Ask Liz: The Fear of Bailing Vendors

Photo: B&G Photography, Location: The Ebell of Los Angeles

Dear Liz, 

Over Memorial Day weekend, I was the maid of honor at my cousin’s wedding. It was a great day, and the photographer was wonderful to all of us, until after the toasts. He left! My cousin said that they only had him for 8 hours, which ended at 8pm. But, he missed the cake cutting, and her father-daughter dance. I thought he could at least stuck around 30 minutes for those. I’m getting married this fall, and we have our photographer (not the same one) for 8 hours, too. We don’t want to pay more than we are, but I don’t want to miss any of important wedding moments, either. Do you have any tips on how to make everything fit in 8 hours? 

Signed, 

Beating the Clock

Dear Clock,

Yeah, they don’t stay if you don’t pay them. That goes for your caterer, your wait staff, the bartender, any vendor that has a start time and an end time. So, if you’re not willing to pay for the extra time, then, yes, you have to squeeze everything in, or accept the consequences. First thing you need to do is to have a discussion with your photographer. Run through what you know so far about what’s going on that day that you want pictures of – getting ready, first look, wedding party and family pics, um, the ceremony, post-ceremony pics, grand entrance, toasts, etc.,etc., and time it out. This will give you an approximate photography start time, which will give you an approximate finish time. A  big part of my job on any wedding day is monitoring your schedule. The standard four to six hour wedding seems like a long time until you realize that 2-3 hours of that is already spoken for by your ceremony, cocktail hour and dinner service. Some other stuff you can get done at the same time, some stuff you cannot. Figure out what will and won’t work now.

On your wedding day, check in with the photographer regularly to see what they have left to shoot, and if you have enough time left to shoot it. If time is short, come up with a plan together. For instance,  If you haven’t cut the cake, yet, do it now, because it only takes about three minutes and only requires two people. Then move up the shots that take longer to set up and involve the most people to participate or observe – the bouquet toss, parents dances, money dances, the Hora or a line dance.  Try and move straight from one to another without a break. Pull in any other vendors that might be involved, like your caterer and DJ. If you’re running out of time with any one else, do the same. Everyone wants you to have a great experience, and they’re willing to help. But you have to help them help you.

See you at the end of the aisle,

Liz Coopersmith

If you have a question for my column, email liz@silvercharmevents.com, or submit your question on my contact page. Let me know how I can help!