My husband and I had our wedding in 2013 in Las Vegas. Yes, it sounds cheesy but I assure you that it was nothing but class, well the pink limo with a stripper pole maybe not but the rest was all class! I brought along a girlfriend who happened to be an amazing photographer to take photos. Fast forward 3 years and my husband and I found ourselves on a plane to Cabo San Lucas to film a wedding for one of his friends. I’ve compiled a list of my top tips to consider when for your destination wedding after having seen both sides.
Being the bride and heading to a destination has its pro’s and cons for sure. For us, the pro’s outweighed the cons by a long shot. Knowing what I know now, there isn’t much I would do differently. A few small things here and there but all in all I would consider our wedding a success.
Flying to Cabo for someone else’s wedding was definitely an interesting experience. We arrived in Cabo Thursday afternoon and departed Saturday afternoon for an experience I will never ever forget. Here is my list
1. Book Your Team EXTRA Time! If you’ve hired a team to come with you to capture your wedding, fly them in early to scope out great spots. We found that after we left Cabo there was still so much footage we would have liked to make the video well rounded. Thank goodness the groom had a friend with a drone for some seriously epic shots! Also, give them a few days after the wedding to decompress and also maybe do any reshooting that may come up. We waited for one specific shot but there was always a cruise ship in the way. Extra time would have taken some pressure off!
2. Hire a Videographer & A Photographer! While in Cabo, my job was to follow the bride and ensure that I got video of almost everything she did on her big day! I was shocked to hear that for getting ready, there was no photographer. They had only hired a photographer for the wedding. It was something about who they hired in Cabo to do their wedding, that it didn’t work out for them to photograph anything else. My husband and I were to film the getting ready and the wedding! Having gotten married myself, I know that the photos of getting ready are just as important as anything else and some of my favourites! Being that bride was marrying a friend of my husbands, I began to take photos as well as film. It’s not easy! I was happy to do it but I’m by no means a pro and so I did my best! Not having a videographer at our wedding is one of the small things that I would change! It would make for some pretty entertaining footage these days!
3. Decide What Kind Of A Wedding You Want! This sounds funny but it’s so incredibly important. When we got married, I knew right away in Las Vegas, that I wanted an old Hollywood style wedding! My husband knew that’s what I wanted, my photographer knew this I wanted and I got exactly what I wanted. The bright lights, the glitz, the glam and my dear friend Las Vegas was a very willing participant.
Now fast forward to being on the other side of the coin, I’ve seen what that can happen if you’re not 100% clear. Be sure that if you want a romantic wedding that you’re planning a romantic wedding. Make sure your husband and all parties involved know exactly what you want! Leave time to do romantic things so that the photographer, videographer or both can capture those romantic moments. If you want a good time, party style wedding, ensure that you are planning exactly that. Ensure that your song selections reflect the style of wedding that you want to be captured.
4. Prepare For The Unexpected! At our wedding, my photographer, a long time friend of mine fell ill with pneumonia on our wedding day! She held on until after the ceremony (which was at night) but then spent two days held up in her hotel room throwing up with a fever. She felt awful but there was nothing we could do, we ended up missing most of the photo ops I wanted after the wedding but thankfully had another photographer friend that was there take photos of our reception, which was the day after our wedding!
5. Lastly, BE PATIENT! Trust me I know this is FAR easier than said than done. I was that bride who was passive aggressively texting my photographer asking for just,” one sneak peak” Things take time, especially editing together hours and hours of footage. I gained a new respect for my husband seeing his dedication to perfection for their wedding video. Did you see it up at the top there? It’s pretty damn amazing if I say so myself!
Creative people cannot be rushed, especially when it comes to your wedding video! This is going to be something you will watch FOREVER, trust me, it taking a little bit longer means that someone worked their butts off just a little bit more to ensure that you LOVE what they’re putting out as it’s yours for the REST OF YOUR LIFE! I couldn’t even tell you how many dinners my husband missed because he was working on that video.
Well, there you have it! Just a few lovely pointers when planning your destination wedding in terms of photographers and videographers. Providing the service definitely opened my eyes as to the hard work that goes into being the photographer or videographer both before AND after the wedding!
If you’d like to inquire about rates or availability for myself and my husband for videography services, please send me an email at avatozoeblog@gmail.com. While we have limited availability, we are able to accomodate a few dates a year for destination weddings!
For my married folk, knowing what you know now, would you do it over again as a destination wedding or stay the course?
All Photos were taken by Janette Shearer and Video was filmed and edited by Bruce Shearer with myself as second shooter!
These are such great tips! Especially not rushing an artist!
Thank you! It’s so hard to not rush when you’re excited but time really does make such a difference!
These are great tips! I wish I had known some of them when I got married!
I wish we would have done a destination wedding! ??
My one regret for my wedding was not being more selective and investing in my photographer.