Best Practices
Working with your vendors and planner...
Emails: Send your email questions or requests in bullets rather than paragraphs. CC your event planner in all communications with your vendors. Emails on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday may not be answered until the following week and you may need to follow up as the weekends are focused on making perfect events for the wedding vendor's clients.
Please remember to involve your coordinator in the planning process. You receive advice and consulting within your planning package, so when you involve the coordinator into your planning process you're getting the best return on your investment. It's always advisable to discuss your potential decisions before you pull the trigger so that your coordinator can offer advice and feedback that will help make the most educated decision possible.
When emailing a vendor while having multiple people CC'd in the email make sure to address the email to the person you'd like to respond so it's clear that the vendor must respond. Without having the name in the salutation it can be confusing who should respond.
I suggest setting up a Gmail (versus yahoo, hotmail, etc.) just for the wedding and linking it to your phone. This way you can keep up on wedding related emails quickly and respond on work breaks and downtime at home. Please avoid using a work email. Jobs change even when you think you would never leave a job, things happen. And it's best to keep the wedding emails out of your work emails.
Phone calls: It's best to email to schedule a phone call, often times you'll be catching a vendor working on a project and they will not have their full attention on your event or they may not have your file ready in their hands which would make it challenging for them to refer to items in the file or to update notes. The best chance for a quick response to phone calls (and emails) is sending them Monday through Thursday as Friday through Sunday are filled with other wedding and event duties. I suggest avoiding texting vendors unless they give you express permission to do so as this can be viewed as intrusive to their personal downtime. Rather it's suggest to have email on your phone so you can send an email with your wedding thoughts. I understand, sometimes the only time to work on wedding items is at night while unwinding, but that's also the time your vendor may be unwinding too, so email is best.
Meetings: Night meeting fill up first, then lunch meetings so keep in mind in order to get an appointment it may be a couple weeks out before one becomes available. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday meetings will be almost impossible with wedding vendors.
Budget: The best way to request quotes from your vendors is by letting them know what taste and needs you have along with the top dollar budget for their services. I understand it can be difficult to figure out what that amount should be, so feel free to email us and we will provide you with a breakdown based on your total wedding budget.
Payments: Ideally it's best create a separate bank account (usually for free from most banks) for all wedding related expenses. If you do not do that, I do suggest stocking up on actual paper checks. This is the best way to pay and keep track of payments. Many vendors charge a 3% credit card fee so you wont find much of an advantage by paying with credit card. Bill pay features with banks is great for utilities and other personal expenses, but is not recommended for wedding payments as it is best to send the payment along with the most current invoice so that the wedding vendor can properly credit your account. This is even more important when the person paying for wedding expenses does not share a last name with the bride. Since the majority of vendor will file everything under the brides name (right or wrong it's how it's normally done).
Please remember to involve your coordinator in the planning process. You receive advice and consulting within your planning package, so when you involve the coordinator into your planning process you're getting the best return on your investment. It's always advisable to discuss your potential decisions before you pull the trigger so that your coordinator can offer advice and feedback that will help make the most educated decision possible.
When emailing a vendor while having multiple people CC'd in the email make sure to address the email to the person you'd like to respond so it's clear that the vendor must respond. Without having the name in the salutation it can be confusing who should respond.
I suggest setting up a Gmail (versus yahoo, hotmail, etc.) just for the wedding and linking it to your phone. This way you can keep up on wedding related emails quickly and respond on work breaks and downtime at home. Please avoid using a work email. Jobs change even when you think you would never leave a job, things happen. And it's best to keep the wedding emails out of your work emails.
Phone calls: It's best to email to schedule a phone call, often times you'll be catching a vendor working on a project and they will not have their full attention on your event or they may not have your file ready in their hands which would make it challenging for them to refer to items in the file or to update notes. The best chance for a quick response to phone calls (and emails) is sending them Monday through Thursday as Friday through Sunday are filled with other wedding and event duties. I suggest avoiding texting vendors unless they give you express permission to do so as this can be viewed as intrusive to their personal downtime. Rather it's suggest to have email on your phone so you can send an email with your wedding thoughts. I understand, sometimes the only time to work on wedding items is at night while unwinding, but that's also the time your vendor may be unwinding too, so email is best.
Meetings: Night meeting fill up first, then lunch meetings so keep in mind in order to get an appointment it may be a couple weeks out before one becomes available. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday meetings will be almost impossible with wedding vendors.
Budget: The best way to request quotes from your vendors is by letting them know what taste and needs you have along with the top dollar budget for their services. I understand it can be difficult to figure out what that amount should be, so feel free to email us and we will provide you with a breakdown based on your total wedding budget.
Payments: Ideally it's best create a separate bank account (usually for free from most banks) for all wedding related expenses. If you do not do that, I do suggest stocking up on actual paper checks. This is the best way to pay and keep track of payments. Many vendors charge a 3% credit card fee so you wont find much of an advantage by paying with credit card. Bill pay features with banks is great for utilities and other personal expenses, but is not recommended for wedding payments as it is best to send the payment along with the most current invoice so that the wedding vendor can properly credit your account. This is even more important when the person paying for wedding expenses does not share a last name with the bride. Since the majority of vendor will file everything under the brides name (right or wrong it's how it's normally done).