How To Find Great Wedding Vendors That Will Not Break Your Budget

  Proof the perfect wedding does
not have to cost a fortune.

Weddings can be one of the most stressful events to plan in your lifetime.  Finding the perfect Venue, Caterer, Entertainment, dress, flowers, photographer, etc can be overwhelming.  There are many wedding sites online one can go to and see hundreds of wedding vendors in you area, and these can be a good start.  

Let's say you visit one of these sites.  You type in your information and voila!  up pops a list of vendors.  Which one to choose?  Of course the one on the top with the big display must be the best right? - Not necessarily   They have the big ad and the top spot because they paid dearly for it, upwards to $500 per month.  One thing for sure, is that cost for the ad is factored into their pricing.

Now, scroll down the list.  You see the ones on the bottom - no fancy ad - just a small spot, mostly text.  They must be not as good as the big boys on top, right?  Not true.  Many are excellent vendors, they just choose not to pay the absorbent fees - which can mean a big difference in cost to you.  

I recently had one of these sites sales person tell me if I paid for advertising on their site that like their other vendors that pay for the top spots, I  would reach "High End Brides" and could charge more for my services.  And that "It only makes the Bride feel more special being able to say I booked a DJ for $xxx and I found her on ( insert name of wedding site).com! ( Bragging Rights!)" My response is that ALL brides in our book are special - and our goal is to make the music perfect so all of our brides can brag about their wedding. 

The same thing on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.  Say you type in Wedding DJ and your city.  The top results will be ads - often from brokers that have DJs in your area.  They are a good place to start, but remember, they are sending you a DJ from your area, so wouldn't it be great to deal directly with that DJ and eliminate the 'middle man' ? The rest, especially the first page on a search, will be a mix of DJ companies in your area and links to more Wedding sites like mentioned above. Look for the listings that are obviously the actual DJ ( or other vendor) site.

Now there is Thumbtack.com that do not allow vendors to pay for their ads.  They rank them according to reviews, completeness of profiles etc.  They get their revenue from the vendors via a small fee the vendors pay for submitting each quote.  Here you know the vendor is interested in providing you their service and is available on your date.   Other sites that brag "Get quotes from vendors here!"  often charge a huge monthly or yearly fee to vendors to be on the list, again driving up their cost.

Once you done some searching, be sure to contact several vendors and have a list of questions you will want to ask written down beforehand.  
Questions like:
What do you change and do you have any special packages for weddings?
What sets you apart from other DJs - photographers - etc?
Will you be the one actually performing the work?
Do you charge extra for travel, set up time etc?
How long have you been in your line of work?
Are you insured?
For DJs - How is the music determined?  Can I select the songs?
And any other questions you may have.  

Note not just what they say but HOW they say it.  Are they passionate about their work?  Are they too pushy - pushing their big package over the smaller one?  Do they spend time answering all your questions?  And most important - is this the person you feel is going to do things the way you want them done?  Are you comfortable with them?

Your wedding is one of the biggest events in your life and needs to be done in a way that reflects you and your fiancee   Their are many good vendors out there and with a little shopping around you will find the ones that are perfect for you.

 2Wolves DJ Service provides quality entertainment at affordable prices www.2wolves.com

4 comments:

  1. This article speaks volumes. The best recommend is a friend recommend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Melanie - Yes word of mouth is still the best! Ask your friends, the vendors you are working with etc.

      Delete
  2. Thank you so much for such a great blog. Wedding reception is an event we can’t forget in our life so it should be planned carefully with full efforts. Thanks for helping people making their wedding reception rocking.

    Wedding Music for Reception Melbourne

    ReplyDelete

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