Saying Yes to a Social Media Strategy: Wedding Content Creators Are the Newest Vendors Couples Are Booking

This new wave of wedding content creators will soon be hitting your FYP.

As Amy Littleson McNitt planned her February 2023 wedding, she knew that she wanted her Instagram audience of 180,000 to be able to catch glimpses of her Vero Beach, Florida, celebration in real time. After all, the New York City-based influencer figured, “I’ve had all my followers suffer through the planning process with me, so I might as well give them the satisfaction of seeing it all on that day.”

So McNitt called in her team members to help bring her vision to life. Alongside her editorial assistant, Olivia Hanford, and photographer and content creator, Kate McReynolds, McNitt combed through the itinerary she had received from her wedding planner, building out a content strategy for the entire wedding weekend. By the time February arrived, Hanford and McReynolds knew exactly how many Instagram stories to capture during each wedding event, as well as what to keep private—McNitt doesn’t plan to share her church wedding ceremony and exchange of vows online, for example.

Wedding Content Creators — *Amy Littleson McNitt captured on her wedding day by content creator Kate McReynolds.*

Because McReynolds had already attended McNitt’s bachelorette and bridal shower months prior with the purpose of gathering social media content, she felt extra comfortable approaching the bride and groom’s nearest and dearest as she snapped away during the wedding. “She might as well have been a bridesmaid,” McNitt says of McReynolds’s familiarity with her loved ones. As McNitt celebrated her marriage with her friends and family, McReynolds documented the weekend on social media, hosting a live video feed on McNitt’s Instagram page the morning of the wedding, posting various reels—documenting key moments including McNitt and her husband’s first dance—and stockpiling hours of footage to release to McNitt’s followers in the months to follow.

However, it isn’t just influencers who crave the assistance of a content creator like McReynolds on their big day. After all, as Anna Coats, the editor and founder of local wedding planning and inspiration site Marry Me Tampa Bay says, “Memories are for everyone.” Prior to the pandemic, Coats and her colleagues would oftentimes attend their readers’ weddings, using these events as an opportunity to gather social media content for their brand’s own platforms. Eventually, though, members on Coats’s social media team noticed that other individuals were specifically offering wedding content creation for couples across the country, and Marry Me Tampa Bay launched its own wedding day content creation service, Behind the Vows, in May 2023. “No one was offering it in our area,” Coats comments. “It really aligned with what we do already in terms of showcasing our readers' weddings. But now we get to do it immediately versus months later.”

Coats anticipated that this service would mostly attract those with an established online presence, but based on the inquiries her team has received thus far, she has seen otherwise. “Honestly, it's turned out to be more just everyday couples who want to have some of those behind-the-scene shots,” Coats shares. “This is really preserving those memories and being able to capture those raw moments.” Even if a couple doesn’t plan to post their wedding footage on social media, hiring a content creator can still yield many benefits. For one, outsourcing this role takes some of the pressure off snap-happy friends and family to capture every moment of the wedding day. “This gives them a chance to be in the moment as well,” Coats explains. It also allows those partaking in unplugged ceremonies to rest assured that they’ll still have documentation of these moments, she adds.

Currently, Marry Me Tampa Bay offers six-hour packages starting at $750 for raw footage and one edited reel. Eight-hour packages start at $1,000 and include raw footage, an Instagram Story takeover, two edited reels, and placement on Marry Me Tampa Bay's Instagram account. The social media team is also willing to perform these services at events leading up to the wedding, including bachelorette parties and rehearsal dinners.

Coats emphasizes that the role of a wedding content creator is not to interfere with, or detract from, the photographer or videographer present—after all, leading a wedding publication, she is especially cognizant of these individuals’ specific roles. “We are there to document it from a behind the scenes-type of angle,” she explains. Her team meets with these vendors ahead of time to establish rapport and outline their event strategy. “We let them know who we are and how we respect what they're doing—we’re not going to be jumping in their shots.”

Unlike most photographers and videographers, though, the Marry Me Tampa Bay team is able to provide couples with celebration content just 24 to 48 hours after the dust has settled on their big day. As Coats puts it, “Imagine waking up the next morning after your wedding and being able to go back through and relive some of these things immediately while the emotions are still so fresh.”

Other organizations have adjusted their offerings to capitalize on this emerging trend, too. In 2015, Velas Resorts, a collection of luxury resorts in Mexico, introduced a social media concierge who assisted couples getting married at these properties with live streaming, live posting, and more, but in June 2023, they revamped this service. Now, couples who host weddings at all resorts in Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit, and Los Cabos can hire a specialized weddings social media expert, an offering that comes along with new services such as “Insta-worthy photo backdrops and TikTok transitions,” explains Yessica Lira, corporate wedding sales manager for Velas Resorts.

As is the case with other similar services, the Velas Resorts social media expert will meet with couples prior to their wedding to go over their desired aesthetic for the day, draft a moodboard, create a wedding hashtag, and discuss trending sounds and video transitions, Lira notes. Pricing for this service varies depending on whether the expert provides social media recommendations or execution and whether they post content live or deliver it after the fact.

Given that sharing inspirational fashion- and lifestyle-related content is McNitt’s job, witnessing TikTok videos from her wedding day achieve virality has been extremely satisfying. One video, documenting McNitt’s 12 bridesmaids, clad in pink gowns, reacting to their first look at her wedding dress, reached over 5 million viewers. “My girlfriends have been getting such a kick out of it, and they're so beautiful they deserve all of the attention,” McNitt reflects.

Because McNitt worked with brand sponsors both to execute her bachelorette party and wedding getting-ready process, McReynolds also helped to produce necessary deliverables. “While Amy was getting ready, I was able to capture a lot of that as well,” she says. Having two content creators present—Hanford using McReynolds’ phone and McReynolds using McNitt’s—also ensured that McNitt received plenty of footage to add to a shared iPhone album for her family and wedding party to enjoy. All the while, McNitt was able to be fully present and enjoy every moment of her nuptials. “My wedding day did not go by fast at all,” she says, noting that former brides had warned her that oftentimes, it feels as though every moment passes in the blink of an eye. Conversely, McNitt says, “It was a very long day, which is amazing because I was in the moment. I remember all these different tidbits and special things. Even when I was just walking by myself—where I would normally use that time to be on my phone—I was just alone in my thoughts.”