Why you should choose a wedding photographer with great travel experience?!

1. September 2020

Who is this article aimed at? You are getting married abroad at your dream location or in a small mountain hut in the Alps or in the picturesque hinterland on Madeira…. etc? You are probably just starting to dream…, feel the sun on your skin, …smell the different air….

You’re getting made up in the beautiful hotel room, today is the big day, ….

Snap…. You panic – the photographer is late and still stuck at the airport in Germany, …. Waaaahh

Take it easy. To make sure that doesn’t happen, I’ve put together some valuable info for you here:

So, why should you choose a wedding photographer with great travel experience?

In a nutshell: so that the above does not happen to you.

It all starts with sensible time planning / travel management.

Let’s assume that you are getting married on a classic Saturday and that the wedding ceremony will take place at 2 p.m., for example, and that the location is not in the Alaskan tundra, but rather in a nearby European country, and that there are several flight connections per day to the nearby airport, we currently assume a flight time of 2 hours.

Of course, it may be sufficient to get on the plane at 08:00 and arrive at the destination airport at 10:00. With a car ride of 1h the photographer arrived at your location. Everything wonderful…

But, what can go wrong with a trip…?

Airplanes are usually on time and airlines do everything to avoid delays, because every minute of delay costs money – but delays are possible…

  • Flights can be cancelled completely due to technical problems
  • Rental car must be available – again, double bookings can occur in rare cases
  • Traffic jams on the road
  • …. There is so much more

For reasons like these, it is very important to consider the following points when planning your trip and thus choosing your photographer:

Travel experience of the photographer

a photographer with appropriate travel experience can advise you on many of these points such as scheduling, flight selection, etc., as there are tips and tricks that can make the trip to your dream location more enjoyable:

  • e.g. even with an economy ticket you can often book the lounge at the airport as well.
  • with a business class flight (which costs comparatively little extra if booked early) more luggage (e.g. 2x 23kg) and the lounge are already included
  • in the airplane special seats with a lot of legroom can be reserved (keyword Exit Row)

Time scheduling

So what can we do better than to experience the above described horror scenario?

Plan enough buffer, i.e. that the photographer already arrives the day before, i.e. on Friday. Thus, there is still enough time that a replacement flight would be organized and arrive on time. Although sometimes there are still seats available on later flights on the same day, but this has become rather rare.

The same applies to the sufficient time planning for the car journey: always calculate a traffic jam with and already in the apron look at and prepare alternative routes.

By arriving early, you will of course be much more relaxed and arrive rested, especially if you arrive the day before. In addition, you can react more calmly to a sudden delay.

Flights

Which airline to choose?

For your wedding, as well as for the service providers, it is important to perhaps not necessarily go for the cheapest solution. Therefore: tend to choose a more prestigious airline even if it costs a few euros more. The advantages are:

  • usually more flights per day / week to the destination than with cheaper airlines
  • more other airlines in the alliance, to which the airline can switch in case of a replacement flight
  • not so strict hand luggage regulations as with the “cheap” airlines
  • possibly more amenities and more personnel

Furthermore, it is recommended to check in as early as possible. This can be done comfortably on the sofa from your smartphone.

At the airport

In the past, it was always said that you should be at the airport two to three hours before departure. This rule applies today more than ever, despite digital check-in etc.. Because in times of precise security checks due to prevailing security risks, sufficient time is all the more important.

The first thing to do is to check in your luggage – plan more time for international flights, e.g. to the USA, because the airline staff will be questioning you.

For the security check, plan half an hour in any case. It can go much faster, but it depends on the current situation (if there is a greater risk of terrorism, the checks will be much more precise). If you are pulled out at random for an explosives test, then it will take much longer. Possibly you have to go through the security check again (depending on the airport).

A request at the security check: yes, put down everything from the outset: belt, wallet, etc. – how often have I experienced: “oh I forgot that in my pocket – oh… I didn’t know I had that in my pocket anymore….” very annoying for the officials and the other waiting people. In fact, you are doing the staff there a favor if you contribute to the smooth flow of the security check.

After the control follows with international flights the passport control (passport) – ATTENTION: this is possibly not the only passport control – so e.g. with USA flights again directly before the GATE also a passport control is accomplished. This also costs time.

Even if you still have enough time: look where the gate is located and check whether the flight with the planned time is displayed there. Sometimes GATES are changed at short notice.

If everything runs according to plan and it is boarding time, there is usually nothing standing in the way of a nice flight. It also helps to stick to the boarding schedule. Let the upper-important suits 😉 the right of way and approach everything relaxed.

Rental car

When renting a car, you should also trust reputable providers and not the cheapest provider. Often there are also customer programs, where you get the car almost without waiting, while otherwise half the plane at the only available customer service representative must wait forever for the car.

Hotel

The following applies to the service provider: the hotel should offer a good standard, i.e. e.g. at least 3 stars, better 4 stars – also the check-in in the hotel must be possible until late at night, should something go wrong, so that one does not have to stand on the street or ring out the owner of the pension on the mobile number at night. The location of the hotel should be in any case in short distance to your own location, if necessary the hotel is also the location – this is of course optimal.

Luggage

Koffer können komplett verloren gehen oder erst Stunden oder Tage später wiederauftauchen. Um solchen, eher Suitcases can be completely lost or only reappear hours or days later. In order to prevent such, rather unlikely cases, the experienced service provider has a minimum outfit also in the hand luggage, so that not still spontaneously a wedding outfit must be procured (hooded sweatshirt and jeans does not quite fit the dress code Black Tie 😉 to put it extremely)

Credit cards

Did you know that car rental companies very often block a deposit on the credit card? A sufficient limit of several thousand euros on the credit card should be given in any case, so that you do not get into any unpleasant situations. It is even better to have several credit cards. Bills can often be divided among several cards, if the limit on one card is exhausted (e.g. international flight + rental car +…).

Also, it should be common credit cards (Mastercard + Visa) – although very many know “American Express” and for many this is an epitome of an American credit card, but Visa and Mastercard are clearly larger providers!

Tip: Gold credit cards or airline credit cards often include insurance packages, e.g. car rental insurance.

Paper

Although reducing paper waste is a very good thing and today’s smartphones are super reliable, I always recommend printing out the tickets (flight, rental car reservation, hotel reservation) on paper for such trips. Then also times the battery can go empty.

Mileage-Reward Programs

Do you like to travel a lot? Then you should take a look at the mileage earning programs of the airlines – you can earn miles not only when flying – but more about this in a future blog article.

Conclusion

So now back to the initial question, why should you book a travel-experienced wedding photographer?

Answer: because he knows the points described in this post and much more, plans ahead of time and can react accordingly to the situation at hand.

If you have any questions, just write me!

As you can see, …there is a lot to consider when planning your trip.

With best regards

Your Alexander

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