Common Courtesy when Communicating with Vendors for your Wedding
I have experienced a lot of crazy things so I am going to share some of those tips with you all to make, at least some, things easier. Who are these vendors I mention? These vendors can include photographers, florists, cake makers, caterers, etc. I just want to say before you start reading and learning about these, is that I care about each and every one of my clients; past, current and future clients. I LOVE serving them and LOVE the blessing it is to capture these moments forever for them. BUT being a business owner comes with a lot of things that, if my clients only knew what goes on behind the scenes, then maybe it wouldn’t be as hard or difficult some days! So if my “writing tone” comes on a little too strong, it is because I am passionate about this business and educating others on how to love on your fellow business owners, friends entrepreneurs better! These are some little frustrations, pet-peeves, annoyances that come up when we talk with potential clients! I want to share these so when you talk with potential vendors, you respect their time and energy as well as your own.
Update your Vendors on Whether or not you are going to work with them! DO NOT GHOST YOUR VENDORS!
We understand that you have a million options when it comes to your photographer, cake maker, florist, etc. But what can hurt for us, especially as small business owners, is when a client reaches out, seems super interested, grabs an investment guide, asks for a contract, we make it and send it, and then we get ghosted. No reply for a week, multiple weeks. We send emails, DMs, texts. Nada. THEN they finally decide to reply and they say they decided to work with someone else.
We completely understand. We want you to work with the right vendors that are in your price range! We don’t get upset over you choosing someone else. It is frustrating when we find out later and later. We make calendars and plan for the end of the year or the year ahead, so we need to know whether or not we are going to work with clients who seem interested.
SO basically, just don’t ghost your vendors. Keep them up to date on what decisions you have made as soon as you possibly can. Thank them for the time they took to give you the information you needed.
2. If you are a bride, or groom, you should do all of the communicating with your vendors
Only you know what you are envisioning for your wedding day. You have been planning this your whole life so literally, ONLY you can give your vendors the information they need. I have talked with a groom’s mother throughout the entire process. When COVID hit and their plans changed a million times, only the bride and groom knew the plans but I couldn’t get a hold of them until 2 weeks before their wedding. If you are planning on having a family member pay for these vendor fees, you can send the information and contract over to them but all of the specific day of planning information, need to be communicated by YOU. If email communication is too hard, we can text, set up FaceTime calls, anything for both of us to stay up to date on what will happen the day of your wedding.
3. Update your vendors on time or location changes
Especially with COVID changing everybody’s plans, things can get lost so easily as to what the new plan is! As soon as you are able to update your vendors on what is happening, CALL, TEXT, EMAIL, SEND A CARRIER PIGEON to them so they can be aware of changes!
Most of the weddings I shoot aren’t in my local city but in the state where I live or in other states. If I am driving to your wedding and don’t know a location of where I am heading, it’s not going to be fun for either of us! Even if you need to shoot a text saying “Hey! We are having to change some locations around but we will update you as soon as we know!”, that means the WORLD to us! Because we know you are thinking about us, and that you are taking time to update your vendors!
4.Set clear expectations for your vendors
We want to know what your dream wedding will look like! The only way for us to know that if you set those expectations as soon as you know them! If it’s helpful to make a Pinterest board of your dream flowers, photographs and cakes, share that with us! We would love to make you dreams happen! If you need to make a list of specific photographs you need me to take, send it my way! If your expectation for me, as your photographer, is to hang out with you, the bride, all day long, let me know! If you are wanting super unique romantic photos in a super adventurous location, LET ME KNOW AND WE WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN!
5. Know your Budget
Most vendors will have a starting price on their website, and if not, they can give you a document of their prices and packages. But if you have a budget of $800 for photography and the photographers you are reaching out to have a minimum $1,500 package, don’t expect them to change their prices to match your budget. Vendors have carefully chosen their prices for a reason so don’t expect to get the royal treatment with pricing. We want to work with you but we don’t want to sell ourselves short! There have been a lot of times where I have changed my prices MUCH lower than I would ever want to get a client. But when the wedding is over and I am done editing, the price wasn’t worth the time and energy I spent.
6. When it’s all said and done, thank your vendors!
There have been PLENTY of times where I will send over the wedding gallery to my clients and don’t ever hear from them again. It is really sad for me because I want to know how they felt about their photos. I want to know how I did or what I could have improved on. One of my top love languages is Words of Affirmation so I basically am on a super high when my clients share their images on Instagram and tag me and thank me! First, it makes me feel accomplished and like I served my couples well. Second, it brings me more potential clients as well! Even if my clients send me a simple text saying, “WOW! These are so incredible! Thank you so much for capturing our day for us!” I am so encouraged to keep going with my business!
Your vendors work H A R D for you! So share the images you got and tag them on Facebook and Instagram. Give them shout outs! Refer them to your engaged friends! Let them know that you are thankful that you chose them! Leave a review for them if you are able to!
Lots go on behind the scenes. Social media and our websites are just highlight reels compared to the everyday life that us small businesses go through. We educate ourselves to better serve and educate you. We spend lots of time trying to communicate with you all effectively and efficiently throughout our normal lives. We want to do our absolute best to serve you all which is why I wanted to create a post so we can all continue communicating with each other better!