The Care and Feeding of Wedding Professionals

Your wedding professionals want to give you their best possible work. Couples who are well-organized and get things done months before their wedding are much more likely to get everything they want. Avoid the last-minute crunch. Give your wedding professionals lots of time to make the magic happen!

Change and the unforeseen happen all the time with weddings. Work with your professionals to create plans and back-up plans for all the different aspects of your wedding. You’ll love the peace of mind that brings.

The best wedding professionals are always prepared for all kinds of things to happen, from crazy weather to power outages to broken zippers! You should be, too. It doesn’t mean that you need to carry a big toolkit down the aisle, but it does mean that, for instance, you have a good rain plan in place if you’re planning an outdoor ceremony.

Trust the Force, and your wedding professionals. The more they know about your needs and desires for your wedding, the better able they will be to serve you. Don’t hold back! Spill your guts and tap into their creativity and experienced professional guidance.

Now, about that feeding part.

The professionals working at your wedding who are present over a meal time need to be fed, and fed well.

Why? You want them to give you their best work. Feeding them in a timely manner, and with what everyone else around them is eating, is always the right thing to do.

You cannot imagine the grousing that comes from a photographer or DJ who is presented with a sandwich, a bag of chips, and an apple, when all of the guests are eating filet mignon!  While no wedding professional intentionally does shoddy work, it’s hard not to be influenced by being fed in what is generally perceived to be a demeaning manner. Feed them well and you’re much more likely to get their best work and, if the need arises, have them go the extra mile for you.

Caterers refer to what they call “vendor meals.” Some charge half-price for the same meal that guests are served, and some prepare special meals, which may or may not be what you want to serve your wedding professionals. No matter the case, you are in complete control of what you feed your professionals. Again, take good care of them and they will take good care of you.

Some wedding professionals include specific requirements in their contract about being fed. You need to abide by that, of course. I encourage you to go above and beyond. It’s a small cost to you that brings valuable results.

What’s the best time to feed your wedding professionals?

People forking food into their mouths are not at all attractive subjects for photography, so your photographer should be fed ahead of or with the first wave of guests. There are often toasts or important dances immediately following the meal, so you want to have the photographer fed and ready to go before the meal is done, ideally before you and your sweetheart are finished eating.

Early on in the meal time is also the time to feed the DJ or band, wedding planner, and the rest of your professionals, most of whom will be engaged as soon as the meal is finished.

Wedding professionals often eat in a different room from the guests, whether that’s your now-empty cocktail area, or a garden or patio, or perhaps a separate bar area. There’s no reason to seat them at guest tables, which tends to be awkward for all involved and leaves you with empty seats for most of the reception.

All of the wedding professionals I know – and I know a lot of them – want to give you their best work and help you have a fantastic wedding. Paying attention to their needs and treating them well will go a long way toward making that happen!

Next time: Loving your guests.

David L. Egan is the proprietor and steward of Chase Court, a wedding and event venue in downtown Baltimore. Visit Chasecourt.com, and follow ChaseCourtWeddingVenue on Instagram and Facebook.