HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT WEDDING VENDOR

Tips and Tricks

Feb 24

Choosing your wedding vendors is one of, if not the most crucial, parts of planning your wedding. It can seem kind of overwhelming once you find out not only are there so many different kinds of vendors that you can hire, but that you have so many options within each category to choose from.

You may be wondering, “How on Earth do I choose?!” and “What kinds of questions should I be asking?” Well, as a former bride and a current wedding vendor myself, I’m here to hopefully alleviate any of your concerns and get you excited about all the options you have!

1. Set Your Budget

Not only do you need to be setting a budget for your wedding overall, but you also need to discuss with your fiancé what you want to devote to your vendors. Deciding on a budget will help you to narrow down your search and not have you looking at vendors that are out of your price range.

2. Prioritize

Take the time to sit down with your fiancé and make a list of what vendors are the most important to you both to find out which is at the top. Is it the videographer, photographer, etc? See what matches up and what doesn’t and find a way to compromise to make sure that you both get what you want out of the wedding. Once you’ve decided on what vendors take precedence, you’ll then know which ones to spend more time researching as well!

3. Where To Look

There are so many great places to find potential vendors, but my absolute favorites are below:

The Knot
Wedding Wire
Hashtags on Instagram
Local Bride Facebook Groups

While I love that The Knot and Wedding Wire allow you to search by area and by price range, not all vendors are listed there, so make sure that you’re checking other means of social media to find potential vendors.

So now what happens once you find a vendor you like?

Start by checking (stalking) all of their social media! By doing this, you’ll be able to get a feel for their style and who they are BEFORE you reach out. You don’t want to waste your time, or theirs, by contacting someone who’s style you may not love. (I.e. Do you love light and airy but they’re dark and moody?)

First Impressions Are Important!

Vendors do get busy, especially during the Summer and on the weekends, but still the length of time that it takes for them to respond to your emails is something to take note of. Also, their tone: are they excited or do they get straight down to business? If you prefer one or the other, this is something to pay attention to.

Personalities Matter

First of all, you need to know your own personality because yours and your potential vendor’s NEED to mesh. Book someone with a style that you love: are they more “Type A” or do they “go with the flow”? Photographers/Videographers/Planners are going to need to be the people that you WANT to spend time with because they will be with you the most during your wedding day. Personally, I chose vendors that I felt like I could be friends with outside of the wedding and that worked out great for me.

Have Options

No matter how much you like someone, do not book with them before you’ve had a chance to speak with anyone else. You should take some time to interview some more people and have some options. You may find someone the very next day who’s personality you mesh better with. This goes along with prioritizing, if your photographer is the most important, then spend more time meeting with them!

READ REVIEWS

If my all caps and bold-type wasn’t enough to tell you, this is SO IMPORTANT. Seeing first-hand how previous clients feel about a vendor is crucial. Take your time and read as many as you can. If you are unable to find any type of review on a potential vendor, I personally wouldn’t book them. Vendors should want to showcase their reviews, and if they’re not, then that’s a red flag. This is your WEDDING DAY, not the time to be taking any type of risk.

I hope that these tips helped at least one of you out in some way. If you go into wedding planning with these in mind, you’ll alleviate a lot of stress off of your shoulders because you’ll know that you have chosen vendors that you can trust and have your best interests at heart for your wedding day.

Happy Planning!