Intelligent Protection › Security Blog › Close Protection › Should you hire security for your Wedding?
by Virginie Roux, Head of Marketing

Why do you need security at your wedding?

With the summer in full swing, happy couples are ready to make their relationships blossom, taking the final step in making the official commitment and get married with their life-long sweetheart. But the organisation of the big day can be a very stressful endeavour as you are only meant to plan a wedding once in your lifetime, so there is no place for error for your dream wedding to come true!

The big day will need to be carefully planned, starting with the most important, picking the wedding dress, the wedding venue, preparing your guest list, choosing the theme and menu, making your table plan; the to-do list is just endless… but have you thought about security?

Wedding security isn’t just for the rich and famous, the reasons for considering security for your wedding are plentiful!

Deny access to an unwanted guest

“If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in matrimony, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”

You would expect, quite rightly so that everyone would be delighted for you that you are finally going to officialise your union with the person you love. But from time to time, couples can face the underlying threat of having to deal with the eventuality that someone wicked could ruin their big day. Does the name of Samantha Grant, Meghan Markle’s half-sister, ring a bell? An unwanted guest, whether this is the bride or the groom’s ex-partner or a feuding relative, is not always just fictional but could be the soon to-be-weds’ worse nightmare!

Yet, the best option to mitigate the risk of having someone interrupting the ceremony or breaking up the celebration is having security guards that will be on the lookout at all times for the expected unwelcomed intruder, after being given their photo and description as part of the client’s brief.

Stop entrance to wedding crashers

A wedding is a costly affair which obliges you to be mindful with the number of people you invite to your special day. So, when you went to the effort and the trouble of having to remove from your guest list your beloved friends from school that you had not seen in years, it is rather irritating that someone would have the cheek to attend your wedding uninvited.

But wedding crashers do exist! A gourmet meal served with the finest wine in the pleasant company of guests dressed in their best attire, with upbeat music playing in the background seem all too tempting for crafty individuals, if they can be part of the festivity for free. Unlike the “Wedding Crashers” movie, the presence of a wedding crasher may not always go without grief.

To avoid this, security guards can control access to your wedding venue, checking invites against your guest list and watching out for gate crashers during the entire celebration.

Defusing tensions between guests

Although, you probably spent endless hours of your time setting out your table plan, ensuring that you keep guests as far away as possible from others they despise at the wedding breakfast, you can’t stop their unplanned encounter during the rest of the wedding function! Add alcohol to the mix and things may quickly get out of hand, which may spoil your wedding day.

Security guards are trained in conflict management and can detect eventual signs of a dispute suddenly arising between guests. They can step in immediately to defuse the situation and stop a violent altercation from happening.

Securing the venue against damage and theft

The location you booked to have your wedding at will be for sure a charming venue to accommodate your guests and make a memorable impression. So, the last thing you want is for guests to unintentionally damage equipment that does not belong to you during a moment of madness while they party. This would as unfairly as it seems be added to your already hefty wedding bill!

Duty of care towards your guests is also an element that should be taken in consideration with health and safety risks associated with the wedding venue. You may find depending on the location that you could be held responsible if there was an accident or incident.

On the other hand, guests will traditionally donate a gift or money through the cash box left for this purpose for your honeymoon or your future projects as a married couple. With the amount of people present on top of the persons you already invited including catering staff, waiters, barmaids, members of the music band and venue staff, donations cannot be left unattended as the risk of theft does exist.

To secure your wedding, security guards are expected to carry out a comprehensive check of the venue before the arrival of guests. They will also keep a watchful eye during the celebration to spot any wrongdoing and will prevent any misbehaviour. Gifts will be logged, put away and locked in a secure compartment at the venue, whilst the cash box is safely guarded by security staff.

Celebrity wedding security

Celebrity weddings present other security challenges that differ from weddings in the anonymous world, as they are in the public eye and under constant scrutiny of the media and the paparazzi. The public sometimes almost feel that they can claim ownership over stars’ lives, which makes it difficult for celebs to have any sort of privacy even on their wedding day. Celebrity weddings became a very lucrative business for paparazzi who are battling to take that one shot to sell for millions.

Some of Hollywood most anticipated nuptials took place last June. Sophie Turner, the Game of Thrones actress and Zoë Kravitz, daughter of Lenny Kravitz and actress from the Big Little Lies series, were amongst the most awaited brides and both tied the knot in France. The two events were highly publicised in magazines, but their security was such that no one really got to properly see a picture of their wedding dresses until the official release, apart from one stolen blurry shot of Sophie Turner’s dress taken from the sky.

Unscrupulous paparazzi will employ cunning tactics to take pictures of famous brides, climbing walls, using jet skis, paragliders, motor gliders or flying in a helicopter. The trend has taken another turn recently, with paparazzi making use of drones to fly over celebrities’ wedding venues, such as for Tina Turner’s wedding, making it the most intrusive method and raising concerns over privacy.

How do you keep a celebrity wedding secret and secure from fans and paparazzi?

To keep their wedding secret, stars have to be resourceful and trust is not worth considering. The most effective way to do this and demonstrated by stars who have successfully decoy paparazzi is to keep the date and location confidential until the very last minute.

When certain stars reveal in tabloids where they plan on getting married, they also put themselves at the risk of having celebrity stalkers or over enthusiastic fans forcing their way into their private wedding.

In the past, we have had the chance to work alongside wedding planners for high-profile weddings and the norm for us to keep nuptials private and avoid non-official pictures to be taken, is to ask guests to hand out their phones to security staff as they arrive and make them sign non-disclosure agreements.

To ensure the overall security of the wedding, security guards must patrol the venue during the entire ceremony to detect intruders or any strange behaviour and the venue is monitored by CCTV and should be swept for hidden devices before the arrival of guests.

Honeymoon security

Honeymoon is the icing on the cake when you get married!

A honeymoon is the opportunity for the newly-weds to travel to an idyllic romantic destination and enjoy their very first moment as a married couple. Yet, the country you travel to may present security risks that you should be aware of by looking for travel advice and recommendations before your trip.

Bodyguards for honeymoons is a safe option, especially if the married couple is in the limelight to guarantee their safety while they visit and wonder around touristic sites.

At Intelligent Protection International Limited, we provide security and close protection for weddings and honeymoons all over the world. Our security guards and bodyguards are discreet, and our approach is usually covert, so security is unnoticed by your guests to avoid interfering with the festivities.

We can also offer residential security services in your absence when you are on honeymoon, if the idea of leaving your house unattended seems daunting to you.

If you are currently planning for your wedding and would like to employ the service of a professional event and wedding security provider, please see our page: Wedding Security Services.