If you're a wedding photographer, you've likely worked hand in hand with wedding planners and coordinators to achieve the best wedding possible for your clients. This can always be a tough relationship to navigate though... how much contact is too much? When should you contact the coordinator/planner? What do you do if you have a problem with the timeline? The ever-amazing Courtney Tibbets of After The Engagement joined us in the PhotoSpark studio to help us learn the secrets of working with a wedding planner! Not only is she a breath of fresh air (this chick DEFINITELY knows her brand & runs a seamless, amazing business!), but she's also a wealth of knowledge in all things wedding related. Tune in to hear her awesome interview, but check out the post below to hear some of Courtney's tips regarding working with a wedding planner! Key Takeaways:

1. Figure out what you can do for them. If you're interested working with a wedding planner, it's not a bad idea to get on their good side. The best way to get their attention is to contact them and offer them something! As photographers, we are lucky that we rarely have an out of pocket cost for shoots, so it's a great idea to offer your time! Ask the wedding planner you're chatting with if there's anything THEY want to do. Not only will this get their attention, it's a great way to show off your skills & make a connection! As long as everything goes smoothly, they're very likely to want to work with you again in the future!
2. Ask them what package their client booked. When working with a wedding planner, don't automatically assume that their (your) client booked them for every aspect of their wedding. Courtney suggests researching their packages & asking which one the client booked so you know what questions you should go to the planner for and what questions you should go to the client for. For example, sometimes wedding planners have a hand in selecting & communicating with other vendors and sometimes they don't. So if you need to know something about the DJ's setlist & you want to ask the wedding planner about it, it's a good idea to know if that's even something they're involved in or not.
3. Do your research! When working with a wedding planner or trying to work with a wedding planner, you should be sure to visit their website & learn a little bit about them! Courtney loves when photographers contact her & mention her name (and maybe a little something about her style or her website/blog!) and HATES when photographers send an over-generalized, likely CC'd email without actually addressing her by name.
4. Give them your images. This is an obvious one... the wedding planner spent tons of time with your couple helping them plan and carry out their dream wedding, so of course they want to see photos from the photographer. They also want to blog the wedding, so you need to give them images in a fairly timely manner so they can blog quickly. Ask your wedding planner how they prefer their images to be delivered, what size images they'd like, and how many. AND THEN GIVE THEM TO THEM. Wedding planners shouldn't have to chase you down to get the images; they're basically offering you free promotion via their blog too, so it's a win/win situation!

We hoped this episode helped you guys learn some do's and don'ts of working with a wedding planner! We know we have a lot of wedding photographer listeners, so we are thrilled to have Courtney on this week for you guys! Do you have any questions for us? Any show topic ideas?? Shoot them our way! Like us on Facebook & post them on our wall. We'd love to hear from you guys! Thanks for listening; see ya next week! Relevant Links:

• After The Engagement
• After The Engagement on Facebook
• Ashley DuChene Photography
• Chasing Daylight Photography
• Julie Ferneau Photography

^^Photo Credit: Chris Wojdak Photography   Download from iTunes Here