The Basics of Selecting a Great Vendor Team

Selecting your ideal vendor team can seem like a daunting task. No worries…We are hear to help! With new vendors popping up all over the Texas Hill Country everyday, hiring a team that works best with your style and personality can be a challenge. Here is a little secret (SPOILER ALERT lol)…hire a planner. We meet new vendors every weekend and work very closely with them. A planner can help you establish relationships with credible vendors without the hassle of researching hundreds of different options.

The Process – Establishing a Wedding Budget

Here at Touch of Whimsy, we go through a thorough interview process with the couple to establish the spending plan, style, and personality types that they are looking for. First, the spending plan. Whether or not you are on a “tight” budget, you need to establish your overall spending plan for the wedding. Nothing is more stressful than “penny pinching” the last few months and cutting corners to make-it-work. By establishing a set budget, you are able to allocate a percentage of your funds for each area of the wedding. Then we are able to search for vendors within your spending plan. Simple. Easy. Stress-free! 

The Process – Creating a Style for your Wedding Day

Next step is to create the mood or style for the wedding day. This is the best way to make the wedding personal and unique for the client. At our design meeting we get to know our clients on a more personal level, allowing us to integrate their lives into the design and the event. One of my favorite examples comes from Cassie + Mavin’s wedding at The Veranda in San Antonio. Cassie LOVED animals, so we created adorable gold animal figurines to sit at each place setting. Her love for animals was integrated in a classy way. By the end of our meeting we solidified the budget, style, and learned the couple’s personalities. The last step is to create a mood board which allows each vendor to understand the couple’s vision. See below for a few of our favorites. 

Tips to Selecting your Own Vendors

If our clients decide to select vendors at their own expense and not use our services, know that we are still there for assistance. At Touch of Whimsy, we encourage our brides to ask us questions and lean on us for advice. Our goal is help couples create a stress-free, peaceful wedding day. That all starts with a rockstar vendor team! Here are a few things to remember when selecting vendors:

1. Always read the reviews! …and take them with a grain of salt. If there is one terrible review and the rest are raving, know that it may have been a hard customer for them. 
2. Ask other vendors for their favorites. Like I said earlier, we work with so many people. Vendors know who are a joy to work with on wedding days and who is a pain in the you know what. A vendor team that works well together, is a well oiled machine. 
3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you have $15,000 to spend on your wedding, don’t spend $8,000 on the venue. I can guarantee that you will not find a complete set of reputable vendors, dress, invitations, gifts, favors, etc. for $7,000 (if you want to do the traditional dinner and dancing reception)
4. Chat with multiple vendors in each category. It is so important to get along with the team the couple picks.  They will be working with them closely for almost a year, so put some effort into picking the right vendors! 
5. Base their ability on their portfolio and reviews, not their price. 

I hope this was helpful and informative, so that you can select the best vendors for your next wedding or event. Please feel free to reach out to me or one of my girls if you need help selecting the best vendors for your next event! We would love to be apart of your big day!

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR FAVORITE ROCKSTARS