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As wedding photographers, we often have the joy of working with a wedding planner who helps streamline the day and keep everyone on task. But what exactly do they do?
In this Capture Crew Podcast episode, we’re talking with Ananis from Events by Ananis who is sharing with us all the amazing reasons why couples would benefit from hiring a wedding planner – and how that can help you as a wedding photographer!
Ananis is a wedding planner with over 15 years of corporate planning in hospitality. When the pandemic began, her sister-in-law needed help planning a bridal shower in just a few short weeks. During and after that even she received great feedback and encouragement from others that she should start her own business.
Giving it some thought, she officially decided to jump into her own business in October 2020. By February 2021 she had her first inquiry.
In less than 2 years she has now had 10 weddings that she has helped plan.
So we wanted to talk to Ananis and get her perspective on what makes a good wedding planner and why you as a photographer should encourage your couples to hire one if they haven’t.
Right now demand is high for partial planning. Couples are hiring Ananis after they’ve already begun to source their vendors and consider some of the details of their wedding.
She can plan everything from the beginning, partial planning, or handle day-of wedding coordination.
A major part of what she does is help her clients stay on budget and help guide them with their expenses to make the right choices for their wedding day.
Often couples don’t realize there’s a difference between money and wedding money. Money would be someone saying “would you like to spend $2,000 on these bags?” and you would say no. Wedding money would be someone saying “would you like the spend $2,000 on custom canvas welcome bags for your wedding guests?” and you would say yes.
Those little yeses add up. Ananis helps her clients stay on track with what is most important to them.
No wedding is the same, and because this is all unique to each individual couple, everyone she helps coordinate receives the same fantastic guidance but different feedback catered to exactly what they need.
Ananis believes they see wedding planners as a luxury. Because they’ve been dreaming and thinking of their wedding for so long, they don’t see a wedding planner as a necessity. They believe they can handle all those details themselves.
They often may see the expense of a wedding planner, but not the money that they can save you.
Ananis told a story about how one of her couples had a detail in one of the vendor contracts that was going to cost them an additional $2,500. She was able to call the vendor and clarify the needs the couple had which saved them that extra expense. If they didn’t have Ananis, they would have unknowingly spent that money.
Simply said, they manage timelines and will make sure you’re not dealing with vendors causing couples to be delayed, which in turn impacts your timeline for capturing the photos you need.
Wedding planners manage the timeline for all vendors. With full planning wedding planners, they will contract and communicate directly with vendors on your behalf. They are the ones creating the timeline and ensuring it is followed.
On the day of a wedding, a planner is the one calling the vendors when they’re late and pushing them to adhere to the timeline. They are able to reason with the couple when the timeline begins to shift and hold them to making a decision about what details they want to stick to and what they can give up to stay on track.
A wedding planner also should have a good eye for details catching even the slightest things that are not right to make everything as perfect as it can be.
All of these tasks can be directly impactful to wedding photographers and there’s no denying that weddings that have a wedding planner go more smoothly than those that do not.
A day of coordinator is just for the day. While there is prep work to do ahead of time, they are not meeting with your vendors ahead of time. They can’t help you source vendors or assist with creating the wedding timeline. Essentially, the couple does all of that on their own and a day-of coordinator will handle the tasks on the wedding day only.
Listen to the podcast to hear more about Ananis’ story and why a wedding planner is so essential for vendors and couples.
If you want to hire Ananis or follow along on her journey, check her out on Instagram @eventsbyananis or send her an email at ananis@eventsbyananis.com.
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