The Secret to Looking Effortlessly Happy in Your Wedding Photos — The Double Knot | Certified Planners | Weddings and Events

After months of planning & pouring your heart and soul into every detail of your wedding day, imagine that you get to enjoy your wedding like a guest! This means you can relax with a mimosa during the getting-ready process, feel like a celebrity during the photos, float through the ceremony, actually eat your dinner and enjoy the dance floor to the bittersweet end! How? The secret is this: hire a professional planner & coordinator to guide your vendors and manage the behind the scenes of your event. Trust me. Read on for just a few real-life examples of what a professional planner and coordinator can do while you enjoy your moment in the spotlight!

In the photo above, our beautiful couple is blissfully enjoying a moment to themselves after checking off a long list of family photos. Happiness is exuding from their smiles as they wait for the moment they will never forget. Meanwhile, on the other side of the estate, our team is assisting and directing the arrival of catering, while also welcoming and directing their 250 guests with a smile (to the ceremony, to the bathroom, to the guest book, to the water station, etc.) and valet is seamlessly parking vehicles. Do you see the chaos of the moment reflected on their faces? Nope. Our team is managing it all!

Larissa Bahr Photography; Signature Event Rentals

Once guest arrival was complete, our team lined up the bridal party, checked on the location of the rings, got grandma positioned at the bottom of the stairs, inviting the guests to be seated, preparing the DJ for music cues, and then the show began! In this photo, the couple (and family) are soaking in the ceremony vows and that breathtaking view! Does our team have a moment to breathe? Nope. We are checking on the bartender, making sure the appetizers are displayed properly, doing a final walkthrough of the next space and taking our places to direct the guests to that next space at the completion of the ceremony. None of that stress is showing in these photos and that is how it should be! The couple AND the family simply enjoying the moment!

Wow, what a gorgeous and serene moment Larissa captured in the photo above! No stress, just newlywed happiness. Meanwhile, our team is maintaining cocktail hour, moving the water station upstairs to keep everyone hydrated, and preventing guests from entering the reception space before it was photographed by the photographer. We even had a coordinator assisting the photographer with these shots (holding the bouquet and maneuvering the dress through the garden). There’s always something to do in every location at all times! And even though it was 95 degrees that day and humid, we had zero complaints and zero heat stroke casualties. That’s a win!

As the gorgeous sunset hit, the photos of the empty reception space were captured, our team invited the guests upstairs into the third and final setting at this incredible estate! Our team is on hand at all times to alleviate any seating issues and assist any guests who need help. One table ended up with an extra guest, so our team brought them a chair and place setting without any delay. Meanwhile behind the scenes we are getting the couple ready for the next event: the Grand Entrance!

We absolutely love this shot above captured by the incredible Larissa Bahr of the Lebanese Zaffe & Dabke show! There is not a worry to be seen on this couple’s faces! They are completely and euphorically present with their guests in celebration of this moment. To prep for this, our team cleared the entry space (shutting down one bar temporarily), bustled the bride’s dress, lined up the bridal party and seated the busy guests. During the grand entrance, we had one teammate at the DJ booth communicating via radio with the rest of our team near the bridal party so that the DJ & Emcee were cued perfectly in sync from across the space! After the entrance, the guests crowded around for an incredible high-energy dance party with pure happiness radiating from their smiles. Meanwhile, our team was cuing the catering service to distribute the family-style dinner plates, and preparing the toasting flutes behind the scenes, locking away the card box, and prepping the emcee for the next announcement. We are always thinking one step ahead!

The guests (and even the vendors) were in awe over this incredible acrobatic first dance performance captured above by Larissa! During this moment, our team was again prepping each vendor and participants for the next event from toasts to poem readings, to parent dances and the photo run! What is a photo run? This is where the photographer gets a photo of the couple with every table in the amount of time of one song! It is a ton of fun but do not attempt it without a professional coordination team encouraging the guests, prepping the next shot and guiding the couple through the tables. Done right, it is SO much fun, the photos turn out amazing with tons of giggles and fun, which is a great way to get the energy up for the transition into dancing. With the photo run there are no more drab group photos gathered around dirty plates and boring smiles because that version just drags on way too long!

Sometimes there is more than one special event happening in one day too! When grandma turns 89 on the same day, we squeeze in a birthday song! Our team prepped the cake, candles, lighter, brought it to her, while cuing the DJ & emcee. Afterwards, my team made sure she got a slice of her cake before boxing it back up for her to take home. In the photo you can see that EVERYONE is enjoying the moment without a worry in the world! Even grandma!

Then the dancing continued and the celebration went on and didn’t want to stop! This couple rocked that dance floor to the MAX! Meanwhile, our team tidied up the other spaces, gathered personal belongings (i.e. signage, cocktail hour decor, cake cutting sets, etc.) and put them away long before the event ended. This makes for an easier cleanup and exit at the end of the night for your family. Trust us, none of your family members want to stay after the party to help with cleanup!

The DJ begged to continue the party for a few more minutes, but we HAD to get this exit coordinated before our photography time ended and what an incredible shot it was to wrap up the night! Of course our coordination team had it prepped and ready with the bubbles to pass out and the bride & groom’s personal items packed into their getaway car with plenty of time to spare. All that was left was to direct and line up the guests, and then our couple simply had to take a breath and walk through the tunnel of guests straight into their exit vehicle! Not a worry in the world! Just pure bliss! That’s how we like it!

Hopefully this blog has given our readers a better understanding of the ins and outs of what wedding coordination truly entails. Remember, having a manager to oversee your vendor team allows each vendor to perform their best work efficiently. You can truly soak in every moment that you worked so hard to create (and to pay for). Keep in mind, this article doesn’t include all the things we assisted with at the event, and every event is different, but no matter what, we absolutely love serving our beautiful couples and feel so honored to be trusted to manage it all. Let us know if you need help managing your day! Happy planning!