When planning your wedding one of the biggest parts of the planning process is choosing your vendors. Whether it’s your photographer, DJ or live band, hair and makeup, or any other vendors you may want for your wedding there are A LOT of options out there to choose from. With all the different vendors that go into a wedding and all the different options for those vendors, it’s easy to get overwhelmed ! That’s why I decided to break down exactly how to choose a wedding vendor so you won’t have to stress as much while planning your wedding. Let’s get into it !
What Vendors Will You Have at Your Wedding?
Before you get started on how exactly to go about choosing a vendor for your wedding, you and your lover will need to decide what kind of vendors you need. Dream up your wedding day and everything that you want to have to be a part of it. Do you want a videographer and a photographer or just a photographer? Is there a certain type of food you want at your wedding that has to be catered in or are you comfortable going with your venue’s offerings? Do you plan to have someone in your family provide the decorations or help with your hair and makeup?
There isn’t a right or wrong answer to any of these questions, but you have to be sure that you and your partner are on the same page here. It’s Important to keep in mind too that every venue has different policies when it comes to food and desserts to be aware of, more on that in a little bit !
Process of Choosing a Wedding Vendor
Now that you have a rough idea of what kind of vendors you want at your wedding it’s time to start your search. This process can be quick and straight to the point or it can take some time before you find the right vendor. One important thing to note is that you’re not always going to get your first choice of a specific vendor, whether it be due to scheduling conflicts, travel, or anything else. Don’t let this discourage you as there are SO many great wedding vendors out there to choose from.
Do Some Research
First and foremost you need to start researching potential vendors for your wedding. Sites like Instagram and Pinterest are great starting points for finding vendors. Use hashtags such as #wisconsinweddingphotographer, #milwaukeeweddingvideographer or similar searches for the vendor you’re looking for to get the ball rolling. Start making a list of the vendors that stick out to you so that you can reference them later. Be sure to look at more than just a single post for a vendor that catches your eye. While Instagram is usually a highlight reel for most vendors and won’t give you the full picture, you will start to get an idea of what their work is like.
Choose Your Top Three Wedding Vendors
After you do your research for a given wedding vendor it’s time to choose your top three. Like I mentioned before it’s important that you look into their work further than the first two or three instagram posts on their feed. Check out their website, look through their feed in depth, and pay attention to their wordage. You can get a fair bit of insight on what a vendor is like from how they talk online. Now that you have your top three it’s time to move on to the most fun part, the inquiry !
Inquire with Your Top Three
Now that you have your top three vendors selected it’s time to inquire with them through their respective website. Most vendors will either have a contact or inquiry page listed on their site that you can inquire through directly. It’s best to limit your inquiries to three vendors at a time. That way you aren’t overwhelming yourself with keeping track of too many vendors, and you won’t start the inquiry process unnecessarily if you do find a vendor you like that has your date available.
Once you Inquire and you find a wedding vendor that you like and they’re available for your date let them know you’d like to book them ! If none of your top three are available do not sweat it. Like I mentioned before there are SO many great vendors out there. Head on back to Insta or Pinterest and start your search from scratch. You can also ask your vendors you’ve already talked with if they have any recommendations that you could check out. Select your next top three and start your inquiry process again.
How to Tell a Vendor You’re not Choosing Them
Lastly you’ll want to let your wedding vendors that you’ve inquired with know if you’re not choosing them. Most vendors give their potential clients a period of time to make a decision. During that time they say no or hold off on booking other potential clients in awaiting your reply, so make sure to let them know!
Here’s a quick and easy email template you can use or refer to !
Hi ___!
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, we really appreciate it. In our search for a photographer/videographer etc. we’ve decided to go in another direction. Again we greatly appreciate you taking the time to talk through our wedding day with us!
Regards,
X
Keep it simple and respectful and you’ll be golden.
Finding and choosing wedding vendors can feel so overwhelming when you first start your wedding planning. It doesn’t have to be that way though ! Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to having some amazing vendors helping you through one of the happiest days of your lives. Are you in the market for some more wedding planning tips? Head over to my blog page here for more great tips !
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