Bridechilla Podcast

Is this vendor right for me?

When planning a wedding, there is a long list of vendors you must consider hiring. From hair and makeup, to floral arrangements, to catering, the list goes on and on. How do you hire a quality vendor who can deliver the job you want in a price range you can afford? How can you ensure that you hire the vendor that is right for your wedding? Do you look for the least expensive? Or do you spare no expense and hire only the best? Rachel and Ellie answer those questions and more. They give advice for what to look for and what to avoid when considering vendors.

​You can’t know if the person is right for you if you don’t know what you are aiming for.

How to navigate the first meeting with a vendor

After you’ve narrowed the list of vendors for your wedding, how do you navigate the initial meeting and relationship with them to determine if they are a good fit? It is important to remember that vendors are also trying to determine if the couple is right for them. Also, keep in mind that you don’t have to be best friends with someone providing a service for you, you just have to determine whether or not you can work with them. Rachel discusses how she approaches the initial meeting with potential clients. She also encourages couples not to be afraid of walking away after the initial meeting if that vendor is not a good fit.

Get what you want by knowing what you want.

One key in hiring the right wedding vendor is to know what you want. How can you get what you want if you don’t know what that is? Before meeting with vendors, couples should prepare in advance. They should determine their desired outcomes for the wedding. They should also have a clearly defined budget. Once you know what you are looking for, you can then compare that with what the vendor offers to see if they are in alignment. Preparation will make meeting with and selecting vendors a much smoother process.

I don’t want to tell you about my hopes and dreams, I just want to know how much it costs!

Know which questions to ask your wedding vendors

Don’t automatically assume that vendors are going to bite your head off for you asking them to do that job that you’ve paid them to do

Helping Vendors Capture Your Vision

Most vendors really want to serve their clients well. Not only do they want to do a great job for your wedding, but they also know that they are earning referrals and potential clients from every wedding. What do you do when you aren’t pleased with the job they are doing? How can you make sure your vendor is accomplishing what they’ve been hired to do without ruining the relationship. Rachel and Ellie encourage couples to communicate clearly and respectfully. Know that you are worth enough to ask for what you want from a vendor. You can be sure that any vendor worth their salt will do everything they can to try and accommodate your requests. Hear about that and much more on this episode of the Bridechilla podcast.

Show Highlights

• [0:34] Introduction of guests Rachel and Ellie from the Business Proposal Podcast. Rachel and Ellie are both wedding creatives who are helping couples learn how to navigate the unique challenges of planning their wedding.

• [6:45] How to connect with vendors and make the choice of whether or not to hire a particular vendor.

• [11:08] As a vendor, Rachel discusses how she approaches the initial relationship with potential clients.

• [13:36] Steps couples can take to discover if a vendor is the right fit for the wedding you are planning.

• [16:44] How vendors can make sure that both people are involved in the wedding planning process.

• [24:29] The Business Proposal podcast covers a variety of topics that are beneficial not only to couples but also to wedding vendors.

• [26:34] When you aren’t satisfied with the job a vendor is doing, how can you approach them in a way that doesn’t damage the relationship and actually resolves the issue.

• [31:25] Through the emotions, expectations, relationships and all that go along with planning a wedding, how to remember that working with vendors is still a business transaction

• [35:22] How you can be sure that you’ve asked the right questions of vendors you are considering to hire.

Meet this episode's guests, Ellie and Rachel

Rachel is the wedding designer, maker, paper addict, confetti thrower and cat cuddler, behind Rachel Emma Studio. She spends most of her time in her home studio making wedding stationery and decor and dreaming about a world without chair covers and moths.
She is happiest up a ladder carrying giant paper flowers, and her favourite things include: a fresh notebook, geeking out about business, Trello, stingrays and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Ellie is the tour de (Yorkshire) force behind The Wedding Enthusiast and The Enthusiast. On a mission to make the world a more enthusiastic place, she spends her days helping wedding businesses with their copy, blogs, and orders, as well as assisting couples with styling and running The Enthusiast. She’s a dab hand at making tea (seriously - it’s on her CV), eating too much of the cake mix to make the actual cake, and crying too much at Floridian sunsets, much to the dismay of her ever-disapproving family. She’s a quarter of the A Most Curious Wedding Fair team, and a regular contributor at Rock ‘n’ Roll Bride, The Un-Wedding, and Way Out Wedding, amongst some wonderful others.

Subscribe to the Business Proposal Podcast Here.

With thanks to our Bridechilla Partners