full-time job/career and just moonlights as a second shooter on the weekends
• On the other hand, there are husband + wife teams where both partners are full-time photographers and their business is their sole income and career together

These two types of teams are VERY different from each other.  True husband and wife photography teams like Aaron + Jillian are way different than Suzie + her accountant husband, Mark, who shoots with her on weekends.  I’m not saying that Suzie + Mark won’t do a good job… but it’s totally different when both partners are full-time photographers, who both dedicate their lives to the craft + the business.

Most solo/single wedding photographers pay top dollar to secure experienced second shooters to help them serve their clients on a wedding day, so while it may be convenient to have a spouse second shoot regularly, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the spouse is any “better” than a second shooter hired by a solo/single photographer.  My second shooters are all full-time wedding photographers who run their own photography businesses, so I know that if anything were to happen to me, they could step in and take over for me at any given moment.  I can confidently say that any of my second shooters could shoot circles around Mark the accountant!

So, to answer the question: are husband and wife photography teams actually “better” than wedding photographers who run their business by themselves?

Not necessarily.

Whether you hire a husband + wife photography team or not, the real question needs to be “can the second photographer take over and shoot the wedding day solo if, God forbid, anything were to happen to the “lead” shooter?”  THAT is the important piece of the equation.  Not whether the two people shooting your wedding day are married to each other or not.  In the grand scheme of things, it’s really just a marketing gimmick.