Putting together your team of wedding vendors or “Dream Team” as I like to call them, can be one of the most daunting tasks you’ll face during the planning process. After all, the vendors you hire for your wedding will determine the overall success of one of the most significant days of your life! Talk about pressure!

Unfortunately, there are many vendors out there that have mastered the art of “selling a big game” to brides during the initial interview, but fail to deliver on the wedding day.

Below are a few ways you can ensure that your vendors will deliver exactly what they promise in the interview – on your wedding day. There’s nothing worse than being disappointed by your vendors’ performance when it counts most – during your wedding.

Prepare For Your Meeting
You wedding is a HUGE investment, so you should approach your wedding-related meetings just as you would a business meeting in your professional life and prepare accordingly. Be sure to collect a service/product list from the vendor before the meeting so that you have time to review it on your own and make note of any questions you’d like answered.

Ask For Previous Client Referrals
The best practice you can adopt when interviewing vendors for your wedding is requesting previous client referrals. Most vendors should be prepared to offer you one or two names and email addresses of brides they’ve worked with so that you can call or email and chat bride-to-bride about the vendors’ performance on their wedding day.

Ask For Current Client Referrals
This may be a bit of a “curve ball” for most vendors – mostly because they’re not used to being asked for current client referrals; only previous. I suggest you ask for a bride you can contact that they’ve been working with for a few months already. Talking with someone that is still a client of this vendor will give you great insight as to what you have to look forward to from this vendor once you sign the contract and send in your deposit.

What’s The Back-up Plan?
This is crucial! It is extremely important for all of your wedding vendors to have a backup plan… no matter how small or large their role is in your wedding. When you prepare for your vendor interview, think of several scenarios that might cause your vendors to need a backup plan (i.e. rain, delays in wedding schedule, vendor illness). Bring these questions with you to your interview and be sure to get solid answers from your vendor. If you’ve proposed a question the vendor can’t answer, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire them, but be sure to follow up with him/her on that answer before you do.

Don’t Bargain
Touchy subject… I know. But this is strictly my opinion, take it or leave it.

There is a time for bargain shopping and there’s a time to pay for quality. Your wedding day will be a very significant day in your life for years and years after the actual wedding is over. Wedding vendors are in the business of making sure that it’s absolutely perfect for you – this is a time to pay for quality. Assume that your vendors are quoting you prices that reflect the quality of service they plan to provide. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask questions about fees, especially if they seem abnormally high or low – it is well within your right to inquire about fees that are inconsistent with similar vendors in the same area and field of expertise. Any vendor that seems to be charging too little, or too much should be able to explain the rationale behind their fees, on-demand.

If you’re planning your wedding without the help of a professional planner, you won’t want to miss the announcements I have in store for you over the next few weeks!

© 2005-2009 Full Bloom Weddings & Events