How To Choose The Right Vendors For Your Wedding — 7 Tips

Newly engaged and thrilled about all the wedding plans ahead? Well, you should it be! It is your day and you should celebrate it as and how you and your partner would want to. Wedding planning is no piece of cake, no matter how large or small scale you would want to celebrate, there are a lot of things that need to be considered. Of course, since you are newly engaged, you are quite in the dream phase, building up your mood board, having all your ideas laid out without considering the costs, or any other factor. While this is all good and surely a part of the wedding planning process, one day during that process, you will realise that it is time to have the actuals in front of you – because, let us be honest, the wedding date will creep up soon enough. 

When planning a wedding, you need to finalise a date, that is the first order of business. Once that is sorted, the next item on your list to find and finalize a venue/ location for the wedding. Nailing down these two items on the list can take a little bit of time, but once you are done with it, you move on to a new territory, which is quite exciting, that are; vendors for your wedding.That can be a tricky aspect. But do not fret, because we have put together a list of tips. These tips will give you an understanding and clear picture as to what or how you go about deciding the vendors for your wedding. However, do remember one thing – no matter how good the vendor seems to be through pictures or raving online reviews, you need to be comfortable with them. If they match the vibe and personality, that you are looking for, then go for them.

Wedding vendor
Wedding vendor

A lot of research and effort goes into picking a vendor, and we are here to just nudge those decisions with some important tips or insights. So, scroll down below and get started with your exciting chapter in wedding planning! 

Discuss a budget well in advance

Budgeting is quite important in wedding planning, and also when choosing a vendor. Setting a budget helps you analyse where you are spending your money and on how many vendors. A wedding is quite wholesome, there are bound to be vendor charges among many other miscellaneous charges. So, before discussing or reaching out to vendors it is best to keep at least a ballpark budget in mind. There is always the situation or more or less, when it comes to cost – discuss them with the vendor and see if they are able to plan things as per your requirement within the budget that you had assumed. It is extremely important that you and your fiancé are on the same page when it comes to budget talks – so that it does not make things awkward when having these discussions with vendors.

Do your research

There could be chances of friends who have gotten married and who are recommending vendors for your wedding. While, that is often helpful and a good starting point, do not just go for those vendors just because you received a referral. Those vendors may have matched your friend’s expectations, it is not necessarily the right option for you. Additionally, research is your best friend during this course. Go online and look at the vendors that you are choosing or shortlisting, review their socials, the online reviews, look if any wedding portals have spoken about them, give those vendors a call – listen to them, see if they are enthusiastic, detail oriented. All of this counts, when choosing the right vendor for your wedding.

If you are planning a destination wedding, choose a local vendor and planner

This really helps, in ways you cannot imagine! Even though there are vendors and planners who have planned and successfully celebrated weddings for couples in different destination (if you are comfortable with this, then go for it). However, choosing a local vendor and planner helps tremendously. Local vendors will seamlessly get the work done without the additional charges for travel and stay, so it gets friendly towards your pocket. They know the destination, in and out and will be able to help you out with any difficulty you are facing with regards to travel, accommodation, sourcing and so many other things too.

Breakup the budget upon vendor priorities

In a wedding there are some non-negotiables. It could be that you and your partner want the best photographers and decorators. Here, you could breakup your budget in a way where you would not mind spending a money on these vendors, since these are the utmost importance to you. For the other vendors, we would not say to completely ignore them, but you could spend lesser there. It is all about breaking up the budget in a way that you can accommodate the non-negotiables more.

Ask Questions

Asking questions goes a long way, it is your wedding and you and your partner are and will be spending quite a bit of money so you should be able to comfortably ask any question that comes to your mind to ease and put away the doubt. Also, while asking questions, see how the vendor responds. Do they take a long time to get back to you, do they seem detail oriented – do they give you examples. All of these things take account into choosing if the vendor is right for your wedding or not.

Understand all the fees and charges

When availing services of any vendors, there is always a cost. It is either merged with the cost of service they offer (décor, music) or they have a separate cost (10% fee) on their work. It is best to discuss all of this beforehand before delving deeper and going ahead with them. Be clear of the charges, the advance payments that need to be made, so that there is no misunderstanding or shocking moments ahead. It is better to know and be prepared, than surprised at the end moment.

 Read the fine print

Once you finalize your vendors or planners, a contract is shared where you sign and confirm that they will be catering their services for your wedding. While you may have had great conversations and clarified multiple things on a phone call or even through email, you must read the fine print on the contract. Make sure that you read and understand the entire contract, thoroughly. If something is not mentioned on the contract, go back to the vendor discuss the same and get it in writing (in the contract), because once you sign that contract it means that you have confirmed on things.

When you are planning and discussing about your wedding vendors you will know which one fits you best. Just use the above tips as guidelines that will navigate you through the course and all will be great! 

 

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