The North East wedding planning guideEverything we tell couples on the phone — written down.

1. The makeup-artist rule (our number one, super-duper rule)

Whatever time you need to be ready, tell your hair and makeup artist an hour before that. We promise you they will run late — their job is to make you look pretty, and once that’s done they go home, leaving the rest of the day to absorb the delay. We’ve seen a 6am makeup start dissolve into an 11am finish and a bride half an hour late to her own ceremony. Build the buffer in from the start and your morning stays calm.

And a chilled morning is the whole game: if you have a really chilled morning, you’ll have a really great day. If you panic in the morning and rush, the day drags and you’re drained by the speeches. Get music on, get ready early, and let the buffer time be “chilling with your people” time.

2. Timings that actually work

• Travel: take the real drive time and add 15 minutes minimum. Even a five-minute drive becomes twenty once you factor in saying hello and hugging everyone.
• Couple photos: 20 minutes is enough when it’s planned like a shot list — 30 if you can spare it. If your venue has boxed you into an impossible slot, say so early: it’s usually fixable by moving hair and makeup, not by rushing the photos.
• Group photos: budget 3–4 minutes per grouping. Ten groupings is half an hour of your drinks reception — keep the formal list short and catch the rest as candid clusters through the evening.
• The gap nobody plans: after the ceremony, everyone wants to hug you. Let them — we build it into the plan instead of pretending it won’t happen.

3. Group photos without the chaos

Write the list. Names, groupings, in order. We’re good — but our name’s not Harry Potter: if Auntie J. has flown in from Australia and nobody told us, she won’t be in the formal photos. With a list, a confident voice and a bit of teacher energy, the whole thing runs in minutes and nobody gets missed.

Also decide who your must-have people are. For one of our couples it was one photo above all others: the two of them with the only grandparent they had left. Tell us that, and it becomes the priority of the day.

4. The rain plan

This is the North East; plan for weather and then enjoy being wrong. A real rain plan looks like: a covered spot at your venue scoped before the day (porches, arches, doorways, staircases), a shortened outdoor plan for a dry window, and — if you’re game — embracing it. Umbrella portraits and neon-lit rain look genuinely cinematic. There’s always a way.

5. Light: the one venue decision nobody tells you about

If the sun sets behind your top table, you’ll be backlit through the speeches — silhouettes, flash, and a room that feels off in every photo and frame. Flip the table: you get the view behind you and the light on your faces. Ask us about your specific room; we’ll tell you where the light will be at your ceremony time.

6. Phones, guests and the first kiss

We don’t mind guests taking photos — it’s their day too. One exception: during the first kiss, phones away. Cameras love phones, and someone leaning into the aisle for a photo you’ll never see can sit in the middle of the one moment you can’t redo. Have your celebrant announce it; everyone’s relieved to be told.

Bonus: tell everyone that once your videographer leaves, the phones come out — you want their coverage of the late-night dance floor.

7. When the evening peaks (and when to stop filming)

The film has everything it needs about half an hour after your first dance: everyone’s in, the floor is full, the energy is real. After nine o’clock, people get merry — and honestly, you don’t want evidence. That’s why our coverage is built around the first dance, not the midnight finish, and your budget isn’t spent on footage you’d never use.

8. Feed your suppliers (yes, really)

Whoever you book — us or anyone else — feed them. A videographer who has eaten at your evening meal is sharp for the speeches and first dance; one who hasn’t is thinking about a petrol-station meal deal. It’s the cheapest performance upgrade of the entire day.

9. Booking suppliers safely (even if it's not us)

• Ask for full albums and full films, not highlight sets. Anyone can get twenty good shots from a wedding; consistency is the skill.
• Always get a contract — even with friends. Without one, people can simply not turn up, and you have nothing.
• Check the style is consistent across different weddings, venues and light — that’s how you know they’re not spraying and hoping.
• Watch response times. How a supplier communicates before the deposit is the best predictor of how they’ll treat you after it.
• Rings take longer than you think — some are made to order on 8-week turnarounds. Order early.

10. If something goes wrong on the day

Something small will. A reading gets skipped, a car is late, a bustle button pops. Here’s the mindset that saves the day: let it go. There’s nothing you can do about it in the moment — all you can do is throw yourself into the day and enjoy it. Guests remember whether you looked happy and whether they were fed on time. Nobody has ever left a wedding talking about the table decorations.