Choosing Your Wedding Dream Team

Written by Curator Michelle of Michelle Cox Photography:

Planning a wedding can be super overwhelming, especially when you are just starting out in that process. You have a lifelong vision, a Pinterest board with a bazillion different images and you don’t know where to start.

One of the best pieces of advice that I can give you as you are planning your wedding and choosing your wedding vendors is to trust the advice of friends and other vendors when they give you recommendations by referring someone. Most of my couples come from vendor referrals or previous couples that I have worked with in the past. They know my style (and price!) might match well with yours!

Getting things lined up for your big day can be time consuming and costly, sometimes taking a year or more to get all of the details in place. That being said, you want to invest in vendors that work well within their field, have good relationships with other vendors and past clients, and have experience in the wedding industry.

As you are searching for vendors, start asking for advice on referrals from friends that are past brides or from other vendors that you book (your venue, your planner, your photographer, etc). They might be able to tell you who they LOVED or even who they did not love so much. Either way, it should help you a little more when gathering information about companies and people.

As a photographer, I recommend vendors to almost every client that comes my way. Since my field is mostly visual, I can easily recommend other “visual vendors” like hair and make up artists, videographers, and even decor. I know from my past work which vendors produce the most visually appealing product and that photograph the best. PLUS I love working with fun yet professional vendors so I generally recommend folks that are easy going yet polished when they need to be.

At the end of the day, referrals steer you in a good direction however you do need to chose your vendors for your wedding based off of your own taste, style and personality. At the very least, getting a referral from someone else who knows the industry(or has planned a wedding before) will make the process a little easier to help you hopefully find the best companies to make your wedding everything you want it to be and more.

Good luck in your wedding planning!

Written and Photographed by Community Wedding Pro: Michelle Cox Photography