When you’re planning your dream destination wedding in Crete & looking for inspiration in online blogs, bridal magazines or wedding photography websites, you’ll almost certainly come across featured weddings that appear so flawless, with every last detail done to absolute perfection, that they almost look staged…And just too good to be true! In fact, a lot of what you see aren’t real weddings at all, but carefully put together styled shoots, using models for the bride & groom and involving hours or even days to create that final awesome result. A styled shoot is a dream-team collaboration between wedding vendors (usually a wedding planner, hair stylist, make-up artist, florist and photographer) to show off their work & enhance their portfolios. And more & more vendors these days are choosing to do this, ourselves included! As established wedding planners we’ve worked our magic & put together some amazingly successful styled shoots which have been inspirational to so many of our brides from all over the world. Because these shoots offer the freedom of time to do everything exactly as you want, every detail can be hand-picked & set perfectly in place.
But while these ‘fake weddings’ may look amazing, they also give an false impression to brides-to-be of what vendors and photographers can really produce on the big day, when we won’t be working in such ideal conditions, and when we’ll often be organizing weddings every day, which frequently happens in peak wedding season. The normal pressures faced on a real wedding day such as dealing with less-than-perfect weather conditions and wedding day nerves in general can create a real challenge. As can keeping to a strict time schedule to make sure everything runs like clockwork; those dreamy sunset shots have to be captured at just right moment and it takes real organizational skills to ensure that everyone is exactly where they should be, when they should be. As we well know, achieving perfect results when you’re in control of everything at a styled shoot is so much easier than doing the same thing on the big day when we are working to a timeline.
So to really understand the quality of a wedding planner or photographer, or any vendor you’re considering for your dream wedding in Crete, you should check out their full portfolio or even better the full story of a real wedding from start to finish with a good selection of images covering the whole day. Only then will you be able to get a true picture of the standard of their work. True professionals will be only too happy to share with you the real weddings they’ve worked on so you can feel confident that you’re choosing the very best vendors for your own perfect greek island wedding. At moments we have a visual treasure trove of stunning photos & videos of our past styled shoots and fairytale real weddings for you to compare and get an understanding of our wedding philosophy. ‘we show what we shoot!’