The OurWeddingDay Blog

Elysa Ross, owner of PalmBeachWeddingExpert, is an event planner, aesthetician and makeup artist with over 15 year’s experience.  Check back next week for more tidbits & ideas.  Add PalmBeachWeddingExpert to your Facebook page for special promotions.

Although budgeting and cost-control are an essential element of planning your wedding, there are some areas where quality is just as if not more important as the price.  Many brides expect to pay higher prices for tangible items, such as favors, invitations and flowers.  When it comes to services such as photography, videography or hair & makeup-there is a hesitation to pay higher prices, as there are thoughts that the bride and groom can tackle them on their own or have family or friends take responsibility.  Unless your friends or family are professionals, think twice before going that route.  Even if they are professionals, most guests are at your wedding to have a good time and enjoying the party will take priority over capturing those once in a lifetime moments.  

For those who think they can master techniques via Google, DIY wedding sites and instructive manuals-these tools teach you principals, but there is no equivalent to practiced skills.  A surgeon has endless schooling, but will not have a steady hand, confidence and the ability to work thru unexpected glitches until he/she has physically performed many surgeries.  Although weddings are not a life or death situation, it is the event of a lifetime.  Don’t assume that anything will be easy-particularly for someone else.

Weddings are chaotic, intense and have many, many moving parts.  Professionals understand all the dynamics and handle it all with ease and grace.  Whatever your wedding budget-it will not be money well-spent if your wedding in not an enjoyable event.  Booking true professionals will ensure that your investments will be rewarded, and you’ll have the wedding you’ve always dreamed of.

-Elysa

Read more from Elysa here.

Fing the best local wedding vendors in your area here.

When working with local wedding vendors, you have the advantage of potentially having several in-person meetings with that person before your wedding. Personal meetings are beneficial for many reasons, mostly because you can get to know the person (or team), discuss ideas and expectations at length, and sometimes get “sneak peaks” at the final product.

For example, you could have your florist make up a mock bridal bouquet to make sure the colors and textures are coming together the way you envisioned them. Other local wedding vendors—such as DJs—can be important, because you can meet with him or her one on one to discuss your music preferences for each part of the celebration, the mood you want, and the specific songs you want played at each key moment in the ceremony.

Before you choose any vendor, it is important to get his or her references, and if possible, read their wedding vendor reviews. If you are looking at local wedding venues, you should read online reviews to see how the staff treats their clients. One wedding venue (which was a non-profit establishment/art gallery) offered gorgeous facilities, but the staff treated the bride and her parents terribly. If this bride had read reviews on the location beforehand (as opposed to being swept away by the beautiful ocean view) she may have had a clue as to how the staff treated brides in the past and chosen another venue.

If you’re on the fence about hiring friends as vendors for your wedding, then you might want to weigh the pros and cons. With your busy schedule and all of the time put into planning the wedding and your wedding budgets, hiring friends is a great way to spend time with them and to include them in the process. However, there could be a better job to hire them for. A friend who is a caterer could provide food for the wedding. Is your friend a florist? Maybe she could design your centerpieces. If your friend is an experienced bartender, you could hire him to tend bar at your wedding. However, if you hire a friend for certain jobs such as catering or tending bar, he is stuck working your wedding rather than enjoying it. Refer to the pros and cons below for further guidance on this subject.

Pros

• Your friend might be willing to give you a discount as a wedding gift, however it would be rude to ask for this.
• By hiring a friend you are contributing to the success of her business.
• Instead of playing Russian roulette with unknown wedding vendors, you can rest assured that your vendors are trust-worthy.
• If you hire a friend, she may put some extra effort into her job since it’s for someone she cares about.
• Just the act of involving friends and family in your wedding is a win-win situation for everyone.

Cons

• If your ideas clash with your friend’s then it may be difficult to ensure that everyone is happy on the big day.
• When you hire a friend or anyone to do a job there isn’t a 100% insurance that the job will get done correctly, or the way you envisioned. If your friend doesn’t pull through the way you hoped, it could cause a rift in your relationship.
• The friend you hire will be working instead of enjoying your wedding.

Planning your wedding can be fun and stressful, so the most important thing to remember when doing so is that you make decisions that relieve stress, rather than add more. Have fun!

Read more:

• Hiring Friends as Wedding Vendors
• Wedding Cake Prices: How Much Is Too Much?
• Horing the Right Wedding Band or DJ

Unfortunately, not every wedding vendor experience will be wonderful. If you feel that you’ve been overcharged for services, or short-changed on what was promised, take the right steps toward compensation.

Most important, have everything written down in the contract, and have copies. “Never pay cash unless it’s necessary,” says Danielle Bobish of Curtain Up Events in New York City. “Have copies of your checks or credit card payments,” she says. “In addition, you should always save emails.  The more you have written down, the better.”

Bobish says that saving correspondence and receipts has many benefits, for you and vendors. “Vendors are human, and do forget things,” she says. “If you have documentation of the services promised, you can remind them in case they’ve forgotten something. It doesn’t mean that you don’t trust the people you’ve hired; it just makes good sense.”

If your vendor fails to deliver on services, always try to resolve the issue before, or on the day of, your wedding. “If your hairstylist leaves before all the women have been styled, you need to take her aside and point out that you had a guarantee of all the girls,” says Bobish. Should diplomacy fail, contact them immediately after your wedding, and be polite in letting them know what mistakes were made. “Be firm but reasonable,” says Bobish. “When you present things in a nice way there’s a better chance that you can resolve the issue.”

On those rare occasions where you tell the vendor about being overcharged, show her a copy of the contract, and she still ignores you, you will have to threaten legal action. However, another route to try before it gets to that stage is contacting other vendors, especially anyone who recommended the company’s services. “No one wants bad word of mouth,” says Bobish. “If a vendor fails to deliver, they know they’re not going to get a good recommendation.” Your wedding might be a big affair but the world of vendors is a very small town.

Read more: Friends as Wedding Vendors: Is it a Good Idea?, 5 Smart Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding and a Trend Alert: Live Video Feeds

Everyone likes a discount, and your wedding day is no exception. Once you start adding up the costs and meeting vendors, you might be tempted to do some serious haggling yourself.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to get something at a cheaper rate than expected, as long as you’re not asking for something unreasonable, or willing to hear the word “no.”

“If you are in a bind, feel free to ask a vendor if you can work out a deal,” says Danielle Bobish of Curtain Up Events in New York City. “You have to respect the fact that they need their money, so don’t insult them.” Bobish says there may be things you haven’t thought of, like a different night for a site you love, or a smaller dinner from a caterer you want to work with.

“There are often cheaper alternatives that you haven’t thought of,” she says. “And the only way to find out is to talk to the vendor, or talk to other vendors.”

You should always comparison shop, and search for good bargains. However, a person’s final price needs to be honored, and you’re the one who always has the option to pick someone else.

“If you can barter, that’s fine,” says Bobish. “For instance, if you find out a planner needs a web site and you’re a techie, it doesn’t hurt to offer an exchange. However, it’s very important that you don’t overstep your bounds. Ultimately, if you can’t afford it, think cheaper.”

The last thing you want on your wedding day is to feel like the people working for you are unhappy, or working for too little. And by all means, never take something for a discount in exchange for advertisement. There is nothing worse than seeing “Courtesy of Joe’s Liquor” on the place cards.

In addition to love and joy and health and happiness, your wedding will feature another important element: Food. Whether it’s filet mignon or clams on the half shell, finding the perfect caterer for your affair is one of the biggest steps of your wedding planning.

Hungry for help? Well we just posted a new article all about hiring your weddoing reception caterer!

Check out the full article here!