Let's be Friends
Weddings in themselves are very personal. We always here about the couple that hire a friend to do a professional’s job. So why not hire a professional who can also be your friend? No, we don’t need to be invited to the Bachelor or Bachelorette Party, but we are with you every step of the way during planning and we are there to celebrate your love on wedding day.
We love forming friendships with our couples not only because it makes the process run smoother, but it just makes everything more fun. Our first initial Bow Tied Chat tends to be easy going and informational. When you book with us, we like to schedule time to grab a drink at a local pub or coffee at a local shop. Sometimes, those chats don’t even involve wedding details, they are about getting to know each other, so that we can better understand your vision. After a couple Bow Tied Chats, we can go over those wedding details with a fun walk-through of your venue. So by wedding day, we have chatted at least three times since you came across our website. How many people can you say you have done that with in the past year? How many of them will be guests at your wedding?
Let’s be practical though, it’s not like you have to send us a Save The Date card, we promise we already have your date on our calendar once you signed the contract. But when you are meeting with the caterer, make sure you include your core vendors in the guest count. There are two parts to this. One is timing. The people running your event like the planner, photographer, and DJ, all need to be done eating before your guests are, so that they can keep the show rolling seamlessly. You don’t want the DJ to have to wait for the photographer to finish their meal so you can roll into toasts and cake. The second thing is, your core vendors are on-site for up to 10-12 hours of your wedding day. We don’t have time to go grab lunch or dinner somewhere else, especially at those middle-of-no-where venues. Is it really a tall order to be treated like a human and be fed like the rest of your guests? I bring this up, because some venues with in-house catering are still serving the vendors 3-day-old box lunches. Is this 1959 and we are ‘the help’ being fed the scraps? I think most would say no. So just be sure to tell your food provider that you want your vendors to be fed like the rest of your guests. Shout out to Boathouse in Richmond who takes it up a notch by setting a table for the vendors. Oh and their food is AMAZING!
And finally, try to pick a team of vendors that are friends with each other. Just as forming a friendship with your vendors helps ensure that they create the vision you have been working on since you met them, vendors that are friends with each other are going to know each other’s methods. Often times we work weddings where there isn’t a wedding planner, and the day falls on the DJ and the Photographer. The DJ has the microphone (and music) and the photographer has the camera. Those things pretty much always need to be in unison so that the day runs smoothly. This is the reason we teamed up with Kristine DeWitt Photographers. We work well together, know each other’s methods, and well, we have kinda become wedding industry besties. Whenever we are working with Kristine and her team, we just know that wedding is going to be one of our favorites and it makes our job just that much more fun.
So just to recap: Hire professionals that you can be friends with, treat your vendors like guests, and hire professionals that compliment each other. Sure, you don’t have to take this advice, but it will certainly help ensure everyone is happy on wedding day.