HOW TO CHOOSE SOME OF YOUR WEDDING VENDORS

You plan and plan and then plan some more to make sure your wedding day is everything you always dreamed it could be, but did you hire the wedding professionals that will make that dream come true?

Here are a few tips that should help you pick the perfect vendors for your wedding day.

After securing your ceremony reception venue, start exploring ideas for your theme.  A great place to start would be to attend a couple of reputable bridal shows.  It’s a great way to personally meet  40 – 80 wedding professionals in an afternoon, sample a variety of caterer’s delights and perhaps even win a few prizes.  Last year I worked 8 bridal shows and the general feedback I hear from brides is that they had no idea they had so many options.    TIP: Before attending a bridal show, print your contact information on a couple sheets of mailing labels.  When visiting each vendor, they may ask for your information to win a door prize.  Then you can just peel off the label instead of writing out your information at every booth.

Your next step would be to create a realistic budget.  The truth is, it’s probably going to cost more than you initially projected, but it’s better to realize this up front than at the last minute.   Once you have that on paper, your first appointment might be with a wedding planner.  Many will provide a free consultation and they might have a few ideas that you might not have thought of yet.  At this point you should have a planning book or binder to keep all of your notes in one place as you move forward.

Now it’s time to secure your vendors.  Some vendors can handle many weddings on the same day, like the cake, florists, etc while some can only handle one wedding per day like your DJ, photographer or videographer.  What you’ll find is the good wedding professionals get booked pretty far out front, over a year in many cases.  Because the wedding planning will usually take a few months to complete, if time permits, you may want to secure those vendors that can only work one event per day first because once they are booked, they are off the market.  I get calls every month from brides that have fallen in love with my work online but called too late to have me shoot their wedding.

There are many questions to ask the variety of vendors working your wedding.  Here are a few regarding picking a photographer and videographer .

1. How many weddings do you work each year?  This is important because you only have one chance to get the shots.  So you want someone that shoots weddings all the time.  They know where they need to be to get the shot before it unfolds.
2. Who will be working the event, you or a subcontractor?  A few companies will book many weddings and then send out associates to do the shooting.  This is fine if you know ahead of time but if you are expecting the person you booked with to shoot and someone else shows up, it could be unsettling.
3. Is there a cancellation fee?  Because dates get booked pretty far in advance, the initial deposit(s) is usually non-refundable unless the vendor can resell the date.
4. What equipment are you using?  For instance, with Videography, audio is very important.  So, will they use wireless microphones to capture your vows toasts or just the microphone on the camera?
5. Who owns the master or prints and how much are copies?  Some vendors hold the copyright on your images while others do not copyright their work.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is that the #1 thing brides regret most on their wedding day is forgetting to hire a videographer.  Last year I shot about 40 weddings and one thing that just about each bride told me was that their wedding day was a great big blur and they were so glad that they decided to videotape thier wedding.

For more information, email or call Johnny Lascha at CC Video Productions.  E-mail: Johnny@ccvideo.net Phone 321-693-1681 web site: www.ccvideo.net/wedding

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