How To Hire A GOOD Wedding Day Content Creator

It’s the end of “wedding season” and that means (wait for it, wait for it) it’s HORROR STORY season.

It’s the part of the show where brides and grooms pop into Facebook groups and share the terrible experiences they’ve had with vendors they hired for their wedding days.

These stories are everywhere – and as someone who’s been in the wedding industry for 15 years, they are HEARTBREAKING stories. I hate them. It makes me so sad to hear that the memories of someone’s wedding day have been tainted. Whether it’s a photographer who showed up late and was so disorganized that they didn’t even take a photo of the bride with her parents, whether it’s a baker who delivered the wrong wedding cake, a caterer who served raw food, a DJ who mispronounced not just the bride and groom’s names, but played the wrong songs for special dances and had long awkward pauses in between events – the list goes on and on.

And since Wedding Day Content Creators are “new” on the scene in 2023 and 2024, there are horror stories coming out about them as well: creators who didn’t understand what their role on the wedding day was, creators who stepped in front of the photographer and videographer and ruined the shot of the first kiss, creators who stepped on the toes of the planner/coordinator and were rude about timelines – you get the picture.

Wedding Day Content Creation is such a new field – there are a lot of very green people popping out of the woodwork (TikTok), thinking that they can make an easy buck with their iPhone.
When in reality, they have zero real wedding day experience, zero experience creating content (outside of their own TikTok accounts), and zero experience working with a vendor team.

So, how can you sort through all of the results Google gives you when you search “Wedding Day Content Creators Near Me” and find THE GOOD ONES?

Here are FIVE questions to ask yourself when hiring a Wedding Day Content Creator:

1. Do they have REAL, on-the-job, wedding day experience?

Wedding days are completely different than anything else out there.
It’s one thing to film fun TikToks and Reels from the comfort and controlled environment of your house – it’s another thing entirely to fly by the seat of your pants on a wedding day (when things are very commonly going haywire). As much planning as goes into a wedding day, wedding days have minds of their own and while sometimes things go according to plan, many many times they don’t.

Having real wedding day experience can only be gained in one way: by working wedding days.
A person can watch all the YouTube videos they want, but until they’re actually on-the-job, in the middle of the chaos, they truly cannot understand how a wedding day works.

Hiring a Wedding Day Content Creator without tangible, measurable wedding day experience is not only a disservice to you, a disservice to your guests, and a disservice to your other vendors (they won’t understand how to work alongside them and that will cause tension, hostility, and stress).

While there are a lot of Wedding Day Content Creators stepping into the arena without any wedding day experience, there are also a lot of experienced wedding vendors who are pivoting into Content Creation. Whether it’s because their current business is slow or they are excited to take on a new challenge – wedding vendors with existing wedding day experience are amazing to hire!

Which is the perfect segway into the next question:

2. Have they created content before? Is their style consistent?

While it might seem like Wedding Day Content Creators are simply walking around with an iPhone (what an easy job!) there is much more to telling the story of a wedding day. From actually knowing how to use an iPhone to coax it to create the best quality photos and videos, from understanding how to use a gimbal and external lighting, to knowing that an iPhone’s battery will NOT last through recording for 8-10 straight hours and having accessible power banks available. (AND, never forget that your Wedding Day Content Creator will be working hand-in-hand with your photographer and videographer, so being a team-player goes right along with knowing how to capture great footage!)

Does the Wedding Day Content Creator you’re considering hiring have content that you can preview? They should have social media accounts, maybe a YouTube channel that will prove that they know how to actually create content and that they can create it consistently. This proof will set your mind at ease in who you’re hiring!

3. Do they have a solid contract?

Please, don’t book ANYONE for your wedding day that doesn’t have and use a contract. Handshake agreements are great, but not on your wedding day. Remember those horror stories I was talking about at the top of this post? So many times, when you dig into the stories, you eventually come to find out that the vendor in question did not have any sort of contract in place.

Contracts protect two parties: the vendor AND the couple. A solid, readable, clear contract is a MUST for everything that goes into your wedding day – and Wedding Day Content Creation is no exception.

If you are considering a Wedding Day Content Creator and you find out that they don’t have a contract, run for the hills. Trust me, it is just not worth it.

4. Do they have backup equipment?

It goes without saying, but your wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime, blink-of-the-eye moment in time. It goes by SO fast! AND, there are no re-dos. If a moment is missed, it’s gone.

While every wedding vendor does their best to keep their primary equipment in tip-top shape, things happen that are out of our control (that’s just life). So the question is: if something goes wrong, what happens next? Is there an immediate backup plan that kicks into place? (By the way: all of these questions should be outlined in your vendor’s contract.)

For Wedding Day Content Creators – they should have some method to continue creating content if their iPhone fails. Whether that’s a secondary iPhone, a GoPro, or another phone – a backup plan needs to be in place in case the worst happens (and the backup plan should never step into your photographer or videographer’s exclusivity clause – in other words, a mirrorless or DSLR camera should not be considered a viable backup plan).

5. Does their personality mesh with yours?

Like your photographer and videographer, you will be spending A LOT of time on your wedding day with your Wedding Day Content Creator. In fact, you’ll likely spend more time on your wedding day with your Wedding Day Content Creator (your photographer and videographer) than you will with your soon-to-be spouse. That’s just how it goes!

So, do yourself a favor and make sure that you get along! Whether you get a feel for their personality through their social media, reading their blog posts, watching their YouTube channel, or hop on the phone with them, making sure your personalities mesh sets you up for a fun, enjoyable day. (AND, if your personality meshes with ALL of your vendors – they will all mesh well together making the day fun and enjoyable for EVERYONE – which means you’ll get the best outcome possible!)

So, there you have it: five questions to ask when you’re looking to hire a GOOD, legit Wedding Day Content Creator.
Are there exceptions to these rules? Sometimes. There are certain special circumstances that can warrant an exception to some of these questions, but I’d advise you weigh those circumstances carefully and thoroughly. (And I would NEVER advise anyone to cut corners on things like backup plans and contracts.)