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How to Deal with Paparazzi Guests on a Wedding Day

If you’ve ever struggled with paparazzi wedding guests as a wedding photographer, or are afraid that one day you will, this video is for you. After shooting almost 150 weddings, we’ve seen it ALL when it comes to guests and their phones and cameras. And today we’re sharing exactly how we deal with these folks during the ceremony, during family photos, and throughout the wedding day!

 

 

Dealing with Paparazzi Guests During a Wedding Ceremony

So, to all the photographers out there, raise your hand if you’ve ever experienced this: You’ve been photographing a wedding ceremony for about 20 minutes now. The officiant has just declared that the couple is now married, and you can feel that the kiss that culminates and seals the entire wedding ceremony is coming any second now. You’re in the center aisle, your settings are set, you’ve lined up your shot… And then someone in the fifth row leans out 3 feet into the aisle with their iPad so they can get a picture of the kiss!

 

Of course, an experience photographer knows how to adjust and move their feet so that they can still get the shot. But if this has never happened to you, or if it catches you off guard, you can risk missing some really important moments this way. And since the ceremony is the one part of the day that you do not get a second chance at, you NEED to know how to operate around these moments. And honestly, the best way to do that is to prevent them from happening in the first place!

 

 

While you can never really control all the guests in the wedding ceremony, there ARE things that you can do to minimize the number of paparazzi guests. For starters, we recommend to our couples well ahead of the wedding day that they consider an “unplugged” ceremony. Assuming they agree, we then remind the officiant before the wedding starts that they need to announce to everyone not just to silence their phones and cameras, but to put them away entirely, allowing the professional photographers to do their jobs, and allowing the guests to be fully present during the ceremony.

 

In addition to that, as Hunter and I are standing around and waiting for the ceremony to start, we keep an eye out for people who we think might be problem guests. They’re easy to spot, because they always sit right on the center aisle, with their camera or their phone ready in their laps, eagerly looking around and preparing to set up ALLLLL the photos they’re going to take during the ceremony. When we see someone who fits this description, we’ll walk up to them and very politely let them know that the couple has asked their officiant to announce that there will be no phones or cameras allowed during the ceremony. Now, if the couple didn’t actually ask for this, then we’ll just ask them to try to take photos from their chest, rather than leaning out into the aisle, or holding your phones or cameras above their heads.

 

95% of the time, these people are so freaked out by the fact that the professional photographers are talking to them, that they put the camera away and don’t ask any questions. And for those who are still bold enough to try to take photos, they at least know that they need to do it discreetly and stay out of our way. The other 5% of the time… well… do your best 😂

 

 

Dealing with “Uncle Bob” During Family/Group Photos

So other than during the ceremony itself, the other time when we most often interact with paparazzi guests is during group photos. And by the way this happens at weddings during family and wedding party photos, but also can happen to you if you’re photographing a family reunion, a bridal shower, or really any sort of event with lots of people. But the issue is the same: you’re trying to take a photo of a big group, but EVERYONE around you is trying to take the same photo with their iPhones, and your subjects don’t know where to look.

 

The problem is that I’m trying to take a photo that our couple has specifically asked us for, but Auntie so-and-so is over my shoulder trying to get the same family photos I’m taking. And since there’s a camera and an iPhone pointed at them, half the family are all looking at her phone while everyone else is looking at my camera. It’s the worst.

 

 

So whichever one of us is taking the picture puts our camera down, look at the aunt or mom who’s taking the photo, and very politely says, “Okay, you first!” Then we look at all the people who are waiting to have their photo taken and say, “Okay, everyone look at Mom here!” Whoever’s taking iPhone pics always thinks they were being super inconspicuous, but now we’ve STOPPED family photos to accommodate their iPhone pics. Half the time, that person is absolutely mortified, and is like, “Oh no! Don’t let me interrupt!”, and immediately puts her phone away, and we continue as before.

 

The other half of the time, that person panics, snaps like 5 photos really quickly on their phone, then puts it away. Either way, as soon as that person is done, I’ll announce loudly to everyone standing around us, “Okay great! But now, I need ALL iPhones down and away, so that everyone in these family photos is looking at me and no one else!”

 

And most of the time, our couple — some of the only people present who know just how much they paid to have us there, is immediately like, “Guys, please listen to Hunter and Sarah, put your phones away so we can get these photos and get to the ceremony or the cocktail hour!” It can also help to remind older family members that the couple will have a way to share all of these professional photos with them after the wedding.

 

 

By the way, we want to very briefly interrupt this post, and make sure you know all about our free Facebook Community, Mastering the Wedding Photography Biz with Hunter and Sarah! This is a community of people just like you who are building their portrait and wedding photography businesses from the ground up.

 

We’re in that group almost every day sharing new content, starting conversations, and answering questions from our students. It’s also what we use to figure out what video content to make next. So if you want to have a say in what we produce, or just want to keep growing your business with a community of other photographers, click HERE to join!

 

 

How we Handle Paparazzi Guests During the Rest of a Wedding Day

For the REST of the wedding day, how we handle iPhones and guests who brought their cameras to a wedding depends a lot on the situation. Generally speaking, we’re not against people taking pics with their cell phones at weddings, but when it gets in the way of us doing our jobs, we have to take action. So for example, we don’t mind one bit if people are using their phones on the dance floor. Or if we are wandering around the cocktail hour photographing candids and posed photos, and we see a couple taking an iPhone picture together, I’ll often offer to take a photo with my camera, and then also ask if they want me to take one with their iPhone as well! Because the cocktail hour is more casual and there isn’t the same time pressure of family photos or finality of the ceremony, we don’t mind pausing and taking an iPhone picture. And we also know that our couples and their guests feel like we are really serving them well when we do something like that.

 

On the other hand, if a guest is following us around during sunset portraits or in the getting ready suite trying to take their own photos with their own cameras, that might be another story. If they’re at least attempting to be discreet and stay out of our way, and they aren’t bothering us or our clients, we’ll probably just ignore them. But if they start getting in our way or even begin interacting with our couple while we’re trying to photograph them, the first step is to pull them aside and quietly and politely inviting them to rejoin the guests.

 

If they’re insistent on staying but are disrupting our work or making the clients more on-edge or nervous by being there, we’ll ask the couple to say something, or we’ll politely ask them to leave again, but this time loud enough that our clients can hear us asking them. Usually the couple is like, “Oh yeah, hey Mark, why don’t you head back to the cocktail hour, we’ll be back in a few minutes!”

 

But if the couple doesn’t care or doesn’t want to engage that person, and they still won’t leave, you have every right to remind them that you’re being paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to be there, and they’re preventing you from doing your job that the couple hired you for. If they’re a real nightmare and still won’t leave, sometimes you just have to do your best to ignore them. But at this point don’t be afraid to really take command, instruct your couple to ignore that person, not to look at their camera at all, and don’t be afraid to get right in their way. Again, you’re the professional who was hired to capture the day — not them.

 

 

Taking Command Requires Confidence

Now, the common theme that you may have noticed with all of these solutions is that they take confidence. Shutting down a paparazzi wedding guest, asking a gathered family to all put their iPhones away during family photos, or approaching someone who looks like they are definitely going to put their iPad in the center aisle during a ceremony all takes a level of self assurance and confidence that you may not have just yet.

 

But this is one of the few areas of wedding photographer where the old saying, “fake it until you make it”, actually comes into play. You’ve probably heard us say this before, but the only way to grow in confidence as a photographer is to get out and do it. Over time. It’ll become less scary with each wedding or each photo shoot, and you WILL get more confidence.

 

If imposter syndrome is something that you struggle with, moments like these are going to be especially challenging. But remind yourself that YOU are the professional, and do what you have to do in order to get great photos for your clients. We promise you that the conference will come with time!

 

 

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