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Choosing Wedding Suppliers – Tips & Advice Part 2

The second part of our Supplier advice focus’s on how to find good suppliers and how to manage them. Its important to strike up a good relationship with these people, they will be responsible for delivering your wedding day vision, be careful who you choose and make sure you fully understand what they are offering you.

Here are our top tips for:

• How To Find Suppliers and what to ask
• Managing Suppliers

How to Find Suppliers

As a rule word of mouth recommendations are the best. You may know friends who have recently married, I know myself a wedding I went to had an entertainer who I just loved and so I booked him for our wedding. Check out local wedding fairs, they are a good source of suppliers in your area. You get chance to meet the suppliers and chat to them to get an idea of their services. Its also good as many of the suppliers are then in one place and it cuts down the amount of times you have to set up appointments and travel to them. Of course, wedding fairs are often held on Sundays too so its easy to get time to visit. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are another source to find suppliers. The venue you have booked probably has a trusted supplier list you can use. On line wedding directories are another good source and of course you can search by area. If you book a photographer you like they can often recommend good hair and makeup artists that they are used to working with.

Once you have found a list of suppliers you want to pursue, call them and discuss their services and ask them to send out literature for your perusal. The websites of the suppliers should be informative and give a good idea of their services and style, but beware do not take their website as the only indicator of service and quality. Its much more efficient to do as much research as possible to avoid wasting time with face to face meetings with suppliers that are not suitable for you. Make a shortlist of two or three to visit, seeing too many is overwhelming and confusing. When you meet them find out about their experience and what type of service they are offering you. They should also have the relevant insurance such as public liability. Do not sign any contracts unless you fully understand what you are getting and how much you are going to pay.

Managing Your Suppliers

Set up a spreadsheet which lists your suppliers. If you don’t use a computer then make sure you list them in a note book. Ask them when, and how much, deposits and balances must be paid. Record that on your spreadsheet or notes and don’t forget to add each supplier as you book them. That way you are sure to pay when necessary and you can see outstanding balances. This will help you stay organised and stop you missing important payments. Also list their details such as phone numbers, web sites, and their contact names. If you decide to change your guest numbers or alter times in the day let the relevant supplier know so they are prepared. For example, you don’t want your evening guests turning up before your DJ. Information on your wedding can really mount up so stay organised and keep it all in one place.

We hope this gives you a good idea of how to find and choose suppliers. Its a hard task sometimes so if you need help just give us a call and we will  be happy to source you the best supplier to meet your needs.

Tags: Planning, Supplier, Tips & Advice

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 09:00 and is filed under Suppliers, Tips & Advice, Wedding Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.