Choosing Wedding Vendors

~ Choosing Wedding Vendors ~

Choosing wedding vendors can be very stressful. Sometimes you can get a recommendation from a friend and that might be OK, but only if you and your friend happen to like EXACTLY the same thing.

Maybe you went price shopping? That might be OK too, but remember the old saying: “You get what you pay for”? It’s usually true!

What about online review(s)? This could be your best source. The reasons are many. Let’s look at a few of them. You are getting objective feedback from people you don’t even know, not someone’s friend. How flexible are they? How well do they communicate with you? Have you heard them speak and believe they won’t be an embarrassment by either their actions or dress code? It’s important because they are interacting with you and your GUESTS at the reception.

Will Everyone Play Nice?

Remember your vendors need to all work together, but will they? I know of several vendors that won’t play nicely with others and I have even been told “They [B&G] don’t know anything, we’re doing this my way”. There goes months of planning, because of one vendor. Ask your other vendors for recommendations. They will know who plays well in the vendor sandbox.

Be leery of slick advertisements. For example if someone says they have over 20 years experience and they are a part-timer, then you can assume they haven’t done nearly as many weddings. Why wouldn’t they be honest and say how many they have done? If I DJ’d a company Christmas party for 20 years and tell everyone I have 20 years of experience, I’m not lying to you, but what I’m hiding from you is the fact that I don’t want you to know that I have only done 20 Christmas parties in my entire career. This number could easily be done in 2 years by a full-time company that has more than one DJ. Be careful with anyone only stating how many years they have been doing this or that. Get real numbers and ask them tough questions.

Help!!!

What should you start with? My advice is to always know what your wedding budget is. Let’s face it, everything cost money. By knowing what is most important to you, then you can direct more of your budget towards those items. The other stuff can take a pay cut. I’ve never heard of a couple that checked in to what a weddings actually cost BEFORE the proposal. So here you are, going to a tons of websites, most you don’t even care about because all you need to get an idea of what each services will cost. What if I told you there was a better way? There is… Let’s start with my home state of Louisiana. The average cost of a wedding is $33,000. In the New Orleans, LA area it’s $44,000. I’m not kidding. Having a formal wedding ceremony and reception is expensive. Here’s a link to a website that can give you a lot of great cost information, no matter where you are located. It’s called Cost of Wedding and the link is here. Good Luck!