Written by Chuck Jackson
Brides: Figuring out exactly what you want for your wedding day can be a daunting task. Everything from the dress, catering choices, florals, location, wedding party participants, guest list, color scheme, theme (if any), music and DJ, photography, videography, etc. – it can get extremely challenging to manage all of these things. This is why a good/experienced wedding planner is your BEST WEDDING BUDDY!
Look, we are all operating on a budget of some sort (the size of the budget may very greatly but this is all relative). But wedding planning is way too complicated and way too emotionally draining a process to try and handle all by yourself (speaking mainly to the brides on this one). You have enough to worry about and having a professional on your team will make a world of difference. Quite frankly, you cannot afford NOT to have a wedding planner.
Make SURE you factor the cost of a good wedding planner into any wedding budget – this should be one of the very first items you check off your list because they can help you with just about everything else as soon as they are brought onto the team. Figuring out “whatcha want” becomes exponentially easier when you have the assistance of someone with plenty of experience guiding brides through the process. That alone is worth the piece of mind it provides during one of the most stressful times of your life – planning your wedding.
Why is whether or not you hire a wedding planner so important to a wedding photographer, you ask? Simply put, I have witnessed both well planned and poorly planned weddings and the poorly planned weddings directly and negatively impact me, the photographer’s, ability to do our job (and the DJ’s, and the caterers, etc.). When weddings are poorly planned, the timing is horrendous – when the timing is horrendous, photographers cannot take the time needed to do our jobs correctly/adequately. And when we cannot do our jobs correctly, that may reflect negatively on both the quality and quantity of the pictures.
So please, please, let ME help YOU make a good decision about this – hire an experienced wedding planner so they can make EVERY aspect of your wedding (including wedding photography) flow smoother and better. And this will make wedding photographers, like me, VERY happy and, in turn, YOU will be much less stressed and ultimately happier with your wedding day experience. Your husband will thank you, your bridesmaids will thank you, your family will thank you, your guests will thank you, and your vendors will thank you for providing a “Bridezilla Free Zone” on your wedding day.
The logic is simple: weddings and their planning are stressful; wedding planners help relieve the stress; when the Bride is less stressed, everything and everyone else is less stressed; less stress means everyone is happier; therefore, hire a wedding planner! Okay, not quite Aristotelian logic but you get the point.
Wedding planner = Happier Wedding Day
Chuck Jackson is a wedding photographer for PhotoActive Photography in Tampa, FL. Check out http://www.photoactivephotographytampa.com to see wedding images and samples from other photography genres, as well!