It’s the horror of every bride: You have planned your perfect day for months, have organized everything, invited your guests, bought your outfits and rings, found the perfect vendors are are finally ready to say YES in a few days. And then your photographer calls you to tell you he can’t make it. He’s sick, he’s broken his ankle, has had a death in the family, his plane was stuck: There’s many reasons this could happen. So now what? Panic?

NO.

First of all, if you have booked a professional photographer, he or she will do absolutely anything in their power to A) make it to your wedding and be there for you or B) to find an adequate replacement if he really can’t make it. Yes, that can happen, too. We’re people, after all.

I, for one part, am a member of a group of Swiss wedding photographers. We exchange informations, help each other out with any business-related questions and if we’re already booked for a date we find colleagues who are still available so you don’t have to dig through google anymore (unless you want to). That group is also used for last-minute-emergencies. Over the years we’ve had cases where photographers have become pregnant and had to find replacements for weddings a few months away, we’ve had photographers break their tendons at a wedding and pulling through. They asked for someone or several someones to take over coming weddings a few weeks away, but we’ve also had cases of photographers falling ill the day before the wedding (I’ve actually helped a colleague out with this wedding) and even someone taking the wrong train and ending up in the wrong part of the country while en route to the wedding.

In all of these cases, we’ve found an adequate replacement.

This group is also what I would fall back on to, were the need to arise. I would find someone who was available for your date, would get in touch with you and let you know who (or, again, the multiple whos) I have found. I’d send them the informations I have and let them know about any important things you have told me about. Of course I would try to find someone with a similar style to mine so that you’d still get the images you had been dreaming about. I can assure you that all of the photographers I would send your way are talented, highly professional and above all lovely people with tons of experience in the wedding industry. Even with them, it would feel like you had a friend with you and you wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.

So even if it happens that for some reason I can’t make it, you can still relax. Make sure to call the stand-in-photographer ahead to discuss any details he or she might not know about and don’t fret. Your wedding will be perfect, no matter what.