I’ve been wanting to post on this topic for a long time and the opportunity finally came up.

I had a wonderful meeting last night with a potential client at a local restaurant called Goldfish. The food was quite good (grilled salmon…hmmmm) and I had a great time getting to know them. I’m gonna shoot their wedding. I just know it. I can feel it in my bones.

Aside: I’m tragically un-hip. I don’t watch tv. I don’t own a tivo. But I did buy my wife an iPod, so that counts for something I guess. Anyway, if you ask me anything that begins with “Have you seen that new show…”, chances are we can cut to the chase because the answer is no. But when a restaurant has a one hour seating wait and is jam packed on a Wednesday night with loads of people that are clearly more hip than me, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know it’s hip.

Well, we got on the topic of the value (or not) of wedding coordinators and planners. Having been at all kinds of weddings, I can say this: except in one case, the weddings where the bride and groom have hired a coordinator have gone smoother, had less mishaps and been less stress on the bride and groom. One of my past grooms that I did a video interview for an upcoming project with, put it this way: “The stress of the groom is directly related to the stress of the bride. When you hire a wedding coordinator, the bride is not stressed. When the bride is not stressed, the groom is not stressed. And I like that.”

I’m going to pick on Susan Graham of Bella Sera Weddings and Events. If you’re following my blog, I’ve mentioned her before and I’ve had a chance to work with her a few times. And before you ask, I don’t get any kickbacks/referral fees from other vendors and I don’t give them out. I know that some people operate that way, but I don’t think it’s ethical or in the best interest of the bride and groom when money is flowing behind the scenes. But when I come across a great videographer like Ben Morgan and his team at Sanctified Crack Gorilla or amazing caterers like Lisa Hill and all the folks at Bold American Catering I like to plug them.

This is what a wedding planner/coordinator will do for you…

They walk you through the game plan, keep track of everybody and keep everybody on time and on the same page.

So while they’re working you get to really relax and enjoy your day.

When the flower girl rips the flowers out of her hair, they take care of it.

They are there to make your dad look his best for his little girl on her wedding day.

When is starts to drizzle during your wedding photos…

And how’s this for an endorsement — a bride and a former bride turned bridesmaid.

Of course, she’s going to kill me for posting that photo but I’m fairly certain she’ll get over it.

So I guess you know by now how I feel about the matter. After you’ve chosen the best photographer to shoot your wedding , if you can swing it, make it happen. You won’t regret it.

Ben