Vendors - Easy Peasy? Or a Tough Test?

View quoted message Fantastic!! Never thought of kijiji!

Good questions.
I think my favourite vendor is my florist, Natasha @ Floral and Brick in Hamilton. She is incredibly kind, really got what I was looking for, and is great with communication. I can't recommend her enough.
Hardest vendor was photographer. We are eloping so wedding packages were way more than we wanted. Even elopement packages seem more suited for small weddings. And we are getting married on a weekday afternoon, so anyone with a day job wasn't available. We did eventually find a photographer who we are very happy with.
I found almost all of my vendors on kijiji. Ridiculous I know.
I started booking within 24 hours of deciding we were getting married. We gave ourselves 5 weeks to pull it together so we didn't have time to waste.

Our easiest vendor was our venue. they have a great presentation, great food, and its beautiful so as soon as we met with them we booked it. the hardest one has been our dj but thats cuz i am trying to find a mix of east indian music and west indian music to please both families. ive found most my vendors on this site or google and i just look at the fb/ig pages to check their work. as soon as we booked our photographer we booked our engagement shoot.

I found the photographer the easiest to book as I also insta creeped and I love that we got our engagement photos down with them so we have a feeler for the wedding now!
the most difficult vendor to find in our area is surprisingly the cake baker! They are either not good or super expensive.. not sure what I’m going to do yet

View quoted message I hope so!!

Thank you so muxh!!

View quoted message That’s fantastic officiants have a social
media presence! If I was going that route, that would really help me decide.

how funny the officiant you chose looks like your Dad! That would definitely be comforting!

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That's so great!! I am sure everything will turn out fine - people are often brutally honest in reviews if they need to be.

Good luck on the house!!

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Having a photographer who has shot at the venue was a big thing for us too! They know all the spots.

The company we chose from had about a dozen officiants you could pick from, and they all had bio's on the website. So I followed their Instagram before picking one to see the pictures officiants were in. Ours was always laughing and smiling in pictures. Oddly enough he looks similar to my Dad, so I think thats what led us to choosing him.

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Fantastic you know the second shooter!! That will really be amazing! I was sooo nervous during my engagement shoot, if I had known my photographer, I probably would have been more relaxed. Post some of your engagement photos if you are comfortable! I'd love to see some!

I think you made a good decision going with the reception space you love! Considering that is where brides and grooms spend more of their day, it definitely make sense to go based on reception space. That is what we did. I am not a fan of our ceremony space, but love love our reception venue!

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That's great that your venue has been so accommodating! It seems they are really on the ball and organized! Amazing that you found an officiant you love! My FH and I had two priests to choose from and I ultimately left the decision in his hand, as I am not religious - I have no idea what to even look for!

Flowers were hard for me too! I ended up going with the florist my mom used for her wedding ~10 years ago. The florist also does decor, so she offered us a discount to go with her for decor as well! I love one stop shopping!

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So funny! I stalked my photographer's instagram as well. They actually are my venue's key photographer and take all of the website photos, so I figured they at least know all of the good locations for pictures!

Officiant, I agree, would be hard! I gave that responsibility to my FH to pick a priest. How did you decide on your officiant? Was it by personality?

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Our photographer is my favourite vendor as well, next to my venue - my coordinator there is amazing!!

Decor is so hard!! I had a huge issue figuring that out as well, luckily my florist does decor as well so it was a little easier that way! It's perfect that you are using someone you know people have used and actually liked. None of my friends are married yet, so I am googling reviews and hoping for the best at this point.

Congratulations on your house!! That is exciting! We are hoping to buy next spring, fingers crossed!

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Your venue looks spectacular with the dock and the water! It's amazing it holds so many people! You are going to have amazing photos for sure.

Officiant would be tough! It's so hard! We had to choose our priest this past week, I left it up to my FH as I am not religious and it really did not make a difference to me.

It's great you found some vendors at the Wedding Show! Hopefully you got some great discounts!

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Your venue is gorgeous! A co-worker of mine is getting married there this Saturday!

Flowers were so hard for me as well, if I did not have a referral from my mom, I would have been lost! It's great you found a florist close to you (or your venue).

I'm going to look into your bakery for my bridal shower goodies!

1. Who is your favourite (or easiest) vendor? How did you find them? What do you love about them? Yikes, I love all of my vendors and they were all easy to find/book lol! I really love our photographer, her personality is really down-to-earth! I also love our venue and venue coordinators!

2. Which vendor was your hardest decision so far? Why? Definitely MUA I would say. I debated doing my own makeup but my mom made a good argument about me not wanting to stress out about it day-of, and to have someone do mom and bridesmaid makeup too. It was more hiring a professional than our actual vendor, my MUA is really sweet!

3. How do you find most of your vendors? Online? Referrals? Bridal Shows? A little bit of all 3. I'm planning form a distance so I relied on online/reviews A LOT. I did go to a London Bridal Show and got info from lots of vendors, and it's where I ended up finding my photographer, dj, and cake baker! My officiant was a referral from my hairstylist lol

4. How soon after your engagement did you book your first vendor?We booked our venue in January 2018 and our first non/venue vendor was our photographer in May 2018.

I included 2 shoutouts, because I couldn't choose!

Shout out to our venue: Lamplighter Inn & Conference Centre

And shout out to our photographer: Sarameh Photography

1. Booking our photographer was a piece of cake! His second shooter is an old friend of mine so I'd been following his/their work since she started working with him and knew I wanted them to shoot our wedding long before we got engaged. They're unbelievably talented so I can't wait to get our engagement photos done in a month!

2. I think our venue was actually the hardest decision - for me anyway. I was stuck between two venues. I loved the ceremony space at one and the reception space at the other but we went with the nicer reception. It's also more accessible for my grandma, who's in a wheelchair.

3. It's been a fairly even distribution of referrals, Wedding Wire vendors, and Instagram creeping.

4. We got engaged at the end of Sept 2018 and booked our venue just before Christmas. After that, the rest have fallen into place pretty swiftly. I think I had everything besides florals booked by April.

Shouting out Jorge Polio Photography (will shout out yet again when we get engagement photos back ) and Nicholas & Elizabeth Bridal, where I had an excellent experience finding my dress.

1. Who is your favourite (or easiest) vendor? How did you find them? What do you love about them?

Our easiest Vendor was our venue. We had reached out for a beach wedding, but our wedding size was smaller than that particular venue, so they recommended us to a rooftop wedding instead which tends to a smaller wedding size. They take care of practically everything which made my Vendor list all that much more smaller!

Our favourite Vendor is our Officiant. I researched many before contacting her. She came very recommended. She is an absolute treasure! Immediately asked us to add her on facebook - so we actually see her personal page and get the opportunity to see the awesome chick she actually is! Even gave us a discount from her original cost! She seems like a joy to be around and I look forward to having her marry us!

2. Which vendor was your hardest decision so far? Why?

Our hardest would have to be the flowers. I researched for months until I found one that saw my vision and was willing to do anything we needed to make our dream wedding happen.

3. How do you find most of your vendors? Online? Referrals? Bridal Shows?

I researched recommendations. Viewed tons of Vendor pages, Instagram accounts and Facebook pages.

4. How soon after your engagement did you book your first vendor?

We were engaged in July and booked our venue in October of 2018.

Lastly, if you have a vendor you absolutely love, why not give them a shout out and maybe help some of the other brides in the community out!

Our awesome Officiant is Kendra Pierroz - www.kendrapierrozofficiant.com. She does not specialize in religious ceremonies, but can introduce you to someone who would be perfect. Her cost is super reasonable!

1. Our favourite vendor is our photographer by far. I found them on Weddingwire, but have stalked their Instagram before messaging them, and they were the first ones to actually contact me by phone instead of just a general email back.

2. I didn't really have a hard decisions for vendors. I think picking the exact officiant from a company was the hardest

3. I did a lot of research online for my vendors. I did find 2 at a Bridal show, so a mix of both!

4. We got engaged in February, and had our venue booked the beginning of May.

1. Our photographer hands down. We new long before we were engaged that we would book him - Phil Boudreau in NB.

2- I don't think I found it hard to book any specific vendors but I would say maybe my decorators because they are newish to the business but I did alot of research, read the reviews and reached out to an acquaintance that used them in the past!

3- I found most of my vendors online or from referrals ( we are one of the lasts to get married in our friend group!)

4- We got engaged in May 2017 and we booked our first vendor in January 2018. We always said that we would buy a house before getting married so we took some time to put our finances in order. We bought our house in January 2019 and getting married in 18 days!

1. Who is your favourite (or easiest) vendor? Our Venue - it is AMAZING there!! We found them at the Wonderful Wedding Show back in January 2018 before the venue was even built (we booked based off of blue-prints. It fits our number of guests and is rustic AND glam!!

2. Hardest one.... Maybe our officiant? We just went with the one that was most cost efficient but that was simple enough...

3. Found most of our vendors at the Wedding Show we went to.

4. First vendor we booked was the venue and that was about 2 months after we got engaged!

Shout out to our wedding venue in Elma MB - Rivers Edge Resort

Shout out to where I got my wedding dress from - The Perfect Gown

Our easiest choice and our first vendor choice was our venue. We knew as soon as we saw it that it was perfect for us. It was classy and traditional but still had a touch of uniqueness. I found them by searching online for wedding venues in the area.

our hardest vendor to book I would say has been flowers. I had contacted a number of florists who just really didn’t get or wanted to listen to what we wanted, they just had their own vision for our wedding. We luckily finally found our florist “Flowers of the World” which is right around the corner from where we live and they do far seem to really understand what we want and basically are willing to do whatever we tell them we want.

We booked our first vendor, our venue, about 3 weeks after being engaged.

Shoutout goes to our awesome wedding cake bakery, the Rolling Pin. Their donuts and cupcakes are mouth watering and their cakes look amazing. I follow them on Instagram and never seem to not be amazed....or hungry.

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I was just teasing. He will probably find a firm in North Bay of his choice/area.

View quoted message My firm is too small unfortunately, we don’t take on students!! I wish I could help!

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Maybe I should let him know to get in touch with you if he wanted to start or know get his start with your firm.

View quoted message That’s great you researched!! That’s what I have done too, for the most point.

Too bad about your photographer! Funny they went into law, that’s the area of my profression!! haha

Simple and easy answer from me about vendor shopping:

Researched and looked through websites for packages and pricing/called to find out by talking to them direct. Once I got my price and to find they could work towards my budget, it was done. Rentals were easy as putting a deposit down knowing its secure for date and return timing wise. I did book as soon as I did to know my day was free to them only.

Unfortunately my photographer is now studying law up north and left photography for the most part. I would really recommend him highly otherwise.