Where to find the best wedding vendors
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Now that you’ve determined the average wedding cost and prioritized the services that are most important to you and the success of your event, it’s time to begin curating your list of event professionals.
This is one of an ongoing series of articles to help you plan your wedding. I encourage you to check out our prior blog post, “How to Set and Allocate Your Wedding Budget,” before shopping for your wedding vendors.
If you are like most couples, you are doing this for the first time, and it might seem a bit overwhelming. Not to worry, we’ve got you covered with all the resources you need to assemble a stress-free team of all-stars.
Don’t Allow Your Inexperience Stop You
The average wedding involves the service of 14 vendors. Reading that, you might feel overwhelmed and that there is no way you can do this! You might have the impulse to ask the venue or someone else who they suggest and call it a day.
That will certainly work, but I would never leave the success of an event I’ve been thinking of, if not planning my entire life, to the whims and personal and business relationships of others.
Weddings Support Small Businesses
According to the New York Times, there were over 2.5 million weddings in the US last year. Most of the services for these events were provided by small businesses. Local small businesses comprise the majority of companies offering event services.
As a result, this makes shopping for event services a bit different than for other services.
Small businesses are often started by hobbyists or people with a passion for the service they offer: photography, videography, DJ, etc. Typically, they have little or no formal business or marketing training. Their lack of marketing experience makes it more difficult for the consumer to compare all available options.
Suppose you are interested in learning more about the small businesses that make up the wedding industry. The Knot shared a short read article providing great insight into these small businesses. You can check it out here: “These Stats About Wedding Pros' Jobs by the Numbers Are Fascinating.”
Wedding Marketplaces
If you’ve googled the word “weddings,” you’ve undoubtedly seen these sites at the top of the search bar. These sites allow vendors to market their services by creating a “Store Front” on their website and selecting their service area. While these sites might offer a free listing option, those who pay to list their businesses will rightfully get more exposure.
Because these sites charge for a listing, many vendors are excluded from this listing. While some terrific professionals may not be represented on any of the sites below, those will be the industry's unicorns.
Excluded mainly from these directories are the pure hobbyists who might invest in cool gear to play with; they aren’t invested in marketing their business beyond “word of mouth.”
Wedding Marketplaces I recommend:
Not all wedding marketplaces are alike. Here are a few that I do not recommend:
The Bash
Eventective
Gigmasters
Thumbtack
The reason I don’t recommend these sites is simple. There is no barrier to entry. Anyone can create an account and pay a small fee to contact the couple who’s submitted an inquiry.
While there are reputable vendors on these sites, they are also a minefield of scammers and unskilled vendors operating a side hustle.
While the price may be tempting, I wouldn’t risk the most crucial party I’ll ever throw to save a few bucks but also risk a no-show or no-talent.
Social Media
Type the word weddings into any search bar, and you’ll see a list of local groups created by vendors, venues, and planners.
Please post the service you're looking for, and you will be inundated with messages and links. Most of them seem to possess the same skill “I can do it cheaper!”
Social Media is filled with imposters and frauds, and for that reason alone, I would never recommend shopping for your vendors using only social media.
Last season, we fielded numerous last-minute calls from desperate brides who booked their DJ via Social Media.
Their stories were always the same: “He had great photos and a website and was offering DJ, Uplighting, Ceremony Coverage, a Photo Booth, and was $500 less than everyone else!”
Of course, he was! He knows you aren’t going to court over a few hundred bucks, and your negative review only means that he sets up shop this year under a different name. He had no intention of actually doing the work. He collected a 50% deposit and vanished into the ether.
Social Media is a great way to help vet your vendors, but the imposter syndrome is genuine.
Wedding Shows
I recently published an article, “Wedding Shows: As irrelevant as the local Mall.”
The smaller boutique shows are a way to visit a venue you might be interested in, but they are not your best option for sourcing other vendors. The first reason is that you are shopping a limited assortment. Why would you want to limit yourself to a mere handful of vendors in an age where you can shop for everything online?
The second reason is that you need to be an informed consumer when you attend these shows. You have no idea how the vendor assortment at that show was curated.
As I mentioned earlier, this industry is mainly small businesses—many of which with little or no marketing budget or knowledge. As a result, kickbacks and nepotism are very real in this industry.
Examples are:
Overcharging the client for the service and then kicking back a portion of the fee to the venue.
A venue puts a vendor on their “Preferred Vendor List.” They then charge a “fee” to use any vendor not on their list.
Please check out the entire article and decide if Wedding Shows are a worthwhile use of your time.
Thank you for reading. Best of luck with your vendor search! Please bookmark our site and like us on Facebook as I continue this series on event planning.
Our next article will cover questions to ask your potential DJ vendors.