Tips on How to Find The Perfect Wedding Vendors
There’s no wrong answer to the question of where you should begin with your wedding planning timeline. It all just depends upon what you value most. If you feel overwhelmed, or are just too busy, then a planner would be super beneficial. As your wedding vendors, we’re here to walk you through all things wedding and the following guide is a perfect first step!
The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Your Wedding Vendors
Choosing your wedding vendors can be more stressful than it actually needs to be. In order to eliminate this stress, you must first choose which of the following three methods work best for you.
Step #1: Choose Your Own Wedding Vendors Checklist
- Method #1: Choose an all-inclusive wedding venue that provides most if not all of the vendors. Generally, if there are any vendors the venue does not cover, they provide a list of recommendations for you to choose from. This narrows it down and often includes a day-of wedding coordinator to help pull it all together.
- Method #2: Hire a wedding planner. Communicate your vision, preferences and budget constraints then leave the selection/hiring process up to them. As your photographer, sometimes I will chat with your planner before we meet.
- Method #3: Outside of the venue and photographer, don’t hire any others and use DIY wedding ideas to build your day relying upon friends and family to pull it all together.
No matter which route or combination of paths you choose, a portion of your day will be entrusted to someone else. Whoever that is, be sure you trust them with putting together your wedding vision so that you can enjoy a completely relaxed wedding experience!
Step #2: Select Your Wedding Venue & Photographer
Once couples have a few ideas about their wedding style, most will then lock in their venue and photographer. Start by finding a wedding venue that speaks to you both and fits your personality as a couple. As this bride shared, “Once we had that it helped us visualize the decor and the general vibe we wanted for the day.”
If you’ve had your eye set on a certain vendor, you should check their availability before officially booking your venue. As Corey noted, it’s important “to make critical vendor selections early, as people often get booked up fast. We had one vendor tell us they were booked out two years in advance!”
She continued, “Shelly was our first vendor selection as photography was a top priority for us and we felt inspired by her style. Who captures your day makes a huge difference–you have to be in sync.” Your photographer’s artwork is how you are going to relive your day, so make sure you absolutely trust them and love their work!
For the rest of her wedding vendor list Corey relied upon Instagram searches and recommendations by current vendors like my own wedding videographer recommendations. Instagram can be a goldmine of great inspiration and vendors in addition to any names provided by your wedding planner.
With your wedding planning checklist and venue selected, it’s easy to secure everything else before it’s booked out!
Step #3: Choose the Wedding Vendors That Fit YOU
The remaining wedding vendors that you select depend upon your priorities. You’ll put the majority of your budget towards the parts that matter the most to you. Following the photographer and venue, that could be the caterer, florist, videographer, DJ or even putting funds towards your honeymoon.
What follows is ensuring that your vendors are a great personality fit for you! Their artistic style should match ya’lls vision for the day. Are you looking for wildly inspired florals or full-on glam decor? Chat beforehand to make sure you’re choosing vendors that specialize in how you are dreaming up your day.
Step #4: Once You Have Them, Treat Them Well
I speak from personal experience that oftentimes any mistreatment of wedding vendors often stems from the fact that the couple is just unaware of what the vendors’ need. Here are some wedding vendor tips for treating them well so that they can do their best work:
- Fill out all questions on the contact form and questionnaires. It helps decide if y’all will match personality-wise by getting to know you better.
- Don’t get Google-crazed with questions you think you’re supposed to ask. Here are some example questions from the process of hiring a videographer. Keep them specific to your own concerns or confusion and check first that your these aren’t already answered on their site.
- I recommend talking to a few folks, but don’t overwhelm yourself with 15 different caterers. Three per category is usually the sweet spot.
- Keep it professional, sticking to the vendor’s preferred means of communication which is generally email. Most vendors are OK with texting during the final weeks leading up to your day but respect their boundaries by not contacting them constantly. Thank them throughout the process and leave the tips for wedding vendors up to your own judgment.
- On the wedding day, make sure you feed your vendors and communicate with caterers about when certain vendors should eat their meal. For example, wedding photographers need to eat early in order to capture the wedding events and not delay the wedding photography timeline. They should be fed either at the same time as you or right after the wedding party so they can be ready to capture those memories!
How It Changes For Destination Weddings & Elopements
The planning of a wedding that includes travel usually falls specifically to a destination wedding planner. For an elopement, you can be much more flexible with the location and timing. The details can be left up to your elopement photographer or you can finalize them on your own.
For my own vow renewals with my husband in Italy, our travel photographer’s husband did our flowers and styled our little picnic on the mountain. I then found my own hair and makeup artist! When I photographed an intimate wedding in Italy, the bride had a planner that helped her find all of the wedding vendors except her destination wedding photographer. The planner was local to Sorrento, Italy where the wedding took place so it was super helpful!
If you are planning a destination wedding at a venue out of the country, I would use everything on site except the photographer, this will add convenience and avoid standard-looking photography.
If a photographer is the first pick of your wedding vendors, then let’s get started!
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