Congratulations on your engagement! It’s an exciting time for you and your future spouse, so don’t let the wedding planning process drag you both down. Hopefully, this guide will help you choose the best vendors for your wedding day who will work to make it as wonderful and magical as you imagine it to be.
Here are some great tips to help you through the process.
Know Your Budget Before You Start Looking
One of the biggest mistakes any couple can make when it comes to wedding planning is not budgeting. Money is one of the things that can cause a lot of stress not only in a marriage but also in your engagement. Sit down and have a real conversation about how much money you both actually have to invest in a wedding.
Talk with parents if applicable as well. Setting a firm budget will let you know how much you can invest in each of your wedding vendors and where you might need to make some adjustments to your expectations.
Ask for Referrals From Friends and Colleagues
Your friends and colleagues are a great place to get started. Perhaps you loved the cake at a friend’s wedding or you think the photos from her big day are dreamy. Maybe you’re not certain about a venue but you know someone who used it for a business conference.
Getting referrals from friends helps you to at least start a good list of possible wedding vendors in your area. While they may not be the right vendor for your wedding, you’ll at least know if there are any to consider or any to avoid.
Search Wedding Websites for Options
There are countless wedding websites that let you search for great vendors. Some of them even let you read reviews and discover more about pricing options and packages. You can even search for a cake decorator near me to find out who shows up in the Google rankings.
Cross-reference the vendors you find on Google on the wedding websites to see what additional information you can find. Read reviews, watch videos of them, and sift through their portfolio to determine if they are truly right for you and your wedding day.
Hiring vendors is an investment, but when you pick the right ones, they are worth every penny you spend.
Interview More Than One Person
The thing with weddings is that they are intimate gatherings. It’s more than a party, it’s a joining of two lives. Finding vendors who can not only do the things you want but can also celebrate with you is important. Equally important is finding people with personalities that don’t make you angry.
Vendors like wedding planners, photographers, and videographers especially should be carefully vetted to ensure they get along with your and your future spouse. This is because, on the wedding day, you’ll be spending a lot of time with each other.
Be Flexible
Every couple wants their wedding day to be perfect and dreamy. But there are so many things that you can’t predict. What if instead of being so rigid that you get angry when these things don’t go your way, you focus on being flexible. Have a plan A, B, and even C if needed.
To get what you want, you might need to change your wedding date. Perhaps you need to choose a different venue. And maybe the flowers you want can’t fit in the budget. What could you do instead? Find ways to be flexible about these things so that you can focus on the most important thing, you are marrying the love of your life.
Don’t Ask for Something They Don’t Offer
It’s like asking for live musicians from a DJ, or expecting cookies from a cake decorator. You need to understand the products and services that each vendor offers before you go asking them for something else. The same goes true for photographers. What you see is what you get.
If you want a photographer to shoot a certain style of photos or to edit them a specific way, then hire someone whose portfolio shows that kind of work. You would be amazed at how many brides and grooms start asking for services and styles that a vendor has never offered before. Be sure you determine what you want first, then find someone who offers it.