Planning a wedding can be quite overwhelming at times. When listing off the different services you need to coordinate....venue, flowers, catering, gowns, bridal party, rehearsal dinner, music (live or DJ), transportation....yikes! It might, well...WILL make your head spin! When selecting all of your vendors, it's important to keep some things in mind.
1. Your vision.
2. Your budget.
3. Making sure this vendor can create YOUR vision working within YOUR budget.
This could pose a serious challenge for more brides-to-be, simply because the vast amount of vendors to choose from. You have a couple of options here. You can google "local wedding flower vendors" and find a list of all of your local vendors for the specifics that you need and start to call, set up consultations and take up the next 52 Saturdays until your wedding (repeat steps for each vendor) and feel overwhelmed (because for them to be able to really help you with your wedding, they need to know more about your plans, venue, vision, colors, time frame, season and of course...budget. No vendor will ever really disclose the cost of their services over the phone because it's all customizable and takes time to find the best deal. That is option A.
A second option for selecting vendors is to attend a Bridal Bazaar or Bridal Show such as the San Diego Bridal Bazaar where you can go to one easy location - spend a couple of hours and get contact and general information on what's available to you by selected vendors. Not only is this a place for the vendor to display their capabilities (saving you time from having to make a special trip to their office just to determine that you don't like their service offerings) but really for you to gain a better understanding of what's out there. As an added bonus, just for attending these types of shows, vendors will typically discount a rate or provide a free service to you for finding them there! It's a win-win!
My hubby-to-be and I just attended the Bridal Bazaar here in San Diego at the convention center this past weekend. It was awesome! There were over 300 different vendors there - pitching their services and even giving us some ideas and insight on what we CAN do. They conveniently offer you a bag to start collecting vendor information (otherwise it can get pretty hard to carry all of the business cards etc you will pick up along the way). You get to taste cakes, test DJ's on wedding music information, view beautiful flowers, take pictures in photo booths and even watch a fashion show! Now, what bride-to-be wouldn't enjoy that?
Here are some of the vendors I met along the way and their contact information. Keep in mind, I will be checking further into these vendors for ideas and pricing and get back to you all about which of these vendors are the most "budget friendly".
Cakes:
Euro Pastry
Flowers:
Botanic Allure
Art Quest
Photography and Videography:
Eisenhower Photography
NR3 Video Productions
DJ's and Music:
Just Made Custom
Positive Energy Productions
Sleeping Giant Music
Elite British DJ
Officiant/Minister:
Ken Day
Wedding Coordinators:
Julie Scrivener
Catering:
Personal Touch
Honeymoon:
Travel Specialist Susan Ashley
Sandals Resorts
Transportation:
Historic Tours
Rolls Livery
Pink Cadillacs
Invitations:
JMB Stationary
Phew! Can you imagine the day I had talking to all these vendors and MORE? To get an exhaustive list please visit this link.
And remember...anything you can do to save TIME and MONEY when it comes to your wedding day...I say...
I DO! (and you should too!)
Feel free to post a comment or share this blog with anyone else you know. There's more great wedding ideas and budget friendly planning tips to come! We're just getting started! Have a great day!
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