Working with wedding vendors can feel overwhelming at first, but understanding their roles-and how to collaborate well with them can make all the difference. Check out the ten insider secrets about wedding vendors.
Planning your wedding marks the beginning of an exciting phase in your life. Amidst the many decisions you’ll make about your wedding day style, ceremony, and reception, you’ll also find yourself navigating a flurry of new relationships with wedding professionals from every facet of the industry. From your venue to planner, cake decorator, photographer, seamstress, bar service, videographer, and more, every wedding service is represented or provided by a different professional with whom you have limited prior knowledge or experience.
To achieve the best possible experience for your wedding and your relationships with your vendors, it’s worth learning more about wedding professionals and their work. When you apply this knowledge to your interactions with your vendors, you’ll receive genuine engagement, whole-hearted support, and a team of professionals who cheer for and support you every step down the aisle and into your beautiful marriage.
1. THEY VALUE CLEAR COMMUNICATION JUST AS MUCH AS YOU DO
The first stop on the ten insider secrets about wedding vendors is the jumping off point for every working relationship. Communication is vital for any relationship; the same is true for your relationship with your wedding professionals. Clear, honest communication is necessary in every interaction, from initial meetings to final touch points. Your vendors want to build your working relationship by providing clear expectations and timelines; they appreciate your desire to do the same.
When communication is unclear, it’s easy for one or both parties to have unrealistic expectations or establish distrust. If you need clarification, don’t be afraid to ask. Allowing your vendors to bring more clarity and ensure you are on the same page will guarantee everyone’s expectations are aligned and build trust within your relationship.
2. THEY WANT TO TRUST YOU AS MUCH AS YOU WANT TO TRUST THEM
Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life. The sheer logistics of coordinating the ceremony and celebration is a feat of impressive proportions. Factor in the dynamics that accompany bringing all your closest friends and family together, and there’s a strong likelihood your wedding may carry more than a fraction of stress for you both.
When you establish a relationship built on trust, you are rewarded with a fantastic support team to help you through every moment of your wedding day. In return, give them the freedom to do their best work without worry about micromanagement.
Be clear with your vendors; if you have questions or concerns, voice them. In return, when they have questions or need information from you, be quick to provide it. They ask for information to provide you with the best service possible. Building your wedding professional relationships on trust establishes the foundation for a worry-free wedding day filled with beautiful memories and far less stress.
3. THEY ARE KNOWLEDGABLE BUT NOT OMNISCIENT
Wedding industry professionals have seen and know much about their profession, but they are not clairvoyant. While seasoned professionals have experienced many things, you will set yourself up for disappointment if you assume any vendor knows it all. Rather than assume your vendor will be able to anticipate what you are thinking and feeling, be open and honest about your unique needs, vision, and desires for your wedding. By operating with this baseline, you will help eliminate unmet expectations on your wedding day and give yourselves and your vendors the best chance for an enjoyable experience.
4. THEIR PASSION FOR WEDDINGS RIVAL NONE, BUT THEY NEED SOME DOWNTIME TO RECHARGE
Wedding professionals carry an intense workload that extends far beyond the hours of work you see them complete on your wedding day. Their work includes endless administrative formalities such as website design and upkeep, responding to inquiries, scheduling meetings and calls, ordering product, creating social media content, and responding to every client email, phone call, and text. They complete all these tasks, fulfill the services, and deliver the final products for every couple. A reminder that your vendor is a working human, just like you, on the ten insider secrets about wedding vendors.
Vendors love their creative work, but the vast majority of the work they do for weddings falls into administrative and business management categories. For them to continue to create the beautiful wedding work they craft that inspires you and others, they need to take downtime to recharge and refresh. Without carving out this space for rest, they will quickly find themselves approaching burnout; their creativity and quality of service will be negatively affected. They often don’t want to take these breaks because they love their work, but just like everyone else, they need a healthy work-life balance.
5. THEY ARE PROUD TO BE PART OF A CLOSE-KNIT VENDOR COMMUNITY
Wedding professionals are some of the most team-oriented people you’ll ever meet. Vendors put immense effort into developing, maintaining, and strengthening working relationships with others in their field to the incredible benefit of their couples. Regarding networking, wedding industry professionals are effortless champions of building each other up and recommending those who do great work to their clients. Vendors who work together frequently develop a working dynamic and relationship that translates directly to your wedding day and enables them to work together flawlessly behind the scenes to provide you the best experience possible.
6. THEY WANT WEDDING COUPLES WHO INVEST TIME AND ENERGY INTO WORKING WITH THEM
Relationships require time, intentionality, and energy, whether personal or professional. Your vendor relationships will extend for the months leading up to your wedding and possibly for years beyond. Wedding professionals want to know you and understand your hopes and dreams for your big day. They spend endless hours learning everything about your plans to help achieve your perfect vision.
When you invest the time to complete their questionnaires or forms and return their calls or emails, you are providing them with what they need to serve you and your guests well. When couples fail to complete wedding-day timeline information promptly or do not keep appointments or calls to discuss detailed plans, this compromises their ability to provide you with the best possible service. This stop on the ten insider secrets about wedding vendors is a reminder to do your homework.
7. THEY HAVE A SECRET SUPERPOWER: ADAPTABILITY
The most essential little-known skill wedding professionals wield is the ability to adapt. This is an incredible benefit to you and your guests because even the most well-planned wedding can be affected by an unexpected event. Their work requires them to have an incredible aptitude for problem-solving to provide the best possible service and outcome in any given situation. Weather challenges, attire malfunctions, timeline shifts, reception changes, and more present them ample opportunities to think on their feet at every single event.
From last minute photo location changes to seating chart challenges, to veil malfunctions and late deliveries, wedding professionals are heroes when it comes to adapting and making the best of every situation.
8. THEY MANAGE MULTIPLE WEDDING COUPLES WITH EXCEPTIONAL PERSONALIZED SERVICE
Wedding professionals are masters at providing highly-personalized service to multiple couples at any given time. From personal emails and phone calls, to meetings and walk-throughs, a true professional provides each couple with service and engagement. Depending on when the wedding will take place, they are consistently providing specialized service at varying levels of interaction.
For couples who will wed within the week, they are often on-call for last minute questions or concerns. For couples who will wed within the month, they are providing last minute availability for phone calls or meetings to discuss family dynamics and the wedding timeline. For couples who will wed in a few months, they are providing vendor recommendations and offering support as needed. For new couples who are inquiring about booking, they are providing options and information about available services.
Regardless of where their couples are in the planning process, vendors provide highly personalized service as needed.
9. THEY ENJOY GIVING CREATIVE INPUT WHEN YOU ASK FOR THEIR OPINIONS
Vendors have the unique experience of witnessing countless weddings and seeing different ways of celebrating a wedding day. Because of these experiences, they are often primed with many unique, creative suggestions to help elevate your wedding and put a uniquely “you” spin on your ceremony or reception. You can encourage your vendors to share their ideas by asking for their input. They can be slow to add suggestions without your express request because they want your wedding day to reflect the two of you and your love more than anything else. If you ask for their input, be open to their ideas! They have spent time and effort getting to know you and your story. You can trust they want you to have a wonderful experience.
10. YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST A JOB TO THEM
Wedding professionals spend significant time preparing for, planning for, or participating in one of the most important days of your life with you. While your wedding is a part of their job, you and your loved ones mean much more to them than a paycheck. They invest their time, thoughts, imagination, creativity, and emotions into creating the memories of the day you married your best friend.
They value you and your loved ones more than you can imagine. The importance of your wedding day and all it means inspires them to put all their heart, soul, creativity, and expertise into your event. The expertise they have acquired makes them uniquely fitted to provide the best possible service to you and your guests. When you apply the knowledge you’ve acquired about them and their work, you’ll enjoy a wonderfully rich working relationship with the professionals who will bring your wedding to life!
Enjoy 10 Insider Secrets About Wedding Vendors? Ready to start finding vendors for your wedding? Check out our collection of Kansas City Wedding Vendors.
