Weddings are expensive. They are 10-15x the size of your average party complete with all of these extra things that normal parties don’t have! Tons of flowers, save the dates, a professional DJ…
All of a sudden, things start adding up and you need to find some sort of cost cutting solution. Just have your friends or family help out! After all, your friends and family are capable (and nice!) and vendors are out to get you as soon as they hear the word ‘wedding’ right?
Even if there are some things that may not be as important to you as a couple to invest in, or maybe so important that you only trust those closest to you to handle, there are many reasons why you should NOT “hire” your friends and/or family in place of professional wedding vendors to save money.
1. If they’re really your friend…
Shouldn’t they attend your wedding as a guest or even be in the bridal party? The ideal vendor/friend relationship occurs when your family is acquaintances with a wedding vendor. Ideally, this way, the vendor doesn’t resent you and you don’t feel any guilt.
Your friends may want to partake in the festivities, so give them that option! Let your friends and family have this one day to celebrate with you so that they can have beautiful memories of the day too!
2. Different expertise!
All photographers are not alike and they are not interchangeable. If you have a friend that does studio photography, they work in a totally different environment than photojournalists, real estate photographers, and of course wedding photographers.
Each type of photography has its own set of challenges and without expertise in that field, you may end up being disappointed in the quality of your photos. It’s not that they’re bad in their craft, but they aren’t skilled in this particular setting. Lighting and posing techniques are completely different along with 21498 other photography-related things. This applies to other vendors as well. You should be cautious in hiring a DJ from the club or a seamstress that does everyday clothing or a sports videographer because even though they may do it for you, their expertise may not translate well. Instead, play to someone’s strengths and you will both benefit.
3. Different expectations!
I think we all know this deep down that there is a risk in mixing business and friends or business and family. Mixing personal and business is like a disaster waiting to happen. If your friend is legitimately in business in the wedding industry and you ask for a discount or free stuff, even if they say yes, you certainly shouldn’t expect to be high on their priority list.
They have other customers paying them for their quality work. In fact, your friend may cut costs on your services or extend your wait times to avoid losing money themselves and to keep in line with their paid customers’ schedules. On the other side, you may feel privy to certain perks, just because, and feel less valued as a friend because your wedding isn’t being taken seriously. Throughout the process there is a possibility of so much conflict and stress when working with friends. Miscommunications and an overall clash in expectations can cause a strain on your relationship in general. When everything is said and done, your relationship is worth much more than money.
4. In the end, you might get what you pay for!
Like #3, your friend/vendor may cut costs to help them from losing as much money by giving you discounted services. On the other side, if you have friends that are inexperienced with weddings, you don’t want them to adjust to the learning curve during your big day. People that are unfamiliar with a wedding setting may not have sufficiently prepared, they may be caught blindsided with random issues, and you could be headed for disaster.
We acknowledge that weddings are crazy expensive and many people choose to spend their hard earned dollar bills on other things that are more of a priority to them. Additionally, we totally understand the plight of the engaged couple. Weddings costs add up quickly and even if you want to have a standard wedding, you’re committing to a big financial investment.
Weddings are celebrations of not only love but life! A wedding is one day full of beautiful once-in-a-lifetime moments and for some of us, it is the only time in our life that we will get to feel like celebs. #keepingitreal. Staying true to our “go big or go home mentality”, we know that you will have many memories of your wedding day for the rest of your life. Weddings are a priority in our books, so we want you to do all that you can to make as many good memories of your wedding day as possible 🙂
Basic Bash is honored whenever a couple chooses us as their wedding planner because we wholeheartedly appreciate the trust you put into us. We take great pride and care in what we do and spend so much time and energy into planning because our best reward is your happiness. BUT to do this for others, we have to sustain ourselves. We serve our couples with integrity and transparency because that is what they deserve and in the hopes that others will as well.