Couples should know what to look for when hiring a wedding content creator and how to manage vendors who bring their own.
There’s a new vendor joining the wedding party, and it’s got industry insiders divided. Content creators are popping up at weddings everywhere, and while the idea is gathering a lot of traction, inexperienced creators can wreak havoc on a wedding day.
Couples love the idea—someone to embed with the wedding party to capture candid, personal moments; to orchestrate TikTok trends; to have access to the behind-the-scenes moments even photographers can’t always get; fast turn-around of literally hundreds of pictures and clips.
The concept is great! But not everyone’s convinced. Claudia Postigo, founder and Head Wedding Planner at The Planner Co., a boutique wedding planning agency. She also teaches wedding planning at ELLE Education and is quick to warn about inexperienced or unprofessional content creators.
“I've seen everything from someone's Gen Z cousin with a ring light to influencers who think they can pivot into wedding content creation overnight,” Claudia explains. “The problem is that weddings aren't simply another content opportunity, but once-in-a-lifetime events that require a certain level of professionalism and respect.”
The horror stories are everywhere. Inexperienced creators ruin a photographer’s shots of important moments. Multiple creators overcrowd the moment. Influencers with ring lights and equipment center themselves rather than the couple. Timelines are completely thrown off as a creator tries to setup TikTok trends.
Claudia, and seasoned wedding pros like her, understand that the ceremony and reception are carefully orchestrated events and content creators unfamiliar with all of the moving parts can ruin a moment.
“We had a content creator who kept positioning herself directly in front of the professional photographer during the ceremony,” Claudia recalls. “She was so focused on getting the perfect angle for her phone that she completely blocked several key shots of the couple's first kiss as married partners. The photographer was livid, and understandably so.”
Often, content creators aren’t even hired by the couple, but rather by fellow vendors. A DJ may want to capture their setup, or guests having the time of their lives. The caterer needs to showoff their hors d’oeuvres display. Florists, venues, and more all feel pressure to showcase their work, but don’t have the capacity to do it themselves while they are working. Unfortunately, this often results in many creators competing for position, creating logistical problems and crowding out guests and photographers.
“Suddenly, you have five or six different people with cameras and phones running around what should be an intimate celebration,” says Claudia. “I've been to weddings where there were more content creators in the room than actual guests at some points during the day.”
Lauren Grove is the founder of Lauren Grove Interactive, a marketing and PR firm for wedding industry pros, often hires content creators on behalf of her clients.
“It’s a mixed bag of people who love it, people who hate it, and people who know that they need it but have trouble getting it,” says Lauren. “The couple should decide on whether they're okay with vendors bringing their own creators beforehand, and approach the subject with every vendor during initial conversations so they are aware ahead of time.”
She regularly hires content creators for her vendor clients and understands what makes them a valuable addition, but knows that experience and clear expectations matter.
“I would say that anything more than one content creator in the presence of the couple is too many. However, if there need to be two content creators to capture the couple and then vendor behind-the-scenes, then that would be acceptable,” she explains. “The key here is that we really shouldn't have any more than one content creator with the couple.”
She solves the overcrowding problem by encouraging vendors to communicate with each other and hire one content creator to capture footage for all of them to share. This simple solution not only reduces the amount of people trying to take video of cutting the cake, it reduces costs across the boards for vendors, and sometimes makes a wonderful token vendors can share with the couple.
And while it's extremely helpful for vendors to have this content to use for their own marketing purposes, you do have a right of refusal. “It's a tough boundary to determine, as it's the couple paying for the things that are being captured, which is why I would always defer to their preference,” says Lauren.
She recommends if this is something that you explicitly want to avoid, add it to the contract.
Because social media is fun, and anyone can do it, there’s a tendency to devalue experience and professionalism with the role. Couples may try and cut costs by hiring a friend, or finding someone with a strong social media presence and think they can pivot to weddings easily.
“You can't just hire any old person using their phone,” warns Lauren. “I had one client give me a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes content from the content creator that was shot in landscape and not portrait which meant I only have five clips I could actually work with.”
So how can couples find the right content creator?
“Really, it’s just like anybody else you would hire,” Lauren says. “Take into account their portfolio, their pricing, their style, it all comes into play. For me, I would look at other weddings they’ve captured. And if it’s someone who has never captured a wedding before, just know you’re taking a big gamble.”
Lauren also recommends turning to wedding vendors you already work with and trust, many of whom are expanding to add content creation to their list of services.
“Honestly, I think more wedding professionals like photographers and planners should add this to their list of services,” says Lauren. “If they're the ones providing the service, then they can also control where that content creator is standing, they can have more communication with that content creator, and to me it's just a no-brainer.”
This approach is catching on. Atlanta-based photographer Sarah Folsom was initially skeptical of the concept. Like many other photographers she wasn’t thrilled about the idea of one more person with a cellphone. Furthermore, she has seen how a flash from a phone or a ring light of a creator can ruin a photographer’s shot.
“My initial reaction was pretty negative, I’m sorry to say,” says Sarah. “But they are here to stay. Couples love it. It kind of gives that nostalgic, home-movie-with-a-camcorder feel that we just don’t get anymore. The more I thought through my pain points, the more I realized that a lot of those pain points would be alleviated if I offered this as an option for my couples.”
Sarah began offering content creation as an additional package option to her couples, and by hiring her own staff in the role she can be sure that they are trained, experienced, and they can work seamlessly together to coordinate shot lists, timelines, and execute the couple’s vision.
Photographers aren’t the only wedding pros expanding to include content creation.
As the founder and editor of Marry Me Tampa Bay, Anna Coats knew that her media team, who had years of experience publishing content on over 2,000 weddings, could offer so much to couples as content creators. She founded Behind the Vows Content Creation and provides clients with reels, clips and photos, and even offers social media takeovers. She knows what it takes to be a skilled content creator.
“Even though they may shoot with ‘only an iPhone,” content creators should be treated like any other part of the media team,” she warns. “This means you should hold them to the same standard as your other wedding professionals. Not only do they need insurance, but they need wedding day experience. Not only do content creators have to get the shot, they need to know how to do so without getting in the way of your photographer and/or videographer.”
Content creators also need to be aware of the timeline of the day and how their work can impact the entire experience, especially if the couple wants to record any special content.
“Communication is key,” Anna explains. “Your content creator and media team need to strategize the timeline before the wedding day. While it may only take 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there to film the TikTok content you want, adding 30 extra minutes to the timeline can cause major delays on the wedding day.”
There are definitely growing pains as content creators expand in the industry, and professionals like Claudia are right to be concerned. However, as more and more experience professionals arrive on the scene, and more people are realizing the potential they have to add value and preserve the important memories of a wedding day.
“If you do decide to hire a content creator, make sure they understand they're part of a team, not the star of the show,” she advises. “Have a conversation with your photographer beforehand – some are happy to work alongside content creators, while others prefer to work alone. It's better to sort this out weeks before your wedding rather than on the day itself.”
Cover photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash I Photo 1 by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash | Photo 2 by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
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