You may be thinking that your big day will survive if you choose to hire a friend or “self proclaimed” professional for the most important parts of your wedding day. There are many reasons why you should hire a professional vendor over a hobbyist. This month we are going to focus on the top 10 reasons you should hire a professional for your wedding day.

#10: Contracts & Insurance

How can you ensure that the vendor you hired will be there on your big day? If the vendor you hire does not have a professional, legal binding contract you may just have to hope for the best. Be sure to read the fine details on each contract so that you know exactly what to expect from your vendors. Is there a cancellation fee, when is the retainer fee due and what time should you expect setup to begin? Simply discussing these topics with your vendor is not enough. Be sure to get everything in writing!

One of the major incidentals you may not think about when planning your wedding is the liability insurance coverage held by the various vendors you hire. It is literally going to take a team of great people to pull of such a special day and realistically, anything can go wrong. Liability insurance can cover a large range of incidents. Anything from the DJ saying the wrong thing over the microphone causing a fight, an unsecured speaker falls on someone or even wires not being secure causing a guest to trip and/or fall. If anything should go wrong, you want you guests to feel comfort in knowing the vendors are covered! Most venues require a minimum of 1 million dollar liability insurance.

#9: Quality

When you consider hiring a hobbyist as a lead vendor during your wedding day be sure to consider the quality of your end product. Will your vendors provide over one thousand photos to choose from and enough video footage to edit? Is there an easy and convenient website offered for viewing and purchasing?

Be sure that both your photographer and videographer use the proper lenses to give you different looks throughout the day. They also need to be knowledgeable on how to light and white balance each room at your venue. Both of these vendors should also be using a professional grade camera instead of a consumer grade product. You do not want your images/video to turn out dark without color correction or even with poor sound recording.

If you choose not to hire a professional emcee then you run the risk of poor, possibly unmaintained equipment being used, no planning tools and a lack of room control. If the DJ/Emcee is not in tune with your guests how will you ensure they are having a good time? Don’t risk it!

Lastly, if you decide to want to utilize a photo booth, be sure that there is an actual DSLR camera being used and not a web cam. Your final product will give a much clearer image that can be blown up to an actual 4×6 or 8×10 later without losing quality. An inkjet printer will also create a better product than a thermal printer resulting in a charming keepsake for your guests!

Be sure to stop back next week for more reasons on why hiring a professional vendor is necessary for your upcoming event! You only get one shot to create memories during your wedding day!