I’m Struggling To Work With Content Creators: Dear Devlin
DEAR DEVLIN
It’s Still Just One Couple But Now It’s More Lenses
Dear Devlin,
Can we talk Content Creators? I’ve had a couple of really challenging experiences with content creators, one who totally took over and was constantly interrupting during bride prep, posing and positioning the bride into “the best light”, which in my opinion was awful light – sunlight reflected up from a light gloss floor, made the bride and bridesmaids late for the ceremony as she wanted to do walking shots with them, stood in front of the bride’s parents during the ceremony, left the venue after the ceremony to go and move her car 200m (instead of moving it pre-ceremony) then blamed me for not delaying the confetti to wait on her.
She was just very difficult to work with and was even worse after “confetti gate” and constantly standing in front of me. I’ve had to remove her from a lot of images and others (during the speeches where she stood directly in front of the top table throughout) I’ve just had to deliver with her in situ. I hate confrontation and the whole experience has really put me off working with content creators. She has zero self awareness.
So, can you give me any advice on how to work with content creators? It looks like they are here to stay. There also seems to be a rise in couples being offered content creators for free, friends of friends who are just starting out and shooting for free. Do you have any advice on how to navigate situations like this? I love working with videographers but I really struggle with content creators and want to discourage my couples from booking them but also don’t want to come across as a Moaning Minnie.
Can We Talk
“More people recording the day does not mean more time to record it in – and nobody has agreed whose job that time belongs to.”
Dear Can We Talk
Oof. Confetti gate alone would have finished me off. But as you say Content Creators are going nowhere, so we do all have to find a way to work together.
So let’s start with the honest bit: what happened to you was not a personality clash, it was a boundary problem. A supplier who makes the bride late for her own ceremony, who repeatedly stands in front of key guests, and then blames you for missing something significant, isn’t just “difficult to work with”. That’s someone who doesn’t yet understand that they’re one part of a team working for the same two people. You’re allowed to be angry about that. You’re also allowed to find it hard to say so out loud – conflict aversion doesn’t make you a pushover, it just means you might need some help with the script on what to say, and that’s why you are asking for help.
Why Do We Even Have Content Creators At Weddings?
It’s worth pausing to consider why content creators for weddings exist at all, because it explains a lot about why the friction happens.
Social media has changed how some people want to experience their own wedding, never mind share it. Spend any time on TikTok and you’ll see couples building an entire narrative around their wedding planning, with an audience waiting for the payoff on the day itself. Even for couples who aren’t chronically online, a content creator is simply the fastest way to get something shareable out into the world within hours rather than weeks.
And unlike photography or videography, the barrier to entry is almost nothing. A phone and a couple of mics will do it. So it’s no surprise we’re seeing a wave of people cutting their teeth and building a portfolio at other people’s weddings, sometimes for free, sometimes without much sense yet of where the edges of the role sit. Some are brilliant. Some, like the one in your letter, are still working out that the couple’s experience comes above everything else.
Clashing Approaches
I think a lot of the tension between photographers and content creators comes down to style, not personality. Some content creators are documentary in approach, quietly capturing what’s happening. Others are far more orchestrated, building trend-led clips designed for social media. That second style is where the role lines blur, because it can tip into directing and posing during the exact same window you’re trying to work in – which sounds exactly like what happened to you.
I had my own version of this recently, and in the end I let the Content Creator take their setup, then I took mine – we simply had very different approaches; mine was like yours, theirs was more posed. The only way to cope was working in turns without ever spelling it out loud – I’m just as conflict averse as you are.
What I thought about afterwards is that I’m usually very quiet when I’m working. I might set a scene up, but then I hold back and let the silence do the work, because that’s what gets someone to fall into being natural. Others on the visual team might not understand that it’s my method, though. To someone watching, silence can look like I’ve run out of ideas rather than a deliberate technique. So I’ve realised the responsibility is on me to say so in advance, even if that’s a quick word on the morning itself.
Did You Let Her Know She Was In The Way?
This is worth asking yourself gently, because it changes what you do next. It’s genuinely hard to know what someone else’s lens is seeing just by looking at them – so if this happened again and again through the day without you saying anything, she may not have realised the scale of it. If you did tell her and she carried on regardless, that’s a different problem entirely, and one that tells you a lot about whether you’d choose to work with her again.
Either way, a script in the moment is kinder for everyone than stewing on it and writing about it afterwards:
“I need a clear line to the parents for this next bit – can you hop just to my left for thirty seconds?”
“I’m going to take the lead on this part, then it’s all yours for the walking shots.”
Is An Official Visual Hierarchy The Answer?
Here’s the structural fix, and I think it’s the one we all potentially need to get comfortable with. When there’s a photographer, a videographer and a content creator on site, if everyone has a second, that’s potentially six lenses pointed at one couple. If nobody has agreed in advance whose priorities come first for which part of the day, that can soon feel like a scrum. If we think of it as a visual hierarchy that needs sorting before the day, not negotiated in real time in front of the couple, then I think it’ll be easier all round for everyone.
Your final meeting with the clients is the last chance to raise it. Ask who else is booked, then ask the couple directly what matters most to them from each supplier:
“You’ve got a content creator booked too – brilliant. Can I ask, is there anything in particular you want them to prioritise? I want to make sure we’re not both trying to own the same few minutes.”
Sometimes the couple will want video to lead on the ceremony itself and content to lead on the run-up. Sometimes they’ll simply say photography comes first. As photographers we’d love to always be top of that list, but we don’t get to assume it – we get to ask, and then plan around their answer.
IMAGES: Lisa Devlin
MENTORING PROGRAMME FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS
What Are Other Photographers Doing About This?
A few options are emerging as people work this issue out for themselves. Some photographers are bringing content creation in-house, either training up an assistant to cover it or adding phone coverage themselves, so there’s one team with one set of priorities. Others keep a shortlist of content creators they know play well with others, and recommend them directly to couples. And yes, some have quietly stopped agreeing to work alongside particular people again. None of that is “Moaning Minnie” behaviour – it’s just protecting your ability to do your job.
What You Can Say To Your Couples
You don’t need to talk anyone out of booking a content creator, and I’d steer clear of trying – it’ll read as territorial. What you can say, warmly, is that more people recording the day means more time needs to be built into the timeline, because nobody factors that in until it’s running late.
And there’s a genuine upside worth mentioning too: if the content creator is getting fast, shareable clips out quickly, that takes the pressure off you to turn images around at speed.
The more Content we see, the more I want to lean into the legacy element of what we do. There’s going to be nobody staring at a reel on the wall in twenty years – your work is still the one that lasts, and that’s worth reminding yourself of as we navigate this new phase in visual imagery.
THE TAKEAWAY
More visual suppliers on a wedding day means more time is needed, not less, and this is something nobody else involved might realise so make sure you lead that conversation. Ask your couples directly who they’ve booked and what matters most to them, agree your visual hierarchy at the final meeting, and feel free to reach out to anyone else working alongside you on the day so that you can work together to give the couple the best experience and visual record.
If this hasn’t been done in advance, permit yourself to say something in the moment rather than carrying it home or complaining about it to your peers. You’re not being difficult by protecting your ability to do the job you were booked for.
PLEASE NOTE: THE IMAGES IN THIS POST DO NOT REPRESENT ANYONE MENTIONED
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