Why You Should Hire a Planner for your Key West Wedding (a Photographer's Take)
Your wedding day is naturally one of the best days of your life. It consists of all of the little (and big) things that represent you as a couple, a day for all of your friends and loved ones to enjoy and one that you’ll remember forever. There are so many aspects that you need to focus on in order to bring it all together though, which is why this can be such a stressful period for brides too.
Hiring a wedding planner can make this joyful time a little easier on your nerves. Here are a few reasons why you should consider hiring a professional planner:
1) Your site coordinator is not a wedding planner
This is the number one thing I hear….”Oh but I do have a planner…the venue has someone who coordinates everything”.
It’s a very common misunderstanding, but unfortunately that assumption is inaccurate.
Yes, if you’re booking at a hotel or wedding venue, they’re going to have someone who works there who will oversee the event and make sure you have what you need. If they have onsite catering, then yes they will be the person to make sure their chef knows what’s been ordered and they’re going to clear the space the morning of so that the tables can be set. Yes, they’re going to be a wealth of knowledge and ideas on who to contact for what services, and they’re going to be able to give you options specific to their property.
They are not, however, your planner. Their role is confined to their site or venue only, not to see to your personal items, arrange your decor, make sure your group walks down at the appropriate time, or check in with mom to be sure she’s having a good time. Everything else that has to get taken care of (as you’ll see below) falls under the role of a dedicated wedding planner.
A wedding planner and a site coordinator are two totally different roles. Don’t assume that because your venue has a coordinator that they’re going to provide anything in the way of planning services for your big day.
Wedding planners arriving to Key West hotel to get the day started
2) This is not something you do every day
Chances are you and your fiancé haven’t planned a wedding before. Even if you have, there are always new trends, traditions, themes, and ideas, and most people don’t keep up with these changes.
Some couples feel that they can plan their own weddings because they’ve helped a sister or best friend plan theirs, but that’s like saying because you loved helping someone cook Thanksgiving dinner last year means you’re ready to start your own restaurant. Or like saying you are qualified to oversee the building of a house because you’ve painted a few walls and fixed the sink on your own. They’re two totally different skill sets.
Contributing ideas and making a few phone calls to lighten the load for someone else is not the same as running a full scale planning operation on one of the biggest events you’ll throw in your life. A professional wedding planner is the best person to guide you through this intricate process
3) The stress is 100% going to affect you at some point
Take it from a self-acclaimed “laid back” person like me. It doesn’t matter how cool, calm, and collected you normally are on a given day, how well you handle pressure, how much you thrive in chaos, or how nonchalant you normally are in your everyday life, after over 22 years in this industry and having been there myself, 100% of couples who plan their own wedding end up stressed out.
I had an absolutely beautiful wedding, but my biggest regret was not hiring a planner. I’d assumed that because I was already in the wedding industry myself and knew most of the vendors I wanted to hire, that I was all set. It was not until the final months leading up that I realized how much goes into it and I found myself completely overwhelmed, and staying up until all hours, just days before the event, taking care of final menial tasks while my family and friends were out having fun.
Planning a wedding is harder than it looks and if you’re already losing sleep over your massive to-do list, hiring a wedding planner can really make the entire process much more manageable and enjoyable for you. You should be excited about your big day, and any nerves should come from the sheer anticipation of the event, not from stress over where things are being laid out, which vendors are arriving when, directing guests to the restroom, getting the nervous flower girl down the aisle, or seeing to it that everyone is paid at the end of the night. All of that needs to be handled by your planner.
4) You’re not versed in wedding budgets and expectations
Whether you’re in the camp of “we have exactly X dollars and can’t go a penny over”, or the “the budget is flexible as long as we’re getting a good value”, you have no real way of knowing what you should allocate for various services if you’ve not planned a wedding recently, and especially not in a destination location like Key West. If you’re in the process of putting a budget together and would like some more guidance on what to expect based on your unique preferences, a wedding planner can be your guide. A professional wedding planner can offer you great insights on industry norms and trends and what you can expect. They can also really help you stick to your budget.
5) You need a gentle nudge here and there
We all face big projects a little differently. Some people dive straight in head first but miss minor details that can make a significant impact. Others overthink every detail and then get so overwhelmed they can’t make a decision. In BOTH cases, a wedding planner will help you. They can get the ball rolling on research and help narrow down the options that fit your wishes, so that you can spend your time and energy just on making the important decisions. They’ll help bring your vision together and either put you in touch with vendors and suppliers who can help, or some full service planners will even handle all the correspondence for you on your behalf. They also step in and offer a gentle reminder when things like invoices need to be paid, deadlines need to be met, invitations need to go out, orders need to be placed, and tips need to be distributed.
iPhone captures wedding ceremony on the beach in Key West
6) You assume that because your vendors already know their jobs, planning isn’t necessary
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see destination couples make when planning their Key West wedding. It’s easy to assume that because the wedding vendors in the area you’re getting married all know their jobs, that they can be left to bringing all the details together. This is a huge mistake.
Yes, a photographer can give you some guidance on the best time to take photos for ideal lighting, or when you’ll need to be getting into your dress in order to be ready for First Look in time, but they can’t give you guidance on when the venue grounds will be accessible without talking to the site, or predict the best route to get to the reception without contacting a transportation company. They can certainly go and take the setup shots, but won’t be able to assist with the holding back the guests from entering before those shots are taken. They’ll be there to capture your grand entrance, of course, but as they’re setting up lighting and getting into position to watch you come in, they’re not going to also be the one reminding you to bustle your dress beforehand so you don’t trip over it during your first dance.
A florist/decor company can certainly tell you by what time they’ll need to bring the runner in order for your ceremony to be ready in time for you to walk down the aisle, but they can’t make the decision on where to hang the chandelier that will go over your dance floor without talking to the DJ, nor will they be there making sure that the men’s boutonnieres are pinned on properly.
A makeup artist can definitely calculate their own start time based on how many bridesmaids you’ll have, but they can’t tell you where you’ll be getting ready without reaching out to the hotel and reserving a suite with adequate lighting and big enough for your bridal party.
My point is, each vendor is going to be great at guiding you for their specific role, but coordinating their services with the other vendors requires…..well…..coordination…..planning….and that’s why you hire….well….a planner!
In other words, a wedding planner is there to make sure all the pieces of the puzzle fit together and so that your vendors can execute their roles successfully.
It can be tough to judge the time needed for things like family group photos if you’re not familiar with what goes into it.
And Last but DEFINITELY NOT LEAST….
Reason #7) Your DIY timeline is very likely going to miss some critical details
This is usually where I get the most pushback. But, just hear me out for a minute. The problem is that if you’ve attended a wedding, you’ve seen “the show” but have not actually been behind the scenes to see the production that gets the actors" to the “stage”.
So no, 10 minutes is not sufficient to capture 30 family groupings. Sure, the group photo you stood in on the day of your sister’s wedding only felt like it took 30 seconds, but you didn’t see the 30 seconds it took to gather your group beforehand and make sure we had everyone, the 15 seconds the photographer needed to adjust her light and settings, the 10 seconds that were spent reshuffling people to get a better arrangement, and the 15 seconds it took for everyone in the group to get out of the spot again. That’s 75 seconds of just “production”, plus the 30 seconds to actually take the photos. All told, a family grouping on average takes about 2 minutes, give or take. If you’re only allocating 10 minutes for this, then your photographer will only be able to realistically take about 5 or 6 groupings. If you insist on having 30, then you’re going to need…yep, you guessed it….60 minutes.
Similarly, no you can’t schedule toasts at 8:00pm in mid-June if you also want sunset photos. Sure, sunset might not be until 8:18, but it’s going to take a few minutes for the people giving the toasts to get onto the dance floor, the microphone in their hand, say a few words of introduction, go through their 5 minute speech, and spend 2 or 3 minutes afterward approaching you for a hug, wiping back tears, hugging your spouse, and then returning to their seat.
That 8pm toast start time means it’s now 8:11pm and you’ve only gotten through one toast. If you left right then, sprinted to the sunset spot which is a 3 minute walk, you’d be in position by 8:14, your photographer would need at least 60 seconds to get settings dialed in and lights in position, 60 seconds to pose you and direct you and wait for the people walking by to get out of the way.
It’s now 8:16, and we have exactly 2 minutes to capture sunset pictures. If you’re working with an amazing photographer who can nail a photo with their eyes closed, then you’ve got the shot but only one pose/angle/expression before you have to start heading back (to your perplexed second toast-giver who got cut off when you bolted from the room), but if anything goes amiss and eats up even just 3 minutes of your time - old Aunt Sally interrupts you to say congratulations as you’re heading toward the spot, you trip on the hem of your dress and we need to swiftly wipe it off so it doesn’t look dirty in the photos, someone in a wheelchair is trying to get out of the background and is going slower than everyone else - anything….we’ve missed sunset.
Remember that trolleys and other group transit move much more slowly through the often-tourist-packed streets of Key West, not to mention herding dozens of people on and off can eat into your timeline if you don’t add buffer before and after arrival.
No, your trolley cannot load 80 passengers and get them from the Pier House to Louie’s Backyard in 17 minutes. No, you can’t schedule a Hemingway House ceremony at 5:00pm when the gates will have just closed and visitors will still be exiting the gate. No, your hair and makeup cannot be scheduled to end at 3:00 if your ceremony is at 3:30.
Love ya, but your concept of wedding-day timing is crap. Lol. That’s not a personal attack or negative judgement, just an observation after over 2 decades of being a wedding photographer. And don’t get me wrong….I wouldn’t be able to step into your industry and have any clue as to when to do what either. It’s not a character flaw, it’s just facts. Wedding day timing sounds simple enough, especially if you’re someone who prides themselves on being very good with time.
The problem is, you’re calculating time from the “audience perspective”. If you’ve been to a wedding and ever exclaimed “Wow that ceremony was super short! We had barely felt like we sat down and it was already over!”, then you’ve experienced this.
This is because you only remember
tearing up as the bride walked past at 5:38
sat through the 3 minutes of introductions, 5 minutes of vows, 3 minutes of ring exchanges, 3 minutes of the sand pouring, and 1 minute pronouncement,
and clapped during the 10 second kiss before the couple strode back down the aisle at 5:53.
At quick glance, yes this feels like a quick 15 minute ceremony, and you’d be forgiven for assuming that scheduling your own ceremony in this way means you too only need 15 minutes.
But what you’ve missed is the fact that the musician began playing at 5:00, guests started coming in at 5 minutes after, the planner was gathering the bridal party for lineup out of site at 10 after, she then went and checked with the groom at 5:15, straightened his tie and gave him a rag to dab the sweat, filled the flower girl’s basket with petals and instructed her on what to do a few minutes later.
You yourself had actually had an entire prequel that led up to this fictitious “15 minute ceremony”…you forgot that you:
had entered with the other guests at 5:19
hugged your cousins in the next row at 5:22
sat down at 5:25
chatted with the guest in the seat next to you until 5:30 when you heard the music volume increase
winked at your brother as he strolled in at 5:31 to seat the mothers
gave a smile to the groom when he entered with the officiant at 5:32
waved to your college roommate - one of the bridesmaids - as she smiled nervously at you during her entrance at 5:34
giggled at the flower girl who pattered in at 5:36….
A full 17 minutes of buildup before the aforementioned entrance of the bride that you have in mind, and it’s why the ceremony block - even for a “short simple” service, is still about an hour long from start to finish.
In conclusion, it’s totally understandable that someone who’s never planned a wedding wouldn’t be well versed in the things that it takes to make for a smooth wedding day, but that’s all the more reason to hire a professional planner to help you. Especially for a destination event - even a small one - in Key West, you will never regret having invested a little bit extra to have that person who can help you bring it all together, and handle the little details while you arrive and just enjoy the day.
If you need recommendations for planners in Key West, just shoot me an email and
I’d be happy to send you a list of those I’ve worked with and had great experiences with!
Karrie Porter is a Wedding Photographer in Key West, Florida. Since 2001, she has been documenting her clients’s events with the vibrant style, creative perspective, and energetic personality she’s known for. Learn more HERE