As a wedding photographer, destination weddings are fun, exciting, and exotic.  They can also be chaotic if you do not plan well.  Here are five tips to insure that you provide your bride and groom with the best possible service on their wedding day.

1. COMMUNICATE: Whether it is with the bride and groom, the venue, or the wedding planner, good communication will solve most of your wedding day issues.
2. HAVE A PLAN: Local weddings and destination weddings are different as there is that element of travel thrown in.  Look up when the sun sets at the wedding location, have a plan in place if there is rain that day and you need to do bridal portraits indoors when you had originally planned them outside.  Have a plan for if your gear gets damaged while traveling to your destination.  While some locations may have a camera store nearby, others may not.  Also plan on a way to back up your images.  Keeping them on dinky SD cards while traveling through an airport is a sure fire way to risk losing files.
3. HAVE THE RIGHT PAPERWORK: Recently I saw a friend have to cancel their much anticipated travel plans because they had the wrong type of paperwork for the kind of travel they would be doing and the location they were headed to.  It is a mistake that ANYONE can make but not one that can be fixed quickly or easily.
4. MAKE A LIST: This may sound super simple but the act of making a list insures that nothing is forgotten as you are packing your gear or your clothing.
5. HAVE INSURANCE: This not only covers you but your gear if anything happens.  I have seen countless photographers operating a “business” without any form of protection and as the law of averages go . . .you eventually are going to take a hit for not being insured.

With proper planning, destination wedding photography can be exciting and fun.  Make sure that you are prepped so that you to can enjoy your brides day.