Finding the right wedding suppliers are already challenging. Much more when you have quite an odd wedding theme.
There's just way too many to choose from when it comes to booking your wedding suppliers. If we are the type who's easily convinced by sweet sales talk, we'd end up booking everything we see first. Thank goodness I am very concerned about where we put our money, so I did lengthy portfolio stalking for each supplier before paying deposits.
“We had to be realistic and respect their rates and long-standing reputation in the industry.”
Apart from being a member of Weddings @ Work and carefully reading reviews from real brides, I also did a lot of side by side comparisons of packages from different suppliers under the same categories.
Criteria for judging
The standards my husband and I set for each supplier were the following:
1. Balance of positive reviews vs. negative reviews, if any
- Are the negative reviews legit? Or is the bride just plain whiny?
- Be cautious of the reviews on their Facebook pages. Some of those could just be their personal friends hitting the 5 stars, lol!
- If I need to ask follow-up questions from brides who wrote the reviews, I find the time to message them privately if they allow it.
2. Price
We made some adjustments here. We acknowledged that the best suppliers have their price tags. Some of them don't go cheap. We had to be realistic and respect their rates and long-standing reputations in the industry.
3. Package inclusions
Some items we were able to haggle as freebies, some out-of-town fees were waived. But ultimately, freebies and OOT fees are not our main considerations. If we had to pay more for OOT fee but we can expect a lot better service, we'd give in. We are booking them for their services in the first place, not for their freebies.
So many brides are attracted to caterers who would provide free photobooths, souvenirs, etc. when in fact, we are paying them for the taste of their food. They get lost in the world of freebies and forget about the essentials.
4. 'This Is It' feeling
This is a common phrase among Filipina brides in online forums. When we talk to our potential suppliers, do we feel the connection? Sometimes, we look forward so much on meeting them in person because they are damn popular among celebrities, only to find out they are arrogant, condescending or what have you. Brides would think "that's just how they are", or "they are famous and know what they are doing so I should just shut up."
Is your coordinator realistic or does she say yes to everything you want just to get you to book them? Are they responsive before and after booking? Are they detailed and organized? Fortunately for us, the suppliers we hired are all down-to-earth and collaborative despite their popularity.
5. Have they done it before?
When you have a complex wedding theme, it could be quite hard to find suppliers who have done the same pegs before. The good news is, no matter how difficult, it is not totally impossible. One or two may have done it already as no idea is entirely unique (sorry girl). If possible, it would be great to see their previous related works.
Case in point: our wine souvenir supplier (Rachebeli Wines) was very much patient with the bottle design we were after. They even added to our ideas, which made the souvenir more special. They said they were happy to be part of our wedding, as it was their first time to cater to a Harry Potter one. According to the owner, our bottle design is now one of their portfolios, and many other couples are choosing it as their templates. <3
Follow-through stalking mode
No longer a criteria, but this is what I did to my suppliers after booking them. I tried to monitor reviews about them, just in case I need to be aware of a mishap or what not. I can't say this is advisable because it could be just an added stress for couples. Good thing, all was well with our dream team and their performances were consistently great.
If you could think of any other criteria, just let us know through the comments, and I'd gladly expand the list and give you credits for it :)
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