Are you embarking on planning your big day and and looking at choosing your wedding suppliers? I hope these hints and tips will help you to make great choices….
Research
I know, there are so, so many blogs and magazines, where do you even start? Well better that than none. I suggest you choose 3-5 blogs and a couple of magazines which really excite you and fit the style of wedding you want, rather than trawling through every bit of media you can find.
Some of my favourites given the type of wedding and client I work with, are English Wedding, Love My Dress, Rock My Wedding and Flyaway Bride.
Start some Pinterest boards of the style of dress, flowers, cake etc you love. This can really help focus you.
Attend some wedding fayres and showcase events so you can see layouts, touch and feel flowers, cakes, linens etc and importantly you can meet the business owners. This really helps with choosing your wedding suppliers as you will discover whether you actually get on.
If you have booked your venue, or indeed other suppliers, ask for their preferred list: venues choose their preferred suppliers because they work well together, photographers will introduce you to film makers they love to work with, florists to cake designers, etc.
And don’t forget friends and family. If you adored the linens at your cousin’s wedding, ask where she hired from: you don’t have to choose the same again, but you know the quality and service will be good.
Shortlist and Meet Up
When meeting potential suppliers, aside from the fact that you love their work, consider the following:
- Do they get excited with you and make suggestions to build on your own ideas, or do they steam roll their ‘norm’ onto you?
- Do you feel 100% comfortable with them? You will work with them for months and may need to share sensitive information with some.
- Do they return your calls and emails promptly? If the answer is no when you have yet to book them, think carefully.
- Are they truly welcoming?
- Does the owner of the bridal store embrace the fact that you and your 6 bridesmaids are an eclectic mix of shapes, sizes, ages and colours or look down her nose at anyone who isn’t a perfect size 8?
- Does the florist pore over the stunning floral display you found in a high end magazine and suggest ways of achieving the look within your budget, or does she shrug and show you ‘what we always do at this venue’?
Ask, ask and ask again:
Don’t be put off, or in any way afraid, of asking all you need to understand. Even if they’ve been in business for thirty years, you’re planning a wedding for the first time and they should understand this and be patient.
Ask to speak to a couple of their recent wedding clients: any good supplier will be more than willing to put you in touch with people if they know they’ve done a great job.
And finally:
- Don’t choose purely on price: it’s tempting, as weddings are expensive, but if you ‘click’ and you both want to work together there is often a way of doing so which works for you both. A photographer might work a couple fewer hours than usual in order to meet your budget, or you might have two tiers of dummy cake, with cutting cakes in the kitchen, thus reducing costs somewhat.
- Listen to your intuition – ladies, we are good at this, but I know many gents are too. If something doesn’t feel totally right, it probably isn’t.
I hope this has helped a little with choosing your wedding suppliers.
Happy planning all!
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Photographer Credits: Adam Hollier, Zoe C Photography and Pearl Pictures.