Wedding Professionals Need Backup Equipment: 5 Reasons it’s Important

Welcome to our featured guest blog! Today’s post is brought to you by Chris Bouchard of Bouchard Entertainment. Chris has been a Maine Wedding DJ since 2014 and has been involved in music his entire life. We have worked with him many times over the years and always love his professionalism and preparedness. So he knows his stuff and naturally wrote this article about backup gear!

Wedding Professionals Need Backup Equipment
5 Reasons it’s Important

Every wedding professional can claim that they have backup equipment and a plan a/b/c in place for your day. The differentiating factor in having a backup equipment, or plan, is whether or not the individual has had to use it and what the outcome was. Here are 5 things that can impact your wedding day and why each vendor needs to have backup on hand. 

We All Forget Important Items Sometimes!

No matter how much you have reminded yourself… or, how close you have put something near the front door you can still forget it. We have all done it, right? Well, now you’re 45 minutes away when you remembered and what you’re doing starts now. What can you do? Not much… unless you have a backup plan. I have forgotten things I need on wedding days as well as a backyard party event. It happens. I can’t tell you how many times I have been thankful that I have backup cables stuffed in different pockets or empty space inside my van. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like when I forgot that I needed to use my computer for a ceremony and it cannot be used for cocktail hour music…. I have 2 iPads with me in those scenarios that I can use instead. Checklists always help but they are not bulletproof! What has your prospective photographer, or DJ, run into and how did they solve it?

You Can’t Trust Meteorologists

Okay, this may be a little dramatic… but, I have been witness to 10% chances of rain ending up in a complete sideways, windy, thunder, lightning, storm and asking myself “Where did this come from?” The doppler radar on your phone isn’t always the best determining factor either. Am I right? The truth is that you cannot plan the weather. You can have a solid idea of what’s coming your way but it is best to be prepared. Brittany & Dean and I worked at a wedding where we were racing the clock against this massive thunderstorm. I was set up early and had all of my gear covered in tarps with sandbags holding the tarps down. As Brittany finished up the formal photos we were able to get the ceremony started… along with the rain. I had to setup under an umbrella with just my computer to play music. Microphones and other electronics attached to individuals cannot be used in inclement weather. One thing I didn’t have was a spare umbrella to put my computer under when I was breaking down my gear. Brittany and Dean had umbrellas cleverly placed on the ground where they had their cameras and gear stored for the impending doom. I couldn’t have been more thankful that they had those umbrellas ready to go.. Which brings me to teamwork… 

Teamwork is Dreamwork: All Vendors Need Help Sometimes

More often than not a videographer is wondering how they can plug into a DJs sound system to grab audio from microphones and the music that coincides with the events of the day. True professional videographers have what they think they need… based on the experiences in the past. If a DJ has a mixing board as well as a controller, for their music, it is important that they have the appropriate cables to help someone plug into their system. Not only to help someone get what they need from them but to also have peace of mind that they can have plan a/b/c… The reason you have hired your vendors is to make your day easy and fun, right? With that in mind your DJ, band, or other entertainment should be prepared to help someone get what they need from their sound system. 

Things Break

As a DJ this is my biggest fear. I think this could be said for a photographer and videographer, too. Whether I am rushing and drop something or if I turn something on and a bad ground in the electricity fries my speaker… It’s always in the back of my mind. A wedding I did in 2018 comes to mind… I had done a wedding the night before and everything worked just fine… so, what would be the difference today? Well, for no apparent reason I turned on my speaker(s) and one of them had this crucial error flashing on the back. The speaker would not work! I always have a minimum of three speakers with me and four if I can fit it into the van. Instead of having cocktail hour set up and playing while also having my main setup for the reception ready to go… I had to get cocktail hour going and have one speaker playing music from my main rig. When cocktail hour ended I moved my cocktail hour speaker to my main rig and not a single guest was any the wiser. I have worked with photographers who have dropped a lens and been up the creek without a paddle… on the other hand I have worked with photographers who have broken a lens and have a second one in their bag which is just a few steps away. 

You Never Know

It goes without saying that a professional should be prepared for anything. You just never know what you may come across. Having all of the above scenarios covered will make, almost, any wedding/event a success. To have something and not need it is always better than needing something and not having it.

Ask the Vendor You Want to Hire

Not only if they have backup equipment but if they have had to use it. It is one thing to say you have it and it is another to say you have it and have had to use it. With that said – no vendor should ever be selling you their gear. “I have the state-of-the-art sound system that can rock 400 kids in a gymnasium.” Or “My camera is the best DSLR on the market and it takes 45.4 megapixel pictures.” Cool, super happy you have all of this nice stuff. What if it breaks and how have you solved it in the past? It’s okay for your DJ to have backup equipment but if it isn’t built in to the existing system do you go without music for 15+ minutes while they run to their van to grab the replacement? What good is a group shot that requires a wide lens and your photographer forgot it at home? These are differentiating scenarios and define a professional versus a hobbyist. 

Brittany and Dean are Maine Wedding Photographers and we love featuring guest bloggers and sharing the knowledge of our colleagues in the wedding business! A big thank you goes out to Maine Wedding DJ, Chris Bouchard of Bouchard Entertainment for writing this very informative guest blog post for us! Please reach out to us if there are any topics you’d like to see covered! - Contact Maine Wedding Photographers - Two Adventurous Souls