Hiring the right wedding vendor team to assist you on your wedding day will play a huge factor into how your day will go. You want to select a team of wedding vendors who are experienced, passionate, and attentive to their role on your big day. With a large market, it’s easy to get overwhelmed deciding who to hire. Fear not, we are here to help you break down who you need to hire and what you need to look for.
Your Wedding Vendor Team
Wedding Vendors You Should Hire ASAP
Wedding Venue
Wedding Planner
Photographer
Caterer
Entertainment (Band/DJ)
Florist
Cake Baker/Decorator
Some Others to Consider
Videographer
Content Creator
Rentals (Champagne Wall, Guest Book Phone Booth, Photo Booth, etc.)
Dessert Caterer
Wedding Planner
Hiring a wedding planner from the start will take away much of the stress and keep you on the right track for where you should be in your planning. A good planner will have great attention to detail. A good sign that they have this is if they are asking a lot of questions about things you never thought of. This shows their level of experience, as they’ve dealt with many situations before, meaning they will be able to tackle any hurdles with ease.
Some other things to consider when hiring a wedding planner is their style, how involved they will be with you, and how accommodating they will be. Before shopping around for the right wedding planner, ask yourself what you’d like to have your wedding planner do for you at the wedding. This will help you determine how involved you’d like the wedding planner to be and if they are the right one for you.
Wedding Venue
If not before the wedding planner, finding a venue is one of the first things you should do when planning your wedding. The venue will help you determine many other factors depending on what they include in their rental. Do they have on-site coordinators? Caterers? Tables and chairs you like? Not only will seeing all a venue has to offer will help you determine if you would like to use it, but also who you need to add to your wedding vendor team.
In addition to what you’ll need and finding the perfect space for your wedding, booking your venue also locks in your date. Most vendors will not work with you unless you have a date secured, as they will need to put the date on their calendar.
Photographer
Hiring a wedding photographer should also be done rather sooner in your wedding planner process. The reason being photography is a highly desired service at weddings, meaning the best of the best are booked early. You’ll want to reach out as far out as possible to book your date with your photographer before someone else gets it.
Finding the right photographer can be a challenge with all of the beautiful photos to go through in each one’s portfolio. One thing you should look out for is how responsive a photographer is. Are they replying to your emails within a timely manner before you even hire them? Are they communicating their availability (for their responses, not just your wedding date!). Making sure you have a photographer that is thorough in communication is important.
Caterer
One thing your guests are depending on at your wedding is food! When handling the catering part of your wedding vendor team, you’ll want to make sure the food will taste great, be of great quality, and served with the utmost hospitality. Check with a caterer to see if they offer tastings or if there is a restaurant affiliated with the caterer, have a date night and try out the food and service.
Also make sure you’re going to like the type of food the caterer makes. You want the food to make you happy! It’s also important to ask how they handle food allergies or special meals such as vegan. A good caterer will have dishes to accommodate any dietary needs you or your guests may have.
You’ll also want to ask if your caterer offers bar services. If not, you may need to find a bar service that is licensed and insured and add them to your team!
Entertainment (Band/DJ)
The entertainment you select for your wedding reception will make the lasting impression your guests will remember for your wedding. DJs are great to hire because they can also manage the audio for your ceremony, and emcee your reception, keeping everyone and everything on the timeline. Bands are a wonderful element to a wedding that can put a personal touch on the memories that will be made – who doesn’t enjoy live music? If hiring a band, ask them what all they provide in terms of entertainment. Most will not be able to manage the ceremony, in which you’ll need to hire an audio tech for. Some bands will emcee the reception, but not all will. Also check with bands to see how long they will play for and if they will need to take breaks.
Florist
Reaching out to your florist of choice early on is always a good idea. Flowers are imported from all over the world, so it’s important to give your florist time to ensure they can source the flowers you envision by the time you will need them. You can vet florists by their portfolios online (social media!) and visiting their shop to look at some of their current projects.
Cake Baker / Decorator
The final needed wedding vendor you want to make sure is on your team is the cake baker of course! You can vet a bakery by visiting and sampling some goods before investing in the entire wedding cake. Also check with the bakery to see that they can accommodate any dietary needs you or your guests might have. Most bakers are able to make this happen and can make one of the layers allergen free so that everyone can enjoy!
Other Vendors
You may want to add more members to your wedding vendor list to add extra elements of pizazz to your wedding. Videographers are a nice complement to photographers and give you multiple sources of media to look back on your day. You may want to add some more entertainment for your guests like a photobooth or guest book phone booth, or even add a touch of style with a champagne wall. Be sure to ask good questions and vet your vendors before hiring them. Your wedding planner can help you do all of this with ease.
When your wedding day comes, you’ll find that most of your wedding vendors will care for you more than most of your friends and family. A passionate wedding vendor does their job because they love making the magic of weddings happen and they want the couple to be in wedding bliss! Finding your wedding dream team will take some time and effort, but once you have them on your roster, they will make sure you get the wedding of your dreams!
Ready to start building YOUR wedding vendor dream team? Let’s start planning today!