How to choose the right wedding suppliers?
A useful article for 2016 and 2017 brides-to-be in the midst of their search!
1. Define the style and atmosphere you want your wedding to have
If you’re looking for a rustic, industrial, chic, retro or bohemian wedding, you’ve come to the right place. This preparatory work of choosing the spirit of your wedding will enable you to determine the style of service providers you will be looking for, who will please you and meet your expectations. Remember, you’re not changing the style and way of working of your photographer, caterer or florist! The world of your wedding and that of your suppliers have to match.
2. Determine your wedding budget and priorities
Of course it’s tedious! But it’s absolutely essential: you need to draw up a provisional budget in order to assess the various costs and set yourself a maximum budget so that everything doesn’t get out of hand! Once you’ve done this, you need to decide which jobs are your priorities and which you don’t want to compromise on. For example, if your priority is floral decoration, or an exceptional dinner, or an unforgettable wedding venue privatized for an entire weekend…
3. Then make a pre-selection
Once you have completed steps 1 and 2, you can select the appropriate service providers. If you’re not using a wedding planner, scour wedding blogs, dedicated magazines, instagram, pinterest… Choose a maximum of three service providers per category to test/meet, after of course checking their rates and availability.
4. Check your provider’s reliability
Yes, it’s a bit of a killjoy, but it can help you avoid a catastrophic D-day! You don’t want your service provider to let you down a fortnight before the wedding, or ruin your day with a shoddy service… So make sure he has a back-up solution in case he can’t make it, check that he’s properly insured for his activity, that he’s listed for the profession he practises and that he has all the necessary certificates, and finally that he’s in good financial health. You can delegate this tedious verification task to your wedding planner if you have one.
5. And above all, listen to yourself!
Choosing your service providers is above all a question of feeling! If you don’t get the hang of it, if you don’t feel totally at ease, it’s because you’ve chosen the wrong person! You need to feel you can rely on them on your big day. Don’t forget that you’ll be spending most of your day with some of them, just like the photographer! So we might as well make the most of it…