Why You Should Love On Your Wedding Vendors || Knoxville TN Wedding Photographer

(a little post I wrote before this past weekends wedding)

Why you should cheer on your wedding vendors, it’s an odd topic to write about especially on a Saturday when I’m knee deep in wedding prep. Normally I don’t blog on Saturdays, Saturdays are committed fully to my bride and grooms. Saturdays are full of charging batteries, cleaning cameras, making sure all photos from the week are backed up, formatting memory cards, ironing dress cloths, double checking the shot list for the day and loading up the car with gear all before heading out to the wedding.

So here I sit, all the above To-Do-List checked off and I have an hour and a half before I have to start getting ready for todays wedding. I just walked out to the mailbox and instantly melted and realized it will be almost 90 degrees today and it’s also suppose to rain. All I could think of was, welcome to wedding season in East TN, the dot on the map where the humidity is unbearable some days and the temperature is as well!

Most people would complain and I won’t lie it will be a long long day but I can count so many positives things that are going to happen today that they take places over the reality of the day. As a wedding vendor, I love my clients and when they love me right back it’s an amazing thing!

You see, today I will show up early for the wedding I’m shooting. I will look like a professional, hair done, makeup done and a dress on. I’ll have a ton of heavy gear and lighting in tow. I will manage my team of amazing staff members. I’ll not only be chill when uncle Bob steps in my way at the perfect photo moment, but I’ll happily answer all 100 of his questions about his camera. I’ll help coordinate the day with the other professionals hired all while making sure the couple is happy and on schedule. I’ll will coordinate family photos, bridal party photos and bride and groom photos. I’ll at some point probably climb a tree in a dress to get the perfect shot, roll on the ground like a ninja, arrange her dress a million times and help touch up her makeup. I’ll run errands for the couple’s family and help out the vendors with some extra task they may have going on.

Did I mention it’s suppose to rain today? So with my rain boots on while someone is holding an umbrella over my head you may find me still shooting because that’s why I’m there. I’ll stand for 7 hours, drink a gallon of water and if I’m lucky get to take a restroom break and eat something. I’ll do all this in 90 degree weather, sweat dripping and I’ll do it with a smile and a positive attitude. I’ll probably have to ride home with the window rolled down and wish I had jumped into the pond before I left the venue. I’ll get home, backup the photographs, unload the car before showering and pass out for the night if I’m lucky by 3 A.M. I’ll then spend hours editing their photos and designing their albums this week before handing them their final photographs but it’s all worth it and here’s why……

I am all about creating a relationship with my clients and they have made a point to join me in creating this relationship. I’ve reach out and they have reach right back. They have sought my professional opinion and I’ve been willing to help. I’ve also made a point to build relationships with their wedding vendors (most of which I already knew). Today, I get to shoot this wedding at one of my all time favorite wedding venues. The venue owners were the first people in Tennessee that believed in me when no one know me, must-less Your Reflections. For me building relationships as you can see is so important and that makes a world of difference on wedding days for me!

Today is the biggest day so far in my couples life, there is NO REDO. As a wedding vendors, we have to be on our game. We love our couples and trust me when I say we want their day to rock! We want when them to look back to say “that by far was the best day of our lives and our wedding vendors helped make it that way”.

So, why is loving on your wedding vendors so important? Because they love you guys and they are working their hardest to make your wedding day rock! Tell them they are doing a good job when they hit home-runs,  it makes a world of difference. If your wedding vendors feel valued, I promised you they will go to the end of the Earth for you. They will stand in a field for 7 hours melting from the sun with ten pounds of gear strapped around their neck, they will haul in equipment in the rain, they will work harder than they’ve ever worked before, all because you are cheering them on.  You deserve nothing less than an amazing wedding as as a wedding vendor we want to make it happen!

OXOXO

Tonya