There are so many people involved in bringing together a successful wedding, don't you know! I call them TEAM ACE (ace is our initials - cheesy I know). Each of them has a part to play in making your special day come together, it's really important that you take time to choose your team members properly.
In TEAM ACE we have:
- our church and officiant
- our reception venue
- wedding planner
- day of coordinator
- photographer
- videographer
- caterer
- designer and printer
- bridal and grooms wear
- seamstress
- cake maker
- hair and make up
- registry
Anyone who knows me, knows that I research to the end and if I need to find out something, I will be on Google quicker than you can say 'can you find..?'
We started 'planning' our wedding back in September 08 and I refused to buy any bridal magazines until the New Year, because I wanted to see how far I could get with the Internet only, plus it'a cheaper, right! I was amazed at all the things I could find. There were different websites, blogs, e-zines all about weddings, showing inspiration ideas, actual weddings, DIY projects - you name it. Some of my favourite are listed to the right of the post.
I also found that because there are no geographical boundaries online, you can get the opinions and insight from people across the Globe and are not restricted to things that are local. This really helped me when I was looking at traditional Nigerian weddings to get an idea of what to expect.
Alongside all of this, when I got engaged one of my bridesmaids bought me a wedding planning binder, which was a fantastic gift - thanks Em! It arranged all the different things you need to do into sections and allowed you to do your research, make notes and plan for your wedding. I also bought 'The Wedding Book' by Mindy Weiss, which I had seen recommended online. Mindy a world renowned Wedding and Event planner, put all her planning advice and tips down into a wedding book and I found it particularly useful especially around wedding etiquette and traditions.
Brides to be out there - in all of this make sure you have a clear idea what you and your fiancé want for your wedding, because it will help you as you make decisions around who to work with and what is or isn't important for your special day.
Over the next couple of weeks I will be writing a 'How we chose our...' mini series - so stay tuned. Some team members won't be revealed until after the big day, but I will give you insight into how we chose them.
How did you got about choosing your 'team' members?
The way we chose our vendors was around three principles I guess:
ReplyDelete1) we had to like and trust the person we were dealing with.
2) recommendations were key! This was especially important for caterer and dj, which we knew could make or break everyone's enjoyment. We figured if our guests were happy, we'd be happy too and vice versa.
3)they had to offer good value for money, not just good prices
The internet was THE single most useful tool I reckon though. We could see pictures of things, get ideas and pretty much eliminate ideas/vendors from the comfort of our sofa!
We also found that suppliers who answered phone calls/emails promptly were more reliable than others and all in all our Team 'EMO' (not quite as clever as 'ace') was brilliant!
The only downside was our florist - who was randomly chosen, for which we did not get a recommendation, but who I have to add fixed the problem really promptly : )
xxxx good luck vendor shopping! xxxx
looking forward to the mini series...
ReplyDelete@Mrs O - valid principles. Word of mouth is always the best route. Also first impressions and gut feeling work well too. If someone can't get back to you when they say they will or take ages to respond to emails, it doesn't bode well.
ReplyDelete@Kabiosi - thanks, hope you'll find it useful.