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Your Wedding Planner Has Seen These Five Things Just Once… and Only Wants to See Four Again!

Here are some things that I have witnessed at weddings.  Would I recommend them?  Do I want to see them again??

1. Guests all in white? Yes, the guests were invited to wear all white apparel for this outdoor summer wedding. And it looked gorgeous!! I would love to see this again.

 

2. Silent disco. I have never seen anything like it! And this one is a yes! The idea is that there is still a DJ (or two in this case), and they played their (different) music from two sides of the  room. All the guests were wearing headphones, and they could pick the channel for the music they wanted to hear. It was almost comical to watch, because if you were just  standing there, you witnessed the guests dancing but you couldn’t hear any music. It was quite a sight! It made for great conversation, and the guests loved it. This could be really useful where an outdoor wedding is located in a place where there are noise curfews. And besides, it was just fun!

 3.  A wedding near Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia on Labor Day Weekend? NO! I planned a wedding on this weekend several years ago, when the Made in     America Concert first arrived in the city. It was a logistical nightmare for everyone, and I scrambled to check with every contact I could, including the Police Department, Fairmount Park Commission, and more, to make sure the wedding party and guests could actually maneuver to GET to the reception venue from the hotel. Everything worked out, and everyone arrived at the venue on time, but it was one the most stressful things I have encountered as a planner.

4.  Social media concierge. This is a maybe. It really depends on the dynamic of the participants.

A mother-of-the-bride requested that I assist her in finding a public-relations professional who was well-versed in social media. My question was how the Social Media Concierge could fit in, with her iPhone in action for twelve straight hours, and not negatively affect all of the other wedding professionals.

Here are four lessons I learned which will allow me to do this again!

1. The personality of the concierge really matters. She was a pleasure and became an insider at the wedding, not just an observer behind an iPhone.

  1. You need a plan for the day. What needs to be in the photos? Sure, you want the obvious shots, but what details- welcome bags, signage, or any others. If you want something shared, let the Concierge know ahead. And the same goes for something you don’t want shared!
  2. The Concierge needs direction about where you want the images posted. At this wedding, the couple chose just Facebook and Instagram, and 44 images were posted. One other thing: it would be helpful to discuss the captions and tagging that you want to accompany the images ahead of time.
  3. The critical part of the Concierge’s job is timing. One clear example of this is the bride putting on her gown before the wedding. The Concierge photographed this, but of course it couldn’t be posted before the bride walked down the aisle! This is something that needs thought, conversation, and planning before the event.

The Concierge did a wonderful job and made a plan in her head about the shots she wanted and the timing. My takeaway for the future is that I would love to see a written plan to make sure everything is covered. I guess a planner always wants a plan!

 

 

5.  A horse. Yes, I did an Indian wedding where the groom came to the wedding venue on a live horse. The majesty of it was stunning. Loved it! Although some of the logistics were a bit challenging, I would do this again!

 

photos courtesy of Susan Stripling Photography (featured image), Regina Miller Photography, We Laugh We Love Photography, Susan Beard Design, Visual Rose Photography, and Nute Nicholson Photography.

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