Wedding Vendors are the experts that will execute your plans and will bring your wedding vision to life. Before signing contracts, it’s important to do the research, know your budget and your wedding priorities to narrow down your search.

While you’re at this phase of wedding planning, choosing the perfect vendors can be overwhelming due to so many options available to you. To make this process easy for you, I’m here to help you with some tips on what to look out for and the mistakes to avoid while selecting your vendors.

Here are my top tips for choosing the perfect vendors for your wedding day:

Stick with your budget. When choosing wedding professionals it’s important to know what you can and cannot afford. Sit with your Fiance and list out how much you are going to spend per vendor.

Create a Plan. It’s important to try not to book all of your vendors at once, it’ll quickly overwhelm you and you’ll find that money is being spent way too much. Sit with your Fiancé and come up with a plan and figure out which vendors you are going to secure first. Best tip I can give is to figure out your priority vendors first and then work your way down.

Do your research. Before booking any wedding vendors, make sure to do your research. Check the reviews online to see how their ratings are. If you can, chat with past clients they’ve had, they will definitely give you a honest opinion on their experience with that vendor. Also, you want to make sure the vendor is within your budget, you don’t want to waste your time during that first meeting and to find out they’re not within your price point.

Ask your Wedding Planner. Having a Wedding Planner by your side can help you narrow down your search. They’ll already know your personality, wedding vision, style and budget. And they will match you with the perfect wedding vendor. Working with a Planner they’ll handle a lot of the heavy loads of your wedding plans – the scheduling, logistics, vendor management, handle emails and much more.

Meet for a consultation. Before signing contracts, make sure to have that one on one consultation first. Don’t book them based off of a few conversations via email. I understand we’re in a pandemic and not a lot of face to face meetings aren’t happening right now, but you can request to set up a Zoom meeting. This works just as good as meeting with them in person, because you’ll be able to actually speak with them one on one and see how well you both connect. It’s important to use that time to discuss your wedding vision, your expectations and to ask questions.

First impressions are everything. Things to look out for before booking your wedding vendors – Are they professional, do they respond in a timely manner, do they mesh well with your personality? Are they showing signs of a bad attitude and being defensive when asking “too many” questions?Yeah, i’d suggest trusting your gut and recognize that they may not be the right fit, you don’t want to have any regrets.

Have options. Please, whatever you do, don’t book the first vendor you interview. It’s important to have options and to interview a few vendors before making a decision. Take note of which ones stuck out to the most and narrow down your list.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you and that particular vendor hit it off well in the beginning, make a note to yourself that he/she might be a perfect fit for you. Also note, try not to look up too many vendors because it will become super overwhelming by having so many options. I’d suggest sticking with three options per vendor.

While going through this interviewing phase, it can be overwhelming but make sure to really take the time to do your research with your Fiancé before signing any contracts and paying deposits. You’d want to create that dream team to help you make your wedding day special. Also, have fun with it, sourcing vendors is serious yes, but just have fun with it. Celebrate each time you secure a vendor!

XO, Jalyssa