Vogue just put out an article that said that wedding photographers are no longer needed in the world today. It was listed in their Top 10 Rules to Break for weddings. Do you need a wedding photographer? We are wedding photographers and we should be telling you yes, but it really is up to you and what you want to invest in for the future.
If you are just thinking about facebook and social media, you will get a ton of photos from your friends taking photos off of their phone. The photos could be good or they could be a terrible mess. Even the casual hobby photographer can come away with a terrible mess on a wedding day with their camera.
A wedding photographer is skilled at their position and they know what to expect going into a wedding. They are prepared for any situation and will be able to capture it with their gear. If the lighting is not right for a cell phone to take the photo, the photographer will have the proper gear to capture the moment.
When you book a photographer, they are their to piece together the whole event as an art form. It won't be a couple of snap shots off of a phone, but it will be beautiful work put together from throughout the day.
Your wedding is only going to happen once and it goes by so fast that you will want someone to be able to capture every single piece of it. All the planning that has been done for that day and it is over in an instant.