Wedding Blog

Happy Friday everyone. It’s a gloomy morning here in Orlando, but the weekend promises to be nice. It’s a good thing, we have two weddings this weekend, one with an outdoor ceremony and the other with an outdoor cocktail hour. Please think sunny thoughts for me.

Since we are knee-deep in wedding season down south, I am reminded about how important it is to have a group of vendors who enjoy working with each other and who will all pitch in to make your wedding day successful. When you are shopping for your wedding vendors, remember to look for personality in addition to skill and style. Look below the photos for my top four characteristics to look for in the perfect wedding vendor.

One of my favorite wedding vendors, Bonnie Garfield, Director of Catering at the Portofino Bay Hotel. Photo by NuVisions in Photography.

Photos by Karla Fountain

1. See how other wedding vendors feel about the vendors you are considering. The wedding industry is a fairly tight community. Most likely, if you toss out a name, you will get some sort of reaction. Look for things like, “Oh I worked with him last month, he’s great,” or “I’ve heard of her, I hear she does great work.”
2. Listen to how your potential wedding vendors speak about other wedding vendors. Be careful of someone who speaks badly about others.
3. Ask probing questions like, “If something were to happen in the kitchen and the food service were delayed, how could you help?” Your DJ or entertainment should say something like, “I would rearange the agenda so that we could stall until the servers were ready to go.”
4. Follow your instincts. If interviewing a particular wedding vendor makes you feel uneasy, chances are he has the same affect on other people.

Over the years, I have seen videographers assist decorators tie chair bows, I have watched DJs help carry photography equipment, and just last week, I had a photographer help pin boutonniers when my staff got preoccupied with an issue. Good wedding vendors feel that the success of the evening is based on the overall result, not that his work is the only one that matters and that if someone else has an issue, it’s that vendor’s problem.

If you have any questions, comments or ideas about selecting the perfect wedding vendor, please post here or email me at susan.southerland(at)pwg.com. Also become a fan on Facebook by clicking here and follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan

I received a few comments yesterday regarding using an iPod versus hiring a professional wedding DJ for your reception. You can see two of the comments in the comment section of yesterday’s post. Below are a couple that I received on Facebook.

Good Blog. Equipment is just a small piece of a DJ experience. Schuyler Osborne, Wedding Videographer, Orlando, Florida

Nicely written piece Susan. As you know and eloquently wrote, a “wedding” DJ does so much more than playing music. A wedding DJ is the music player, emcee, host, etc etc etc. Thank you for explaining ALL the things a “Professional Wedding DJ” does! Wendy Goelz Kopasz, Wedding DJ, Orlando, Florida

Please keep the comments coming here, or email me at Susan.Southerland@pwg.com.