194: Pt3 - Love Hires & the Ripple Effect: The Practical Guide To Getting It Right

You know how it goes in wedding planning. Someone tells you emphatically, you have to do this, or whatever you do, do not do that. And some part of you thinks, noted but we’ll do what’s right for us.

This is one of those episodes.

Parts 1 and 2 of this series gave you the honest picture of love hires from the people who see them play out from first light to last song. And this episode, Part 3, is the practical part. 8 wedding vendor roles, what can go wrong when they are filled by someone without experience, who to consider booking instead at different price points, and if you are still going ahead with a love hire anyway, the specific steps to take before the day.

You’ll learn

• Why the timeline your MC has been given is a guide, not a command, and what they actually need to do before making a single announcement.
• The one DIY makeup product that can ruin your photos without anyone realising until it is too late.
• What a co-pilot ceremony is in Australia and why it’s the only legal path forward in Australia if your person is not an authorised celebrant, plus
• Why the DJ is one of the highest-risk love hire roles, and what to do if budget means a professional is not possible.

Resources Mentioned:

Wilson and Lewis Photography: www.wilsonandlewisphotography.com

Luke John Photography: www.lukejohnphotography.com

Married by Jay (Jay Bingle-Brown, celebrant, QLD): www.marriedbyjay.com.au

Mobile Make Overs Australia (Tallora Dee): www.makeoversaust.com.au

Tallora's DIY wedding makeup blog: www.makeoversaust.com.au/tips-for-brides/makeup-products-needed-for-diy-wedding-makeup

Amuse Event Lighting and Audio Visual (Sam Balfour): www.amuselav.com.au

Send Unbridely a 90-second audio message on Speakpipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/unbridelypodcast

*The Unbridely Podcast is sponsored by its listeners. When you purchase products or services through links on our website or via the podcast, we may earn an affiliate commission.*

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This episode of the Unbridely Modern Wedding Planning Podcast is brought to you by Never Miss Moments Unbridely's recommended wedding guest photo and video-sharing tool. With your unique QR code, your family and friends can quickly, easily and securely share their snaps with you in your personalised online gallery.

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Unbridely acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we record this podcast on, the Kaurna People. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Transcript

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You know how it goes in wedding planning. Someone tells you emphatically, you absolutely have to do this, or whatever you do, do not do that. And you smile and nod and you think to yourself, thanks. But we'll do whatever's right for us. I get it. And I definitely felt the same way. But also, you don't know what you don't know. Which is why I really wanted to make sure that this topic of love hires was something that I took some time with and, you know, rounded up all the info rather than just clickbait and scare tactics. And I wanted to present it to you in a helpful way. But also, if you decide that a love hire is the way you want to go, whether that's because of a personal connection, a friend or family member's insistence that they help you, or because of budget reasons, I want to make sure that you know what you're getting yourself into. It's better to be prepared than getting a nasty surprise on the day, right? Over the past two weeks, Teresa and Tony from Wilson and Lewis Photography have shared some things that the wedding industry usually keeps behind closed doors about what a love hire really costs, what it looks like when things go sideways, and what it feels like to be the vendor who quietly steps in and holds it all together. Today, this is part three, the practical episode. Clear, useful information to help you make the best decision for your wedding, whatever that looks like for you. I'm going to go through the roles most likely to create a ripple effect when they are not in the hands of an experienced wedding vendor. And for each one, I'll give you two things. What to consider booking instead at different price points. And if you have heard everything across this series and you're still planning on going ahead with a love hire, the specific steps you can take before the day to reduce the risk of things falling apart. I also put the question to vendors in the Umbrally Suppliers community, and a few of them came back with tips so good that I've woven them directly into the episode. So you'll hear from Luke John photography. So Luke is a South Australian wedding photographer, Jay Bingle Brown, who's a Queensland celebrant, Talora D from Mobile Makeovers Australia, and Sam Balfer from Amuse Lighting. And all their details are in the show notes. Love hires are not automatically a disaster, though. They can and do work, and weddings are expensive. You're trying to make the best decision you can with the money and info you have. And I respect that completely. This series exists because Teresa, Tony, and I believe that you deserve to make this decision with the full picture in front of you and not just the filtered version that you might be shown. So if you're listening to this and you've already locked in a love hire, this episode is absolutely still for you. Probably even more so. Let's get stuck into it. Unbridly is a community of pro-wedding vendors who believe in freedom and integrity in weddings, giving you options, solutions, tips, and tricks to create the experience and memories that you and your fiance really want and deserve. Because we believe that weddings are a team sport with how-tos, stories and interviews with recently married couples. We find out what went right and what they'd change if they could go back and do it all over again. I'm Camille and welcome to the Unbridly Podcast. Now, the very first thing I want you to do before anything else on this list is to reset your expectations around what's possible. A love hire is not usually a professional, and so the result will not match what it's like when you book or hire someone who does this every single weekend. This is not a criticism of your chosen person, it's just the reality. And going in with realistic expectations is the single biggest thing you can do to protect your wedding day and the relationship you have with your love hire person, right? So I'm going to go through eight roles today. The MC, the on the day coordinator, the photographer or videographer, the DJ, the caterer, the florist, heron makeup, and the celebrant. Now, of course, these are not the only roles where a love hire can create ripple effects, but they are the ones that consistently come up across the industry, including lots of what Teresa and Tony shared about their experiences in parts one and two of this series. So let's start with the MC love hire. I want to talk about what can go wrong. The MC role looks really simple from the outside. You stand up, you get the mic, you say some things, and you sit down. But as Teresa and Tony described, in the absence of a full service planner or an on-the-day coordinator, an MC is essentially the on-the-day coordinator of the reception. They're briefing the DJ, they're introducing the people saying speeches, they're controlling the microphone, they're reading the room, and they're keeping the energy up between every single moment of the reception. Jay Bingle Brown, a Queensland celebrant who also works as an MC, has seen this play out and he put it very clearly. The MC is not just announcing elements. They're communicating with suppliers, the kitchen. They're giving the photo and video team time to move and to set up between certain moments, sometimes traditions, sometimes dances. When that does not happen, everyone has to scramble to fill the gap. So when a love hire MC doesn't know to check in with the kitchen, food can sit under the heat lamps for an extended amount of time and it can come out dry and past its best. When they don't cue the DJ, there could be dead air. When they don't manage the microphone handover, speeches can become chaotic and your videographer can't capture them properly. And the moment the beers kick in, you know, let's face it, as a love hire MC, you want to have a couple and the focus slips. Everyone else on your vendor team has to absorb that job on top of their own. So what to consider instead? A professional MC is the obvious answer. And if it's in your budget, they are worth every cent. But if they're not, there are two options that I believe are much better than a love hire. Firstly, many celebrants, DJs, and also musicians work in an MC role in addition to what they do. So if you feel comfortable with your celebrant and you have a connection with them, or you love the energy of your DJ, or the musician you've hired for pre-dinner drinks has been especially helpful and you'd really love to keep them on for the rest of the night, ask specifically whether they can act as an MC as part of their service, what that looks like in practice, and whether or not they will liaise with your kitchen and the other vendors on the night. You know, they have to be aware of that sort of stuff. A celebrant or DJ or musician who MCs well is a genuinely excellent option. And you're not paying for two separate people, which can sometimes save you money. The second option, if you have a friend or family member who is naturally outgoing, good under pressure, willing to take direction, uh, has had a conversation with your vendors and the lead up, and ideally has done something like this before, they can be a strong choice. But only if they're prepared to do the work before the night and not just show up and wing it. Attending things like your final venue meeting, it might be helpful and perhaps the final walkthrough with you. It's not just a practical way to get their head in the game, it's also a really good sign to you that they're taking their responsibility seriously. And one last thing that's worth saying very clearly a venue coordinator is not your MC. Their job is to manage the hospitality side of the venue, the bar staff, the kitchen, the wait staff. Pulling them into an MC role takes them away from what they're actually there to do. And I don't think you could even beg them to do it. And most venues would not expect them to do it either. However, if you're going ahead with a love hire MC, as I said, reset those expectations first, then sit down with them and walk through everything that the role involves. If they're surprised and scared by the scope of it, then that's very important information for you too. They might not be the right person. Decide whether they are writing the script or whether you're writing the script. Give them the timeline, not dot points, like you need the full timeline. Your DJ or venue may have a template that they can work from. And if not, you're building one together. You're going to brief them with your DJ and your venue contact together, if at all possible, because everyone needs to know who to talk to and be on the same page about how the night will run. The DJ has to know what your MC looks like and vice versa. And your venue person, your venue contact needs to know as well. Do a venue walkthrough with them before the day so they know the physical space, you know, where the lectern is or the spot where the speeches should be, where the kitchen is, how the PA system works, the microphone, you know, all those things. Set them a cutoff date or milestone for when their script needs to be finalized. So, you know, the words they're going to say, the things they have to do against a timeline at least three or four weeks out, not the night before. And this is a tip from Luke John, the South Australian wedding photographer, that I want every Love Higher MC to hear. The timeline is a guide. It's not a fate complet. Just because it says speeches are at eight o'clock, for example, doesn't mean that you call speeches at eight o'clock. It's really hard to explain this. Um, but receptions are very, very fluid. So the MC needs to check in with every relevant vendor and with every person giving a speech before making any announcement at all. So in the case of the speeches being at 8 o'clock on the timeline, I, as a celebrant who also MCs, would be starting to check in with the kitchen, locate the vendors and speech givers at about quarter to eight and asking them all if they are ready to start the speeches at 8 p.m. And once I've got everyone rounded up, then I would be letting the couple know that speeches will be starting at eight o'clock. You know, do you need to go to the bathroom, have something to eat, do all those things, you know, managing them and their expectations as well. Because the timeline you were given last month, I was going to say might not apply on the night. I can guarantee it will not apply on the night. It is a guide. And this is for you, couple. Tell your other experienced vendors who your love hire MC is and that they are not a professional. So when your DJ and your photographer know this ahead of time, they may be able to better support them without undermining them or assuming that they know what they're doing until it's too late. Okay, on the day coordinator. What can go wrong? Without someone holding the timeline, it can unravel pretty quickly. It's going to unravel anyway, but at least someone is, you know, holding on to it. Your vendors can arrive with no one to direct them. The couple can get pulled into logistics on their own wedding day. When every vendor operates in isolation, it means there's no one there connecting the dots or passing the baton. You know, the relay race that Tony described in part two, it stops being a relay race and starts being everyone running their own separate race. Teresa also pointed out about venue coordinators. Their role is to manage the hospitality side of the venue. They're not there to coordinate your vendors, manage your timeline, or troubleshoot the gaps. Some do, some do, and they're amazing. And that overlap is wonderful when it happens. But you cannot rely on it, especially if you've never worked with that venue before. So what to consider instead? You may not necessarily need a full service wedding planner, but many coordinators offer on the day, or more accurately, month of packages that are specifically designed for couples who have planned everything themselves and just need someone experienced to execute it and be the point of contact during the final stages and on the day itself. This is often one of the most underrated but seriously helpful vendor services in the whole industry. They take the people wrangling and logistics completely off your plate on the actual day, which means you get to be the guest of honor at your own wedding, which I'm pretty sure you wanted to be. And before assuming that you can't afford it, get a couple of quotes. I think you might be surprised at how affordable they are. If you're going ahead with a love hire coordinator, build a single master document. Every vendor contact, every timeline, every responsibility, every contingency. Share it with every vendor on your list so that if your love hire coordinator drops a ball, the people around them already have that information, they can quickly catch it. Set milestone check-ins. So the weeks before the wedding, like when the RSVPs are in, when the run sheet is finalized, when vendor confirmations are sent, and when the final venue walkthrough happens. They need to be with you for that and you need to be passing on that information. Also, accept that you'll be putting in a lot more time than you expect. Overseeing a love hire coordinator is in itself a coordination job. It's a little bit of inception there. So budget your time and patient for those extra conversations because you need to get everything out of your head and hand it over properly. Now, the photographer or videographer love hire. What can go wrong? Oh, mate. Here's the hardest part. Missed moments are missed moments. Do you get what I'm saying here? Once something has passed, I I know people people have tried to recreate it. Hey, do that kiss again. Hey, give me that look again. Hey, walk around the corner again. But they can't. They can't be recreated. A first look, once it's done, is is done. If you want to recreate it, it's a second look. So the expression on a parent's face during someone's speech, you know, that's that's once. That's once. The chaos and the joy of the dance floor when it's absolutely going off. An inexperienced photographer or videographer might not know, I dare say they won't know what or when to anticipate, how to work in low light, mottled light, bright overhead sunlight, which lens to reach for, or how to manage a group shot efficiently without eating into pre-dinner drinks timeline. And if they don't have backup equipment, a backup person, or if something fails, there's no safety net. Luke John, again, my South Australian wedding photographer friend, shared something that echoes exactly what Teresa and Tony were saying. He heard a planner say once, you, the couple getting married, probably won't see the impact that your love hire has, but your vendors will, because the gap always gets filled by someone else. The gallery or film that you receive, your photo or video, is something you will have for the rest of your life. And it is a memory of your wedding day that genuinely cannot be a do-over. Although I've, you know, heard of photo shoots done after the day for different reasons, but I've always wondered whether it feels the same, because I suspect it would feel like a cheap consolation price for the real thing. So what to consider instead? There is an important distinction between a love hire photographer and an emerging professional. Someone who has trained, is actively building their portfolio and is shooting weddings at a lower rate. You know, they don't cost as much because they're new to the industry, is very, very different to asking your cousin who has a nice camera. Emerging photographers and videographers can be genuinely brilliant. Have a look at their portfolio. Have a look at it with a critical eye. See, see if you can do it. See if you can go, okay, I'm not a couple getting married. I am just someone who's here to observe. Are the moments captured or are they post shots? Can you see evidence of a full day gallery and not just the highlights? Ask about their backup equipment and whether they have second shot or assisted on weddings before going out on their own and shooting solo. And if you're going to go ahead with a love hire photographer or videographer, at the very least, give them a written shot list. Go through it with them together so they understand not just what's on it, but why each shot matters to you. And be transparent with your other vendors because when a celebrant, I certainly know myself, um, a DJ, maybe not so much, maybe an MC, knows the person behind the camera is learning, they can offer small cues, a bit of guidance without making it obvious. Ask them to spend time at the venue before the day so they can understand the light, the layout, um, assess locations for portraits at the same time of day that you're actually going to be having portraits. And plus look at indoor options. You know, if the weather is not playing ball, it's really great for them to not be stressed out finding somewhere that looks okay. You know, get them to do that before the day. Do you know what one of the biggest regrets of newly married couples is? They'll say, I wish I had more memories from my wedding day. It was my favorite day. And one of the smartest ways I've seen couples do this is by making sure that they arrange a quick, foolproof and really simple way to collect and share their guests' wedding photos. Because if you think about it with an average wedding of, say, a hundred guests, with every one of them taking five photos or videos. I mean, they'll take much more, of course, but I'm talking about the good ones. That's an opportunity for you to collect and download 500 extra photos and videos of their perspective on your wedding day. The stuff that happened that you didn't even get to see. But your barriers are overly complicated instructions or processes. Let's face it, if it takes too long, forces your guests into registering, if you've got to use a certain social media platform, or it's just a pain in the arse. And I'm looking at you, Dropbox and Google Drive. Your family and friends just won't do it. And the tech fear and privacy concerns too, because no one wants to download yet another app that has a data breach. Never miss moments is an essential resource for busy soon-to-beweds just like you. Your unlimited photo and video gallery is held in a secure server for 12 months, and for your guests, it's a one-click QR code solution. There's no app to download, no need to register, and it's quick. Win-win. Your guests will be able to look back on and reminisce about your wedding, and your fam and friends' different perspectives of your wedding day is such an incredible lifelong gift for you too. The team at Never Miss Moments are obsessed with giving you the very best customer service. And I'm stoked to be able to pass on their special 10% off discount offer on their galleries when you go to never missmoments.com forward slash unbridly. So that's never missmoments, all one word, dot com forward slash unbridly, which in case you don't already know, U N B R I D E L Y. The discount will show up in your cart automatically. And of course, I'll pop the link in the show notes for you as well. Mr. DJ. What can go wrong? An experienced wedding DJ does a lot more than just pressing play. They are reading the room in real time, they're building energy across the night, they are managing the handover between the ceremony and reception music, liaising with the MC on the timing and running sound for speeches. So when a love hire DJ loses the room, the dance floor empties, and I've got to tell you, it rarely comes back. When they can't Mix smoothly. There is either an absolute cacophony of sound, like a wall of sound, or dead air, and both kill momentum. When their equipment fails and they have no backup, that's your dance floor. That's it. It's stopped cold. A curated playlist on a speaker is not a DJ. It can't read the room. It can't extend a track because the dance floor is on fire. And someone's going to run over there and fade out a song because the MC needs to make an announcement. And a Love Hire is really bringing the technical elements as well. So they're, you know, they're not bringing a lighting rig. They're not bringing a DJ booth. They're not bringing, you know, a mixing desk, the professional speakers. And Sam Balfer from Amuse Lighting has a line that sums up this DIY approach to technical wedding roles. I think it's I think it's quite good. So imagine this. Most older people in emergency, so in emergency wards and you know, waiting to be seen, are there because of a ladder. So in other words, it seemed manageable right up until it wasn't. You know, everything's, I can do it. I can do it myself. This is easy. So what to consider instead? If the budget is the constraint, so you could look for a DJ who also MCs, as I said, negotiate that combined package. You may get better value than paying for two separate vendors. And the cohesion between the MC and the music is then a given. A musician, such as a live band, solo artist, a duo, they can sometimes also cover part of the reception. Many offer packages that blend that live performance aspect with the DJ sets. But if you're determined to go ahead with a Love Hire DJ, please do it with your eyes wide open. This is one of the higher risk Love Hire roles. So yeah, what can I say? Lock in the playlist and the do not playlist well in advance. Go through the run sheet of the night together, not just the song list. You know, they need to know what's happening in and around the music so they can account for that. And confirm that equipment. What are they bringing? Do they have backups? How long will their setup take? They need to know this because you don't want them rushing around bringing things in, putting up speakers, sound checking as your guests are coming in. Make sure they understand their role includes reading the room and liaising with the MC and the kitchen, usually, not just playing what is on the list in isolation. The caterer. What can go wrong? Just your mind boggles, right? Catering a wedding, I'm sure you know. I'm gonna say this anyway. Catering a wedding is not the same as cooking a great dinner party. Even if someone is like an excellent home cook, food safety is a real and serious risk when you've got the preparation, the storage, the temperature control. If someone doesn't understand that at a professional level, also, you know, on bulk, it's a big problem. Beyond safety, the timing of service needs to be coordinated with the MC, maybe the on-the-day coordinator, maybe the DJ, the speeches, and the run of the reception. Food that's not served when food needs to be served at the right moment or that comes out slowly because the kitchen was overwhelmed becomes a memory that your guests absolutely remember. And hungry guests are not happy guests. If you think of yourself when you're hangry, you know exactly what I mean. Dietary requirements is another thing that people often don't think about. When they're mishandled, it can range from, you know, disappointing to someone to medically significant. And if something goes wrong on the night, there's no professional team to be able to troubleshoot that as well. So what to consider instead? And I think these are really good options. So food trucks, they've made flexible, lower cost catering accessible for weddings of many, many sizes. So a lot of them offer wedding packages that include service staff, and they can work with a managed or a dry hire venue to make sure the timing is good. Catering companies that specialize in elopements, micro weddings, they can often offer scaled packages that work at a lower price point than a full reception, plated dinner catering package. And then you've got grazing tables, dessert bars, pre-packaged food stations that can reduce that complexity of service without reducing the experience and great food for your guests and just getting it in their faces, you know? If you're going ahead with a love hire caterer, a food safety course, it shouldn't be optional. Yeah, it's really important. This is people's health we're talking about now. It's the baseline. If your person is preparing and serving food for your guests, they need to understand food handling, storage temperatures, allergen management at a minimum. And they need to have plans in place. You need to build your timeline around the food service, not the other way around. So work out when food needs to be ready and build the MC and speech schedule to match that. You want to have a written plan for every dietary requirement. So who's responsible for tracking it? Who's responsible for plating it? How will it be communicated to the person serving it and the person who gets it at the end? And be realistic about scale and complexity of catering. There is a huge difference between catering for 20 people and catering for 80 that goes a long way beyond just cost and ingredients. You can't times, you know, the catering for 20 people by four to get 80. It doesn't work like that. And so be realistic. The florist, what can go wrong? Well, from personal experience, a lot. So you could have a bouquet that falls apart mid-ceremony, or like mine, one that will die in the fridge the night before. You can have arrangements that will wilt before the reception. You know, you walk in and everything looks dead. You can have flowers that don't hold up across a full day in summer heat or strong winds, you know, they're like projectiles if they're not actually secured properly. Or a brief that the couple give to their love fire florist. It can be discussed, but not fully understood. And that results in an aesthetic, a colour, and sometimes a price list that doesn't match what the couple had in mind. Because floristry has a lot of moving parts and timing considerations, a lot of preparation that's not visible until something goes badly wrong. So, what to consider instead? A lot of florists offer scaled packages for elopements and micro weddings now. So that is helpful. They are significantly more affordable than full reception packages that might be worth it for you. And sometimes you can do like a hybrid solution. So a professional stylist or florist with wholesale flowers and maybe bud vases. That could be a middle ground for you. You know, the stylist or florist guides the design, the execution, the wholesale sourcing, and the spaced out short vases, keeps the costs lower because there are less flowers there. That might be good. But if you're going ahead with a love hire florist, I wish you luck. Um, keep the brief simple, keep it achievable, keep it seasonal, honest conversations up front about what is within someone's skill set and also the amount of time they've got will save a lot of stress on the day. Do a trial arrangement well before the wedding, several weeks out, so there's time to adjust, and check conditioning and care. So flowers need to be properly conditioned, stored correctly, handled in a way that accounts for temperature and the duration of the day. You know, flowers that start off really great in the morning, and then literally, you know, they wilt by the end of the afternoon. And if possible, I didn't, but I was super lucky. Have a professional florist on standby, even if it's just a contact who could help with emergency repairs if needed. Another shout out to the Sterling florist who reworked my DIY bouquets. What'd I have? Three. I had one for me and one each for my two little flower girls. And they're all pretty much dead. So they ripped them apart, salvaged what wasn't dead, put them together with their flowers, secured them, put the ribbon around the handle. And um, yeah, because of my now husband and the sterling florist in the Adelaide Hills, I ended up with bouquets. It shouldn't have happened like that. Plan ahead. That's all I can say. So hair and makeup. What can go wrong? The morning of a wedding has a timeline that affects everything else that comes after it. So Teresa and Tony, I think they called it the domino effect. It is the ripple effect. So when hair and makeup runs over the allocated time on your timeline, it compresses your ceremony preparation, the photography, and sometimes travel to the ceremony location itself, which can mean the ceremony starts late. And then the rest of the day keeps knocking on to the next part of the day. An inexperienced person may not know how to work efficiently with multiple people in a schedule, how to build in a buffer, or how to manage the energy of a room that's getting increasingly tense as the time gets closer to game time. A makeup look that doesn't hold, doesn't stay, doesn't look great across a full day and evening is also a real consideration. The photos, you know, it's it's something you want to look back on for a long time to come. So your skin preparation, the product choices, application technique that a professional brings are what will make your look last from getting ready until the last starts. So what to consider instead? You might be able to find some newer artists, makeup artists, hairstylists who have completed professional training but just haven't been in the industry for very long. They will be charging less, like the photographer and videographer, because they're building their portfolio and not necessarily because their skills are lacking. So look at before and after photos across a range of skin tones and ages, not just the highlights, not just the best examples. Ask about their experience working within a time schedule alongside other artists, you know, whether it's a makeup artist and a hairstylist, you know, or a couple of makeup artists. Like the pressure and the timing of a wedding day is quite unlike other work environments as far as doing hair and makeup goes. Established artists can sometimes offer off-peak or midweek rates that bring them into a more accessible price range. That might be worth asking. You never know. And if you're going ahead with a love hire for hair and makeup, uh, Talora D from Mobile Makeovers Australia has a very specific tip that only a professional would know to share. And that is if you are doing your own makeup, use a pan, chromatic, or photo-specific foundation that doesn't have SPF, some protection factor. This matters a lot more than most people realize. So SPF in foundation can cause what's called flashback in photos, which means that faces, they they glow white in flash photography. Most retail foundations, you know, the foundations we're wearing every day are not designed for photography. So a professional grade high pigment foundation that is matched correctly to your skin, of course, will last all day and reflect beautifully in images. Talora has a full blog on this topic, and I've linked it in the show notes as well. And she includes some recommendations for specific brands. So have a look at that. Also, do a full trial, not a quick run-through, like a proper trial of the complete look on a day when you have nothing else on. So you can see how it holds over several hours and time how long the trial takes. If they can't complete your look within the window of time that you've allocated for your wedding day, they will definitely not be able to do it on the day itself with additional people, more pressure, you know, the nerves, etc. Build a run sheet for the morning that includes who's going first, how long each person takes, and when each stage needs to be complete. And share it with your love hire, whether it's hairstylists, makeup artists, well in advance, not on the morning off. And one final tip the bride or the person who's getting married, whoever you know is our guest of honor, should never be the last person on the list. Because this means that it's the ripple effect. Everything compresses to this final person, and that can lead to compromises being made that don't last the entire night, or a look that was not what was agreed, just to be able to finish as soon as possible. And the last one: the celebrant or efficient, what can go wrong? The ceremony is the reason everyone is there, surely, apart from the drinks. It's the moment the whole day is built around. An unprepared person at the front of your ceremony can lose your guests, the crowd, they can fumble, they can ruin pacing, they can fail to hold the emotional weight of the moment, or not know how to manage nerves, either their own nerves or your nerves, the couple getting Mary's nerves, in a way that keeps the atmosphere where it needs to be. And in Australia, the legal reality is this a ceremony conducted by someone who's not an authorised marriage celebrant is not a legal marriage. So if your person is not a Commonwealth registered marriage celebrant, a Commonwealth registered religious marriage celebrant, a minister of religion from a recognized denomination, or a state and territory officer, the ceremony is a beautiful gesture, no doubt, but you will not be legally married at the end of it. So what can you consider instead? In Australia, the copilot ceremony is an option worth knowing about that might be able to give you the best of both worlds. So here's how it works: your loved one, your love hire, prepares, runs, and speaks throughout the entire ceremony. They deliver the introduction, they hold space, they tell your story, they guide your guests. The authorized celebrant is present and steps in only for the legal sentences, the legal vows, and the signing of the paperwork. So from your guest perspective, your love hire leads, and legally everything is done correctly. Jay Bingle Brown, a Queensland celebrant, is one of the professionals in our supplier community who offers this service as well. So if you're in Queensland or want to understand more about how the co-pilot format works, his details are in the show notes. And this is a real option. If you want someone specific up there who is not authorized, find an authorized celebrant, explain what you're looking for, and ask if they offer co-pilot ceremonies. Now, here in Australia, the co-pilot ceremony is not just advisable or recommended. It is the only legal path forward if your person is not authorized. There is no work around here. So connect your loved one with the authorized celebrant early in the planning process, not close to the date. They need to align on the script, make sure the legal requirements are understood, executed, etc. etc. Your loved one should write their script and have it reviewed well in advance, and a rehearsal or at least a video call should be recommended. Your ceremony, in my opinion, at least, it's not the right time to wing anything. Wow, that was a lot. That was a lot. So the one thing that helps every love hire, regardless of the role across all of this, is communication. Not with your love hire alone, but with every professional vendor on your team. So when your photographer, your DJ, venue contact, celebrant, whoever, when they all know that a key role is being filled by someone who's not a professional, they can support them without undermining. They can offer a cue here, absorb a small gap there, and flag something before it becomes a problem. But when they find out on the day, it's just too late to prepare. So tell them, not apologetically, just as part of the briefing. This is who is doing what. Here's their contact. Here is what they know and what they might need help with. Yeah. Your professional vendors will appreciate it. And I bet your wedding day will run a lot better for it. So that's the end of the Love Hire series. I hope it's been helpful for you. A huge thank you to Theresa and Tony from Wilson and Lewis Photography for being brave enough to start this conversation. If you're planning a wedding in South Australia or elsewhere in Australia, they might be coaxed into state. And you want two of the most experienced photographer and videographers and unapologetic cheerleaders at your wedding, you'll find them at Wilson and Lewisphotography.com or on Instagram and Facebook as Wilson and Lewis. Thank you also to Luke John, Jay Bingook Brown, to Laura D. and Sam Baufer for contributing to the episode. Links to all of them are in the show notes. And if you've been listening to this series and you still have questions, you know where I am. Until next time, celebrate your people. That about wraps it up for this episode of the Umbradly Podcast. For the links and resources we mentioned, please head to the show notes. And if you love the show, please review and subscribe on the podcast platform you're on now so you don't miss out on a single episode. Thanks so much for listening. And remember, weddings are a team sport. Catch you soon.