Weddingbee boards

Hi hbowar!  I was in the same position as you not too long ago...I also had two references provided to me by a photographer.  I asked questions like:

-Were they comfortable with the photogs on the big day? (this one seems to be very important)
-Did they like their proofs/photos and albums?
-Any glitches on the day of?
-Were the photographers accomodating on the day of with special photos they might have wanted to be taken? (some photogs state they do not work off of "to do" lists and this can be an issue if you end up wanting "on the fly" photos.  Best to check and make sure)
-Is there anything about the photos that they particularly wanted to note? 
-Also, did they do an engagement/lifestyle session with the photogs and, if so, what was that like?

Keep in mind that the photographer will probably give you references to people who will only rave about them, so take anything with a grain of salt.  But its nice to know what people's honest opinons are! 

A good thing to check out are public websites like citysearch.com, yelp.com, metromix.com for reviews that people have put up about the particular vendor.  These tend to give you a good mix of reviews rather than just the good ones. 

Also, I randomly googled my photog's name and came up with a website i never would have known about with 25 reviews of the photog. So be sure to check out google too.

Hope this helps!  Good luck!