Tuesday, April 13, 2010

No Your Photographer (or DJ or site vendor) is Not a Professional Planner

Pic by Blue Mtn Photo


Warning:  The below is somewhat a rant, but I think it is something that needs to be said to both vendors and brides.

Today, I had another bride tell me that a vendor told her not to worry about hiring a planner. They could do everything for them that a planner did. Luckily, this bride had the good sense to relay this conversation and not to believe it.


I’m not sure if this is a product of the economy or caused by the fact that a lot of vendors have no idea what a planner, a “real planner”, actually does. If because of a bad economy you’re trying to up sell your bride by telling her to forgo the budgeted money for a planner and add that to what she can afford to spend on let’s say her photography package, dj package, food costs or any other package, then shame on you. Because you can tell them when to cut the cake makes you no more a planner than if I become a DJ by bringing my iPod to the wedding for their music or professional photographer by bringing my point and shoot. Also, it’s a real quick way to make the planning community very upset with you. Believe me, any vendor that says this comes off my referral list in a hurry and probably off any other planner’s list I talk to. Not only are you taking away my income, but you are giving a trusting bride a bum steer.

Now if you say “but I can do what a planner does”, then ask yourself this:

Do you help the bride plan out her budget? Do you find vendors that should fit within that budget and give the bride what she is hoping for? Do you negotiate discounts that are then passed on to your brides from various vendors? Are you up to date on everything going on in the wedding world that might interest your bride? Do you go with the brides to pick linens, flowers, dresses? Do you draw up room layouts? Do you spend hours with the bride setting up timelines, ceremony plans, seating of family plans? Do you make pew cards, hand out programs at the wedding, and queue the music? On the wedding day do you dress the bride, steam the dresses, and provide emergency kits for the hundreds of little things that can go wrong? Do you line up the processional and send them down the aisle? Do you go to the reception site hours before the wedding to set up, greet vendors, and check contracts to be sure the correct items are delivered? If any thing goes wrong do they call you? Do you handle transportation for wedding party and sometimes guests? Do you make sure the timeline is followed during the reception? Do you greet the guests as they enter the reception? Do you make sure before each event happens at the reception, that the bride and groom are notified, that the parents are there to see the event, that the photographer, videographer and caterer are all prepared and ready? Do you keep an eye on the bar tab to make sure it doesn’t go over the budgeted amount? Oh and here is a biggie, do you pack up the gifts and flowers for the bride and groom at the end of the night? Do you make sure they have their luggage in their get away car, do you pull linens off of tables so they can be returned, do you wash cake stands and get them ready to return and do you pack up the guest book, flutes, cake set, everything the bride brought to the event to personalize it. Oh and on top of that are you certified, insured and licensed to be the planner?

If you can honestly answer yes to all that and still take the pictures at the wedding then I apologize and you are the man! If you can’t, then stop saying it, do your job and I will do mine.

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