Here's a tip on how to get the most out of your photography and/or cinematography:
Make us your wedding guests instead of vendors. Why are we being divas? We're not. Here's the deal...
When we're listed as vendors, oftentimes venues put us in another room (sometimes even on another floor) during dinner. Things happen during dinner sometimes - first dances, cake cutting, speeches, etc. As vendors, we get fed at the very end of all the serving. What that means is during the downtime while everyone is eating, we're sitting around twiddling our thumbs (well, really we're making the same day slideshow). Once everyone is done eating and getting on the dance floor, or first dances start happening, or cake cutting, we're just getting food. That's a problem, because we need to cover that stuff! We're also humans so after about six hours of running around taking pictures and videos we get hungry and are ready to fall down and pass out.
It makes way more sense to tell your venue to get your vendors fed up front, essentially when you get served food. You eat, we eat, we all finish and we're all ready to go again. Seems like common sense but it happens the other way. every. time.
If we get served last as vendors, we'll do our best but it really makes things difficult. We've had to run in from other floors in the building because we could kind of hear through the walls that a first dance was starting and the staff had just brought our meals in.
It's good for us, it's good for you, what's better than that? You'll get more for your photography/cinematography dollar that way. Hope that helps!