What If My Wedding Photographer is Sick?

I’d like to take a moment to talk about sickness in the industry. Last year I covered a couple of weddings for another photographer* who was quite unwell. Recently, while writing a blog about one of those gorgeous weddings – Cat & Olof’s beaut of a day – I started trying to cover the ins and outs of the situation before realising it was beyond the scope of that particular piece. It became clear that a standalone article was necessary.

This difficult situation is rarely discussed publicly yet it often comes up, very reasonably, when I’m chatting to prospective clients. Probably the most common question after “do you do groups and portraits” is “what happens if you fall ill?”. This is my attempt to candidly address that question!

First off it’s worth saying that nobody who works in weddings wants to be ill. That might sound obvious, but every wedding industry professional takes their role seriously. For the people at the centre of things the wedding day is one of the most momentous days in life – nobody takes that responsibility lightly and nobody cancels unless they really need to. The sniffles isn’t going to keep us from delivering. However we all get ill and, sometimes, an illness is severe enough to prevent us from doing our job properly. That’s a situation no credible wedding pro wants to find themselves in. Yet it happens. And when it does, the industry rallies round to support.

For the photographer who has to pass the baton, it can be a rough emotional ride. Every photographer I’ve ever covered for has felt exceptionally guilty. There’s the personal responsibility to the couple and the fear of what it might do to a small-business. All-in, it’s an unpleasant place to be and a very hard to decision to make.

Thankfully, in 18 years of wedding photography, I’ve never had to make that call, but back in 2012 I came incredibly close. After five horrendous nights I had to put another photographer on standby. Miraculously, on the morning of Tom & Lisa’s wedding in Pirbright, I woke up much better. I shot that day feeling a little ropey, but I was upright and functional and I did a good job. In that instance, things worked out fine. If I’d woken up sick, there was a clear plan in place.

If you’re in this industry long enough, one day, sickness and a wedding will collide. It’s an unpleasant inevitability. One day I will almost certainly have to make that dreaded call!

When I have stood in for sick photographers, I’ve always found that the clients are astonishingly kind, supportive and understanding. It’s one of those things that renews my faith in humanity. Cat & Olof were utterly representative of this.

The wedding industry is chock full of small businesses – often sole traders with limited ‘visible’ safety net. I use the word visible, because any wedding professional worth their salt will have a good network of reliable contacts who they call-on when the chips are down. Colleagues and peers in the industry who work in a similar style and can execute, under pressure to a very high-standard.

Looking After You

So, what actually happens if your wedding photographer is sick?

From a couple’s point of view, finding out that your photographer is unwell and won’t be able to attend your wedding comes as a shock. It’s important to understand that the onus should be on your supplier to put suitable cover in place. The last thing you need to be doing in the run-up to your wedding is sourcing another photographer/MUA/Celebrant etc at short notice. It’s always worth discussing this eventuality with your suppliers. It’s unlikely to happen, but a quick chat will reassure you that there’s a plan in place.

I can’t speak for other businesses, but my plan in this scenario is to reach out to peers who work in a similar style to myself. One of the benefits of having been in the industry for nearly two decades is that I know a lot of other photographers and have a substantial list of contacts that I can call on if the need arises. Wedding photography can be quite a siloed game, so these are rarely people I’m best buds with, but they are people whose work I know and whose reputations I trust. Excellent photographers I can count on to deliver.

There should be no financial penalty or cost to you as the client. The biggest change you should have to handle is a new face. Someone standing-in should be paid for by the absent supplier. The new photographer should be furnished with the key details of the day and, although there may be some unfamiliarities, these should be minor and easily solved via a brief chat with a bridesmaid or groomsman. Crucially there shouldn’t be much adjustment for the client – your day will not be ruined!

There may be some small changes to coverage hours, but most of the time this will be tiny adjustments round the edges, sometimes the result of travel requirements or other commitments. When I’ve shot for people who have been ill, I’ve literally shot the exact same coverage that was originally planned.

Normally, your originally booked photographer will still edit and deliver your finished photographs. The stand-in will deliver the raw files to the your original photographer and, once they’re better, they will edit in their style. That’s what happened for the weddings I covered last year.

For Cat & Olof’s wedding, by way of thanks for stepping in at short notice, the original photographer was happy for me to edit and post a small selection of my own as well. Which I guess was a small hidden upside for Cat & Olof. They got their big main set from their original photographer, and they received a smaller set from me. Two edits from the same day. Silver linings and all that.

Most of the time, you’ll simply receive a set of images shot by the stand-in and edited by the original photographer. The idea being to preserve the original photographer’s unique post-processing and give you the look you had envisaged.

That’s basically it. It’s more straightforward than you might imagine. On any given weekend there are thousands of weddings happening up and down the country and thousands of photographers. From time-to-time serious illness will intervene. And when it does, this game plan, or something very similar, gets put into action.

The Key Takeaways

• The onus should lie with your photographer to arrange cover in the event of sickness.
• Discuss this with your photographer. For all the great photographers out there, cowboys and cowgirls DO exist.
• A contract should cover these details. Read it!
• You shouldn’t have any additional financial burden. Costs incurred should be covered by your original photographer.
• While all photographers have different styles, the general approach should be similar.
• Your original photographer will almost certainly edit your photographs.
• Nobody wants to be sick. We all take this stuff very seriously and if it happens we inevitably feel shitty.

TL/DR – There’s a plan. Everything will be fine!

*I’m not going to mention the original photographer by name in this article. Sickness is a reality of life and nobody should be disadvantaged because of it. He is a GREAT photographer and I’ve admired his work for years.