How to choose your wedding vendors in Houston, TX

Houston Wedding Photographer | Half a Rice Studios – Houston Wedding Vendors

It is excited when you are engaged. And it is also overwhelming at the same time. So what to do next? Here are a few advices I have for the future brides to pick out their wedding vendors, the ones they will spend most of their wedding day with.

1. Don’t forget to celebrate.

I mean, you are engaged! Please take your time to let that feeling soak in. Because it is only a short period. Down the road, you can be married for 10, 20, 30 years… but you are only engaged for 1-2 years. So enjoy the feelings right now and celebrate it with your loved ones!

And, don’t forget to buy insurance for your engagement ring. While I ran into so many instances where the ring is lost before the wedding day, it is avoidable. And if you don’t have enough stress repping for your wedding, this will sure do the job.

2. Vendor Search

Here are a few popular place to look for your vendors:

• Google
• The Knot
• Weddingwire
• Bridal Shows

Also, don’t forget words of mouth! Don’t hesitate to consult that one friend that just got married. After all, she/he experienced it all and will be able to tell you the pros and cons of each of her/his vendor.

Always read the vendor’s reviews, from multiple platform. I would trust the Facebook page reviews the most. Why? Because from the review, you can view the person’s profile and if they just got married recently, their profile pictures are probably from their wedding. Real person, real reviews. I will also read reviews on The Knot and Google… just to make sure that I have not miss any negative review.

If you happen to find a negative review for your favorite vendor, don’t panic! Keep reading to see how the vendor responded to the review, and whether it was the vendor’s fault. You can tell a lot about the vendor through the positive reviews and a lot more through their negative reviews’ responses.

Read Half a Rice Studios‘s Reviews.

There are a few places to avoid looking for your vendors from:

• Thumbtack
• Craigslist

The reason why I said this is because I personally was a vendor and Thumbtack. It was nothing but a bidding war. The vendors will try go give you the cheapest quote so you can hire them. And I believe selecting your vendors should be more about human connection than an online bidding war. And we all know how shady Craigslist can be!

3. Always ask to meet your vendors in person before booking.

A. Always, always, ALWAYS try to meet your vendors in person.

With emails and text messages are so popular and easy ways to communicate these days, I believe that you should not trust a person until you meet them in person. There are a few things that you can conclude about a person when meeting them in person:

• Punctuality
• Manner
• Dress code
• Eye contact

And most importantly, to determine if you will get along with the person. And don’t forget you will spend most of your wedding day with your vendors, you should like them in order to do that 🙂

B. Preparing questions to ask in advance is not a bad idea!

If you do enough research, you can come up with a lot of good questions. And don’t worry about having a “stupid questions!” Fortunately, all the vendors are very comfortable working with first time bride, that is all they do all day everyday.

See some of my suggested questions for photographers here.

C. Always bring your spouse and or/decision maker to the meeting.

If you don’t pay for the vendors, bring the ones who will to the meeting with you. Afterwards, you would save a lot of time rephrasing the entire meeting later, and also it will be fun to be “shopping” with another person.

4. Decision, decision, decision.

While there are so many factors that you should put into account when decide on a vendor, here are a few questions you should ask:

• Is there style what you like?
• Do you get along with them?
• Did they listen to your vision and story?
• Have you read their reviews?
• Did you see their previous work?

5. Book your vendors.

Yayy!!! This step should be exciting. After so much consideration and research, you finally found a vendor that you absolutely love (if you don’t please go back to step 2) and ready to commit. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you sign your contract:

• Is the contract clear and has good coverage?
• What is the cancellation policy?
• Is there a retainer on top of the deposit? (Sometimes vendors charges a fee that is non-refundable to reserve the date and this amount may not go toward your balance.)
• What is the policy if something emergency happens to the vendor?

6. Keeping track of everything.

I would suggest to have an excel spreadsheet (can you hear the inner accountant in me?) to keep track of everything. You should list out your vendors, their contact information (phone number is a must), and the contract that you signed with them in one place.

In your mail box, you should have a separate folder for your wedding vendor communication for easy access and organization purpose.

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