Choosing reliable, quality vendors for your client’s wedding can be stressful, especially if you’re either a new wedding professional who hasn’t had much interaction or experience with vendors before starting your business or a professional who travels to other, less familiar locations. Putting together one of the most important days of a couple’s life puts a heavy weight on your shoulders to ensure that not only are you getting everything done correctly, but that the vendors you choose are, too.
With so many to choose from, narrowing them down to the ultimate dream team can prove to be extremely difficult. We’ve learned what to look out for, questions to ask, and steps to take to rest assured knowing that the vendors you decide to go with can get the job done exceptionally well.
Learn Your Couple’s Style and Vision
It’s important that you’re extra familiar with your couple’s taste and their overall creative vision for their wedding day. Take down their wishes for the kind of editing style they’d like their photos to be, what style of hair and makeup the bride has in mind for herself and her bridal party, the kinds of flowers and arrangements they envision, the overall design and “feel” of their venue, and the like. All of these things will be important when researching vendors.
Pro tip: Have your couple create a Pinterest board with all kinds of images and styles that they like, from the decor to color palettes and beyond.
Do Your Research
In this day and age, you can find almost anything online. When researching vendors, pay attention to their portfolios. This is where your clients’ style will come into play as you want to make sure that the vendor’s style is what they’re looking for. Also pay attention to the details and execution. Most importantly, read each review carefully. If more than a couple people are saying they had a horrible experience with a vendor, chances are, you should move on to the next. The more reviews they have, the better!
Ask Other Vendors
If you’re able to narrow down at least the hair stylist, makeup artist, or photographer, don’t be afraid to ask them what other vendors they tend to work alongside and recommend. They’ll more than likely be able to give great suggestions, and that will help narrow down your search even more.
Keep Your Couple’s Budget in Mind
One of the main deciding factors in which vendors to choose will, of course, be the couple’s budget. Not only will you be limited to certain vendors based on their pricing, but you’ll also know right off the bat if you should be searching for affordable vendors or more luxury vendors.
Connect with Both the Vendor and Past Clients
While it’s important that you and your couple communicates directly with the vendor– either via in-person meeting, video chat, or phone call– to determine that their personalities align and they feel good about the person that’s going to be working their wedding, you should also try to take the time to connect with the vendor’s past clients so you can learn more about the vendor’s processes, their experience, what they loved most or disliked the most, etc. This is also extremely helpful for newcomers who want to find great talent to possibly collaborate with in the future.
Ask Your Married Friends
You probably know people who are married and those who just got married, so reach out to them also and have a similar conversation as you would when reaching out to vendors’ past clients. However, for both friends and past clients, keep in mind that their styles and tastes more than likely vary from your couple’s, so things they didn’t like, your couple might like, and vice versa.
There you have it! Those are our best tips to help you choose the best vendors for your couple. If you have other tips that helped you with this process, whether you’re a wedding professional or a couple reading this, feel free to reach out. We’d love to hear from you!
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