Why would a wedding photographer write a blog advocating for a wedding planner?

Well I just shot a wedding that was THE PERFECT EXAMPLE of why a wedding planner should be as essential as saying yes to the dress…  I loved this couple, and they clearly loved their day.  They had a fantastic time, the wedding went off without a hitch.  At least that is what all of us professional wedding vendors told them.  What actually was going on behind the scenes to make this day  perfect at the last minute – the bride never needs to know.

Problem number 1 – bride & groom were planning a local wedding from a far away land, they had only 1 week in town to choose all of their vendors, before returning 9 months later for their wedding day.  Being a first time bride (as most are) she left some significant holes in her ‘must have’ list, which lead to some frantic last minute phone calls once these missing puzzle pieces were discovered.  OK, no big deal, every bride has a wedding crisis.  Panic attacks were managed.

Problem number 2 – most first time brides have zero experience planning large & complicated events, and tend to overlook the finer details (and sometimes the larger ones!) Our subject Bride must have spoken with her vendors at different points in her planning process, because the schedules she gave us were completely different.  Hair & makeup were told that needed to be done by 12:00, I was told we would be photographing the pre wedding shots from 11:00-12:30.  The venue was expecting the bride to arrive at 12:00.  (please note – because the bride did not – that it takes about 30 minutes to travel from one location to the next) making her schedule not only impossible, but truly a ‘what was she thinking’ moment.

Problem number 3 – because of the’ little crisis’ along the way – the people who should have been doing their own  jobs were busy putting out fires, compromising their own productivity, which means fewer servers to provide those tasty appetisers to the guests (because they were searching for the cd with ‘that ‘ song you need for the intros), fewer photos from your photog (because we were running to find your bouquet),  and parents & friends (who were doing EVERYTHING ELSE) having less time to mingle & enjoy the day.

Here is the best part !  This bride chose a larger photography package, but because of her poor planning – she was not present for about a 3rd of the scheduled photo time.  With some planning advice, she could have chosen a smaller photo package.  The money she saved  would have nearly covered the cost of the wedding planner.  Add to that all the other little costly mistakes along the way, and you probably would have ended up saving money, with the Wedding Planner, in the end.

 Better wedding, saving money.  What more can I say.

But that is just the opinion of a wedding photographer (who has seen it all…)

times and details of this article have been changed to protect the innocent bride from discovering that her perfect wedding was indeed far from it.  No brides were hurt in the writing of this article.