3 Tips for Choosing Wedding Vendors

It’s initial meeting season for wedding professionals everywhere. Calendars are booked with prospective clients trying to find the best fit for their wedding. With so many options available for everything it can be overwhelming. Hiring an experienced wedding planner can help to alleviate some of this stress, but even finding the right planner can a tedious task. Most couples rely on wedding review website, others rely on referrals, but sometimes you need to hire someone you may not know.So, how do you choose?

• Online presence – marketing today is all about online presence. This does not mean wedding review sites or social media channels only. A vendor may not be on a popular review site for many reasons. Some of us are not “over sharers” and may not post our every thought on snap chat, we live in the real world where everything is not Instagram worthy. The best way, in my opinion is the vendor’s website. This is our storefront as most of us do not have actual offices. How is the information presented? Is the information useful? Are you able to connect to the vendor through the website? A website should tell you who the vendor is, what the vendor does and how to contact them. Bonus points if you can find them on social media and review sites.

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• Get to know us – however you find your vendors, get to know them. Whenever a client contacts me, I always try to set up an initial meeting. With most wedding vendors you can review their portfolio and pricing and decide if you want to hire. Wedding planners work a little differently, we are excellent at coordinating events, planning logistics etc., kinda hard to showcase that in our portfolio. An initial meeting allows you to read the vendor’s “vibe”, you do not want to be stuck with someone you can’t stand on your wedding day. For vendors who provide a product, you want to see their most recent portfolio, do your styles match? Some vendors, florist and photographers in particular have a signature style that may be difficult to deviate from, get to know your vendors and their work.

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• Pricing –  ‘ish just got real. Most couples will say it comes down to pricing, you may want to rethink this. I’m a firm believer in you get what you pay for. Wedding vendors understand you have a budget, everyone has one, heck we have one. As vendors vary, so do their prices; there are so many factors that go into pricing, usually experience is one of the main factors. If someone is charging you $500.00 for Day of Wedding Coordination, ask why, wedding flowers for $500.00, ask why? Can this vendor really earn a living doing this? Will this person be in business a year from now? I encourage you to look at VALUE, instead of pricing. What exactly are you getting? How does your vendor present themselves? Do I trust this vendor’s judgement? You will quickly come to realize it’s really not about price, but VALUE and SERVICE.

This post was obviously written from a planner’s perspective, but the same rules apply to most wedding vendors. I hope you found the information useful and it helps you select the best vendors for your wedding.

If you would like more information on the services we provide, send us an email, we would love to hear from you.

Happy Planning!

xogs.