An important part of being a wedding planner is learning how to effectively source your wedding vendor team. It’s a very important part of the wedding planning process and over the years I have learned a lot in this area. I’m excited to share my secrets to how I source my wedding vendors and how to do it effectively. Whether you are a new wedding planner, established wedding planner, or a couple looking to do this yourself, these tips will help you.

Related post: Building Your Network as a New Wedding Planner

How to Choose the Best Wedding Professionals

Internet Research

This is everyone’s go-to when it comes to sourcing your wedding professionals. Anything we are looking for, we automatically type into Google and it provides everything we need. However, you must be wary when seeking your wedding professionals this way. While it’s your first point of researching a vendor, you then need to follow the additional steps in the post to verify your wedding vendor.

• Wedding vendors ranking in Googles Top 10 will most likely be long-term reliable wedding vendors in the industry. This is a very positive sign if the vendors you are searching for are appearing in this.
• Check their testimonials on their website, do they look legitimate? Anyone can create ‘fake’ testimonials, so ensure that they include the couple’s names. It isn’t always essential but just another way of ensuring that you’ve crossed everything off your list.
• Check their location, this is important. If the vendor is further away from the area you are looking to have your wedding, this could factor in additional costing for travel. Usually their contact page will provide their location.
• Google Reviews are great for giving you an indication of how good their reputation is. Google reviews are legitimate and a great way of seeing how long a vendor has been in business for, as well as what their past clients have to say about their services.

Related post: Are your wedding vendors hurting your brand?

Social Media

More so over the last few years, we have heavily relied upon social media to help us determine a wedding vendor’s online presence. While having thousands of Instagram followers is a great way of indicating that a wedding pro has been in business for some time, this isn’t always the case. There are many different platforms to check but I would recommend Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn as your main sources.

• Instagram is great for seeing a wedding vendors portfolio and checking if they are still active. If they haven’t posted in a few months you need to be cautious of this. Check that their feed reflects their portfolio work and resembles their branding.
• Pinterest is a great way of seeing wedding vendor portfolio work, however not all vendors use this platform regularly so keep that in mind. It’s not a negative thing if a vendor isn’t on Pinterest.

Online Wedding Directories

These can be a great way of finding wedding vendors. Many of the directories will check out each wedding vendor before they are allowed to be listed on their site, which means they are great for recommending to clients. Again, this works really well when you use it alongside another method listed in this post.

• Online Wedding Directories listed in Googles Top 10 will be your best options when looking for trusted wedding vendors.

Wedding Vendor Networking Events

You can’t beat finding your wedding professionals through networking events. You get to know the vendor in person, get to know their personality, and ask them questions. You also get the opportunity to build a genuine rapport with the vendor and find out how they work. This is very important as you will be not only be negotiating with them and in constant communication throughout the planning process, but you will most likely be working with them on wedding day.

• It’s important that you connect with your wedding vendors as you are recommending them to your clients. You need to be able to trust that they will take care of your couples to the same standards that you do. Wedding vendor networking events are perfect for this.

Related post: Best Strategies for Networking as a Wedding Planner

Recommendations

Always ensure that you use more than one technique from this list when sourcing wedding professionals for your couples. This will cross reference them and ensure that you’ve exhausted all options in ensuring they are legitimate. I recommend always checking recommendations. There are two ways you can do this, through other wedding planners or through wedding venues.

• If you have access to a trusted wedding planner networking group on Facebook, then it’s worth reaching out to them to ask if they have worked with the particular wedding vendors before. If you have built relationships with other wedding planners then you can go directly to them. We are all here to help each other!
  Related post: Connecting with Other Wedding Planners in Your Area

• Look at the recommended vendor lists at wedding venues. These are great for finding quality wedding pros as they normally only publish trusted wedding vendors that have previously worked at their venue. This usually means that their recommended event professionals know the chosen venue really well.
  Related post: How to Get on Preferred Vendor Lists at Venues

As an experienced wedding planner who has been in the industry for many years, I love helping other planners with finding vendors as well as sourcing them for my couples. Within the last year, the industry has experienced a huge increase in demand for new wedding professionals which makes it more important than ever to do your research properly.

This is a guest post from Illy Goodall of Illy Elizabeth Weddings in London, United Kingdom.
Connect with Illy in these places:
Website: www.illyelizabethweddings.com
Facebook: @illyelizabethweddings
Instagram: @illyelizabethweddings

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