You know, Hermione Granger had a point. All of the websites and wedding planning books will tell you each and every vendor you need to book and all the details you need to think through to create your perfect wedding, but they do not always tell you where to start. Once you book your venue and have your date, half of your friends suggest starting with the band, while the other half insist you have to start with the caterer. So what is the right answer?
The truth is, it’s different for each couple depending on what is most important to you. Early in the planning process, I ask our couples what they want their guests to be saying about their experience when they leave their reception. How our couples answer helps me to better understand their priorities for their wedding. If a couple tells me they want their guests to leave raving about how much fun they had on the dance floor, then I know entertainment is a priority when it comes to budgeting and booking vendors. If they go into great detail about how the food tastes and the four-course meal they want their guests to be blown away by, then caterer will be top of our list.
There is no cookie cutter wedding, which is one of the reasons I love my job so much. No planner wants to plan the exact same wedding every weekend year after year. We want each of our couples’ weddings to stand out and match who they are as a couple. As we talk through your vision, I am able to pinpoint exactly what is most important to you. Knowing these priorities not only helps me to understand where to allocate expenses and who to book first, but also helps when it comes to factoring in opinions from other family members. If the band is the single most important element to your reception, then we are not going to let your parents talk us into the DJ they heard at a corporate holiday party.
Sometimes our couples have multiple priorities and cannot decide where to focus their energy first. When this happens, I recommend starting with the vendors that can only book one wedding a day. Photographers, videographers, and bands can only be in one place on any given day. Most catering companies and florists have the staff, capacity, and ability to handle more than one event in a day. Focus on those vendors that could book up first without the potential of bringing on additional clients on your wedding day.
Still lost as to how to prioritize booking vendors and want some help? Contact Wedding Belles https://www.weddingbellesatl.com/contact/ to schedule a 30 minute introductory call or video chat and let us help you figure out which vendors should be at the top of your list!