Hiring friends- non-professionals?

As a whole, I wouldn’t recommend it. However, with that being said, we are using one “friendor”. He’s more of an acquaintance that my FH knows from the country music dance scene in our area. He is a professional radio DJ who is giving us a friend discount for our wedding. I only agreed to it (as I was very against friends as vendors) since he is a professional, has done weddings for other friends in the past, and will sign a contract that we all agree on for the wedding. If you go the friendor route, make sure you have a detailed contract, just as you would for any other vendor, and be okay with holding them accountable to it if they don’t meet the contract expectations. If that doesn’t sound like something you’re comfortable with, I would stick to the true professionals.

Don’t risk the photography. My parents had a “family friend” be the photographer at my first wedding and I have no pictures at all because his flash didn’t work. He wasn’t a professional, he just enjoyed doing it and wanted to help my parents save money.( I guess in hindsight, I don’t need those pics because in less than a year I’m marrying the man of my dreams. Lol). But seriously, you want to have pictures to remember your special day, I definitely will not be having anyone but a professional photographer at my wedding in November.

This is your big day. You should at least have a professional photos. You could have some things be nonprofessional but I wouldn't have everything

As a working photographer I avoided working for my friends and family for events. If you want me at your wedding it’s as a guest. It’s impossible to do double duty.
What I used to do was take pictures and get them as fast as possible on Facebook, then send them a link. I would still always advise them to have

My aunt aunt did photography a d my grandpa is doing the catering

It is tempting to save money, but you will run the risk of the following. 1. You and your FH don't look great in the photos because there are shadows on your face etc. 2. Your don't have balanced coverage...meaning your friend focuses on the people they know. 3. You don't have photos of important moments because a pro knows when to run to get that photo. I could go on...but you also don't want to ask someone to be there but not enjoy themselves. I have been the friend that preformed this task and I really didn't feel like I was a part of my friend's special day, and wasn't in any of the photos either. I would have two friends D.J. so that they can enjoy the reception too.

I hired a non pro makeup artist. Shes a friend. Sister to a bridesmaid. And good at what she does. No issues here.


I've also been hired as a photographer for two or three dozen weddings. I'm not specifically a pro. But I have decent equipment, extensive training, and a college degree focused on photography. But I don't consider myself a pro, as in I don't support myself on that. Make sure you understand the product quality that you will be getting before you agree to anything.

A friend of mine hired a friend. She said it was her biggest regret. They didn't get any of the most important shots. Wedding photography is a special niche. Make sure whoever you hire has done weddings before. Ask to see their portfolio. You can always find budget photographers. I would avoid hiring friends.

Friends and family is awesome if you are on a wedding budget if they offer take the help save your money for something else like your honeymoon😊

To be honest, never try to get a deal for photography. There’s a reason people need to go to school for it or have a natural talent and your wedding day pictures will last forever and generations on, it’s important to make sure you’ll be happy with them because there’s no retakes. My friend had her friend do them
And she never looks at them because they’re so bad.

Unless your overall attitude is "this wedding is super casual and I truly don't care about the details," I'd be REALLY cautious about using friendors for any important services. Search these forums with "Friendor" and you will see countless posts about regrets (many of which involve last minute cancellations by the friend, leaving the couple scrambling days before the wedding for an officiant, photographer, DJ, etc.). If you really don't care about, say, flowers and your FH's Aunt Martha insists on doing all the flowers for you, cool. (But, you need to be okay with them looking nothing like what you envisioned, falling apart as you walk down the aisle, etc., because any of those things could happen, and you won't really have any recourse.) If that risk is okay with you, then go for it. However, if you're going to be disappointed/angry/whatever and that might ruin an important relationship for you and/or spouse, a friendor is a bad idea. Those who've had relatively positive experiences typically handled the expectations just like they would with a non-friend professional: they had a contract that outlined all expectations and they usually paid their friend a reasonable rate for the services provided. Are you okay with not getting any photos or receiving photos that are really bad quality? Both have happened to brides on this forum who went with a friendor. (Two recent examples I remember involved the B's uncle, who just NEVER gave her any photos, and another was the B's sister, who 6 months later still hadn't handed over a single photo and kept promising "to get to it!" and it got to the point where the two sisters were no longer talking because the bride was upset and the "photographer" felt like she was being nagged....) Really think through your options and the potential consequences. Good luck!

We are hiring professionals for photography, catering, cake, all the big things. Hair/Make up are done by friends, our officiant is a good friend. We are just going to do a playlist and I have a fellow toastmaster who is going to MC for for us, we don't want a bunch of the usual hits at our wedding and have a very diverse spotify library. Catering is eating most of our budget so we are trying to save and not have to deal with a band or a dj.

I know people who hire friends/family. Just because they are related does not mean that they are not professional ? I would first determine what the relative/ friend can do and their ability to obtain what they need before writing them off completely. Why give away lots of money to a stranger if you can support someone close to you who is building a brand?

We are having our really good friend become ordained for us. Her sister in law is ordained and is walking her through the process and helping us write the ceremony.

While some non-professionals can still produce amazing results, consider what elements are really important to you on the big day: maybe you'd be crushed if your pictures didn't turn out, but don't care as much about cake and flowers? Then hire the pro photographer and have your kitchen-wiz cousin bake up a cake!

One thing I would REALLY stress to your FH when considering hiring friends - does he want them to be guests at the wedding or is he planning to treat them like a hired professional? Are you going to find your "photographer" taking shots at the bar with the groomsmen and being "just one of the guys"? If there may be a struggle making a distinction between vendor and friend, avoid the stress and hire the pro so you can have him come as a guest and enjoy the wedding too.

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All in all I think it depends on your friends, yourself and what your willing to risk. I have used friends for tones of stuff that have come out great. We used friends for my moms wedding and that was fanastic. But the dynamics of relationships and people are so different. Some good things to consider is:

1) How much time will the activity take? (if its going to be something that keeps them away from the ceremony/reception is it ok with you for them to miss it.)

2) What is your friends attitude when it comes to working with friends/ giving freebies? (I have some friends who I wouldnt work with for a wedding because as much as I love them they are unreliable if no contract is in place. I also have some friends who are so invested in ensuring that the day is perfect that they will go above and beyond... and I trust them to even make decisions for me if I am unavailable)

3) What is your attitude? (Are you more a chill person who recognizes that things may not go 100% as planned or are you more on the bridezilla side? For me, I am chill with certain aspects and not others. So I will use friends for the areas that I am most lenient and then other areas I am going with a professional.)

4) What's your Friends Skill level? (this I think kinda mixes in with 3. If you have a friend is new/ has never done whatever you're asking them to do, please let it be an area where your good with compromises.)

Another point to notes is like any events in general things go VERY wrong at weddings. Things get forgotten, missplaced and lost (even when dealing with professionals). So if you are using friends, use ones that you trust their judgement on things and be willing not to throw a hissy fit if they have to improvise and things get changed.

For example I had a friend use a professional to bake her cake, but apparently the supports for the cake weren't in properly. So when the cake was delivered, It had huge crack lines up and down it... the bottom layer was really unstable, there were also HUGE cracks across the top two layers. So you can imagine driving all over town looking for places open on a holiday to try and get flowers etc. In the end we improvised by literally tying the bottom layer together and icing over the fabric. We improved a flower arrangement on top of the cake (which was supposed to be empty) to hide the spider cracks. Her naked cake, turned out to be semi- naked... It photographed well because we did get all the craters hidden and managed to arrange the flowers nicely. But it was not the cake she had envisioned. Plus they had precise instructions to cut only from the top two layers

So my point was if you use professionals are not things can go wrong on the day. Evaluate how much risk your willing to take on. Use professionals for the high risk areas (or people you really trust). At the end of the day the important thing is that you guys are married and you can still have the best celebration ever!