Open Letter to Wedding Vendors

I found this post recently on one of my dear friends blogs, and it is verbatim what I have been thinking lately, so I thought stealing borrowing, plagiarising, quoting her, would be the best way to say what I mean.

Photography by: Footstone Photography

This post has been brewing in me for a little while now. It is NOT
directed to any one person or situation in particular. But a
accumulation of occurrences.




As wedding engineers (er, planners), we get a plethora of wedding vendors
that contact us requesting to be on our referred vendor list.
Facebook messages, emails, cards, phone calls, and more. We have a process when
we recommend a vendor (and yes, we will occasionally recommend vendors that we
have not worked with before… as long as they have some stellar testimonials that
we check out).




We are also offered many things, one of which a little
“kick-back”. “Refer me and I’ll give you $50.” says wedding a
vendor.




Honestly that’s not our motivation when referring vendors. For the record, we
do not accept kick-backs of any kind. What we prefer is that
you (the wedding vendor) extend that $50 towards our client’s service package.
You look good, we look good. Win/Win.




However here’s the real needle in the haystack that I want to address in this
blog post.




What we really would love, (we = wedding planners) are for wedding
vendors that we recommend to do the following:

• Bring your A game and a little more. Seriously. Treat the
  clients that we bring to you with such great care that they want to be your
  Bestie as well.


• Want to work with US. That’s right. We bring you into the
  team-fold to spend all day with you on a Saturday (away from our family), we
  want you to work with us. If you have ever experienced working with the {wedding planning} team, you KNOW that we
  don’t ask you to do anything that we wouldn’t do ourselves. In fact, there is no
  such language as, “That’s not our job” at an event. We pitch in and work hard
  right along side of you.


• Watch each other’s backs. It takes a full vendor team to
  execute a fabulous wedding. Everyone doing their part and a little more. We all
  make mistakes (yes, us too). We’re human. Help us and we’ll help you.


• Be a little more flexible. You know that your job is going
  to be a little easier with us on site. Timelines and production schedules are
  complete. All vendors are contacted prior to the wedding. So don’t lump us with
  all your other DIY clients. We are professional. Time is money and we know what
  we are doing. A little flexibility goes a long way to repeat referrals.


• Have fun on the wedding day. We pull 17 hours sometimes.
  Often, we’re the first ones there for setup … to the ceremony … the reception
  and breaking out. We love what we do, but I won’t lie. Sometimes it can be a
  long hard work day. Bring a smile and a great attitude. The day will go by
  faster and easier.


• Communicate with us. Sometimes client’s don’t tell us
  everything. A rogue Father of the Bride goes off and plans special events during
  the reception as a surprise and we don’t know anything about it. Let us know
  ….


• Refer US. You read that correctly. Throw our name out there
  to YOUR clients. Ask them, “WHO is your wedding planner?” and
  tell them about us. Tell them why you like to work with us. You should know, we
  SELL YOU before our clients call you to meet. This is a tight wedding vendor
  circle and throwing back some love to us is just as important as us always
  referring you. One sided relationships almost never work. Think about
  it.

This blog post was from the heart and for educational purposes.