Wedding Content Creator: The Craft of Unscripted Content

Written by Cori Burcham

Photography by Contoured by Katie | Veronica Blooms | Vivid Moments With San 

Every couple has an idea of the significant wedding day moments they’ll want to look back on for years to come. The procession down the aisle, accompanied by the awed gasps of friends and family. The heartfelt exchange of vows and rings. The infectious, joyful energy of the confetti send-off; all memorable moments that couples can preserve by hiring a media team. A photographer will snap the moment in time when you share your first kiss as a married couple, a memory that’ll receive a prime spot on your fireplace mantle or framed in your hallway. A videographer will capture the emotions of the day in their audible reality, compiling the footage into a sentimental home video you’ll revisit on future anniversaries. But there are the unscripted memories — those magical, impromptu moments that can’t be accounted for on the wedding schedule — that are often as valuable to newlyweds as the more principal wedding staples. Within the last year, there’s been the emergence of a new wedding profession that specializes in capturing these types of candid moments: the wedding content creator.   

With both the photographer and videographer already in charge of capturing your wedding day on film, most couples may be thinking their media team is complete with these professionals alone. While their role may seem similar, one of the main aspects that sets a content creator apart is that they move through the party like an unobserved wedding guest, using a phone instead of professional camera equipment to record the authentic, behind-the-scenes moments newlyweds could miss on such a whirlwind day. According to San Le, the owner of Vivid Moments With San, a small business based in Philadelphia that offers wedding-related content creation services throughout the tri-state area, content creation works in tandem with other media vendors and gives couples a way to view their special day from a different perspective. “Wedding content creators are not a replacement for a photographer or videographer; instead, I work alongside them as part of the couple’s media team to capture as many little in-between moments as I can,” says Le. “We’re the third angle that was missing in the wedding industry as social media continued to grow.”

Couples beginning their search for a wedding content creator will discover that two different kinds are working in the industry: new vendors that specialize in content creation alone and veteran wedding professionals that offer the service in addition to their main expertise. As a relatively new profession, wedding content creation offers established vendors like Katie Withers — the owner of Contoured by Katie, a bridal makeup business based in Annapolis, MD which offers content creation as an add-on service — the unique opportunity to expand from one niche into another. “I wanted to branch into this field since it is still so new, which means there is tons of room for creativity and growth!” says Withers, who first tested out the new service by offering it to one of her makeup clients free of charge.

While Contoured by Katie doesn’t particularly specialize in content creation, Withers suggests that one of the benefits of hiring a vendor like her over a new content creator is her years of invaluable experience in the industry. “As a wedding vendor who offers multiple services, I know how a wedding day works front and back. I have created hundreds of wedding day morning schedules as a Bridal Makeup Artist and have worked with hundreds of other vendors to make the wedding day happen,” says Withers, suggesting new vendors may not be equipped to handle the unpredictability of weddings. Veronika Balch — owner of Veronica Blooms, an event floral designer based in Salisbury, MD that also offers content creation packages — believes the true value of hiring a combined-service vendor is the longstanding relationship that’s formed between her team and the couple. “By the time the wedding day arrives, we've already built a relationship with our clients through months of contact,” says Balch. “Having us there is like having your best friend filming you all day without actually making your best friends do it and letting them enjoy the day with you instead.”

Since Vivid Moments With San exclusively offers content creation services, Le believes her specialty in the field gives couples reassurance over multiple service vendors because capturing your wedding moments is her sole focus, something she wishes she had at her own wedding. “I got married in March 2023 and the best part post-wedding was reliving it all through the hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos and videos that our families and friends took,” says Le, who cherishes the raw footage, but regrets not hiring a professional to keep filming whenever her guests were fully in the moment. Disagreeing with the myth that all you need to be a content creator is a phone, Le believes her ability to recognize these kinds of precious moments is a skill that sets her apart. “There is so much more than simply hitting record; there’s communication, connection, an eye for detail, and the instinct to record when most people do not think to.”

While their businesses may differ by specialty, their initial process of connecting with the couple to learn more about their love story and the content they want to prioritize on the wedding day is the same. “About 1.5 months from their wedding day, I send a questionnaire and get on a call to finalize all the nitty-gritty details so I can capture everything they're envisioning,” says Le. After gaining an understanding of the couple’s style, Withers has the clients that chose content creation packages with custom videos — usually Instagram reels or TikTok trends — send examples of content they’d like to recreate. Before the day arrives, Withers coordinates with the wedding planner to ensure the bride’s schedule has plenty of time to film the content, citing the need for multiple takes that can be time-consuming. After filming the behind-the-scenes morning prep and requested trends, Withers then spends the rest of the day following the wedding’s timeline, all the while recording raw footage of the party, which is delivered along with the edited videos by the end of the night.

One of the biggest enticements to hire a content creator is the quick turnaround time for the delivery of the footage, which standardly can take weeks for videographers and photographers to deliver the polished, finished product. “After working hundreds of weddings and being in some myself, I realized something was missing. Friends of mine, who recently married, would vent to me how they had been waiting months to get their professional photos and videos back. A content creator fills this void by providing photos and videos immediately,” says Withers. While the timeline differs for every content creator, the service generally provides the raw, unedited footage within 12 to 24 hours after the event. Withers’ packages even offer the option of posting the content on social media in real-time, so friends and family who are unable to attend can partake in the festivities from afar.    

While the term content creation instantly brings to mind images of influencers or celebrities sharing clips of their extravagant lifestyles on social media, Le mentions wedding content creation isn’t something that only those with a large online following can enjoy. “A wedding content creator can be for everyone,” says Le, suggesting that couples mainly hire her to capture the moments for themselves, with some choosing not to post the content on social media at all. After all, the most important aspect of wedding content creation isn’t the amount of “likes” a video accrues from strangers appreciating it for only a moment, but rather expanding the moments into a lifetime for the people who’ll treasure it the most. To inquire about Le, Withers, or Balch’s wedding content creation services, visit www.vividmomentswithsan.com | www.contouredbykatie.com | www.veronicablooms.com