A big part of my objective with ELD is to educate brides throughout the wedding planning process. I myself had no clue about anything when I was planning my wedding. Working in weddings after my wedding opened my eyes to lots of things- many of which would have resulted in a *much* better wedding, if only I had known. And it’s for this reason that I share the information I do- so you can learn from my mistakes and have a better wedding than I did!
Since many of you are in the midst of planning your weddings, I thought that some tips about working with your wedding vendors would be helpful to know…
Go to your meetings prepared.
Bring photos, swatches, contracts- whatever you desire really. Have a couple of questions. If you don’t have any clue about what to expect for the meeting, it doesn’t hurt to ask beforehand. If you’re going to an initial consultation, have an idea in your head of what you want your wedding to be like. If you’re at a complete loss, try the {ELD} Style Dictionary for some help. If that’s the case, tell the vendor outright that you haven’t decided on what kind of wedding you want.
READ: Questions Are A Good Thing
TALK to your vendors.
As much as wedding vendors wish they could, they unfortunately can’t read your mind and know what you want. If you don’t have anything specific that you want, tell them so they can give you ideas and suggestions. And if you do have something in particular in mind, by all means, please share!
READ: Things To Keep In Mind When Communicating With Vendors
Don’t be afraid to ask your vendors for other referrals.
If you’re in search of more vendors, ask the ones you’ve already hired for recommendations. Chances are good that they’ll be able to recommend awesome vendors that they like working with. Good vendors working with each other results in a good experience for ALL!
READ: Finding Your Wedding Vendors
Have patience.
Your wedding vendors work weekends, of course, as most weddings are on weekends. However, just because they are “working” does not mean that they are sitting at their desks all weekend. They’re out, on location, at weddings, working. Please don’t be worried or mad if an email you send on the weekend or at the end of the week isn’t returned immediately. I know they’re all super awesome at returning emails during the week, but come Thursday or Friday, things can turn into a madhouse preparing for weddings. Please have patience with your vendors if you send emails during “peak days”, and give them time to get back to the office and respond. [PS: I was totally a bride who didn’t understand this concept. I literally would refresh my email every 10 minutes waiting for a response. What can I say? I was excited! ;)]
READ: 5 Things To Know About Wedding Vendors
Running late for a meeting or did life just get in the way?
Call the vendor and let them know! Wedding vendors don’t have the most normal schedules, and although most of the time they’re very accommodating, more times than not they also have lots of other things on their plate.
READ: Vendor Meetings
Your wedding vendors’ respective profession is their career and job.
Chances are good that they don’t do it “on the side” or as a “hobby”. Meaning that what they do is their livelihood and how they put food in their family’s mouth, just like your job. Yes, they love what they do and it’s a fun, rewarding job, but they also have to make money. Their prices are what they are because it’s what they live off of.
READ: 3 Things Vendors Don’t Tell You
Inform your vendors!
Some vendors you have that may be working with family members on the day of your wedding (coordinator, planner, photographer, videographer, DJ) won’t know what their names are unless you specifically tell them. Give them specific names for your bridal party and any key family members involved. For photos, have a family member act as the “round up person” to get needed family members efficiently, as they will know what Uncle Joe looks like, and the photographer won’t!
READ: 10 Things You Need To Know Before Your Wedding Day!
And of course everything is better and easier when you have a wedding planner/coordinator. It’s pretty much unanimously agreed upon by all wedding vendors. :)
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These tidbits will be helpful to know when working with your wedding vendors. Hopefully it will help you all have great experiences with your vendors! And any vendors or brides, feel free to share your tips in the comments as well!
Lauren
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As always, great insight! It’s great to give brides and grooms tips on how to deal with other vendors and what to do in order to prep for meetings. So many don’t know how the process works as, well, they might be getting married for the first time. Great post!
Aleah
These are great tips. As a photographer I really appreciate what you have written! If you don’t mind, I am going to post this on my blog – I will of course give all credit to you and link to your blog.
My blog is http://www.imagesbybethany.com/blog – so that you can see what I have posted :)
Thanks for putting these tips together! I’m going to post this on my blog (I’m a photographer too).
Great post. As a wedding photographer, I always find it helpful to send my prospective clients a quick “Getting to Know You” questionnaire before our first meeting/consultation. This helps me better understand the client, their impressions on how photography can enhance their day and gives me a good insight into the wedding day details. This helps me better prepare for the meeting and bring any materials that will support why my services are a good fit for their needs.
I think asking your vendor about other vendors is a great idea. I personally keep a vendor list of vendors that I collaborate with and vendors I admire for their work.
I think this post is great! It’s so good for the Bride/Groom to come prepared with questions. As a vendor we do try to share anything and everything we can that might be a question they might forget, but ultimately it comes down to them!
Great post! Clients should trust their vendors and understand that this is what we do day in and day out. Thanks for sharing this- especially the comment on vendors working the weekend on location :)
Great tips Lauren! It is always important for brides and grooms to be prepared for these meetings, even if we are designing the wedding for them. It is nice for them to share their style and their ideas, and especially with vendors like florists as well. Love the tips on the meetings too!
Amazing tips!! These are things every bride should know. If you don’t mind, I might link to you from my blog as well. I know some brides who could really benefit from reading your advice!
These is such a great list! Especially the points about always asking for vendor recommendations and talking to your vendor about family members who they’re going to be working with. Love it!
Wonderful tips! Thank you, Lauren. I have a lighting design company and agree that bringing photos or swatches can help us better create what the bride is envisioning for her wedding.
Amen sistah! Awesome advice!
Great post and great tips for both the clients and the vendors!
Thank you very much to share this information. It is very useful and informative.
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