I wanted to start a few posts to give wedding advice.  You are probably saying, great!  give me some advice on photography!  But I’m going to shock you and tell you that I’d like to give some advice that goes beyond photography and the first tip is going to to be exactly about that.

When you start planning your wedding the first thing you probably do (at least, I did) is buy a million magazines to start getting ideas.  Then you start talking to you friends and family who have recently planned their own weddings and maybe you’ll even start lurking on the online forums and checking out potential vendors’ websites.  Those are all wonderful sources of inspiration and ideas but I want to give you another resource which are your vendors and your potential vendors. 

You may not think about us this way, but we as vendors see many, many more weddings than anyone not in the business will ever attend and we each have our unique perspectives.  Vendors like photographers/videographers/DJs/bands actually attend the reception – so we definitely get a feel for things like:

• How the venue feels when full of people — what venues are good for dancing, for cocktails, for seeing the cake being cut, for not drawing dinner out too long, for friendliness and professionalism… 
• What bride/grooms have done to make their weddings unique…
• How couples handle all the traditions from first dance to garter…
• What cakes, flowers, etc. really have made an impact…

The venue catering manager has seen what bands/djs really get everyone dancing and/or are good emcees, what photographers/videographers are creative and professional, what cake people, florists, and wedding planners are reliable and creative.

The photographers/videographers/make-up artists are often there during the getting ready and can answer a lot of questions like:

• What are ways to avoid stress…
• How do you balance getting mentally prepared to get married with sharing the morning with friends/family/vendors and sometimes having to play hostess…

The photographer/videographer/priests are of course at the ceremony and have seen:

• How do people handle two different religions or no religion…
• Honoring a deceased parent…
• Walking down the aisle…dad vs. step-dad…
• How often do people have trouble rolling out the runner (a lot more than you think!)…
• Is it a big deal if my flower girl is so little that she might walk the wrong way down the aisle (no!  it’s cute and funny and warms the ceremony up!)

Cake vendors and florists sometimes work together if there are flowers on or around the cake.  Florists often work closely with wedding planners and the venues to design the room, ceremony setting, etc.  They all have seen things done really well and seen things that didn’t really work.  They are unique also in that they have more behind-the-scenes access to the venues than the photographers/videographers/djs/bands and therefore have a unique perspective.

We probably all have opinions on what details are worth spending money on and what is probably a waste of money. 

So when you meet a vendor or potential vendor that you connect with and feel you have the same taste/values as, feel free to ask us about anything not related to our specialty.  I think most of us get a lot of satisfaction out of being able contribute to such an important day in someone’s life so I think you’ll find that your vendors are really open to talking weddings – this is our business!  …and, you may get a different perspective!