The First Five Vendors to Book When Planning a Wedding

Oh hey there, newly-engaged brides!!

So you’re looking at wedding vendors, eh! Congratulations! I know this can seem mighty overwhelming at times, so my best advice is to start with the vendors who need to be booked first.

You’ll soon learn that there are 5 principal vendors that you’ll need to start researching at the start of wedding planning. I call this group ‘The First Five‘ and they make up the vendors that 1) tend to book-up earliest in advance, and 2) who will be the most supportive + engaging throughout the planning process.

In today’s ‘The Friday Five‘ series, we’re chatting about ‘The First Five’: who they are and why it’s so darn important to contact them early!! And *yes!!* these are in a particular order!!

I’m willing to bet that the first questions you asked yourself when starting to plan were: 1) who are the best vendors in the city; 2) which of those vendors falls within our budget; and 3) which vendors will give us the best experience?

Planners know these things, and MORE. Who better to reach out to than planners like Cait from Bourbon and Bloom, Brittany from Satin and Snow, Elise from Toast Events, or Jess from En Amour Events to start your search for venues, photographers, caterers etc. on the right foot.

Think about this for a second: if you don’t hire a planner/coordinator for your wedding day, who will the day-of decisions fall on to? The likely answer is 1) your mother, 2) your photographer, or – worst of all – 3) YOU!! Please, oh please, don’t let it be you.

Securing your venue not only means we can get the ball rolling for envisioning the look and feel of your day; it means you officially have a DATE!! This is key for booking any other wedding vendors as we’ll need to be sure that we have your date available before any further commitments are made.

If you haven’t heard this already, you should know that photographers book up early and quickly for the following Summer. Most photographers tend to accept bookings about a year to a year-and-a-half in advance. It’s not uncommon for me to start booking Summer weddings for the following year in early January, so my best advice to you is to reach out and inquire with photographers as soon as you’ve booked your venue.

So you’ve booked your venue, and your vision is starting to come together!! Congrats!! But what about the theme? The colours? The styles? Many brides have troubles starting this next stage of planning, and I totally get that! Afterall, how are you going to choose the bridesmaids’ dresses without choosing your colours? Or know what style of flowers or cake to order without understanding this vision for the decor?

Something I’ve learned over the years is that many decorators are also planners at heart. Chances are, your decorator will be at your venue early to set up the decor and oversee the events of the morning. They will likely be the point person for most of your vendor contacts, and I’m willing to bet they’ll know your entire timeline. It’s a natural transition then to hire your decorator to coordinate any day-of activities during the ceremony and reception (if they’re into that!)!

If you’re in Ottawa, consider checking out Britt from GLOSS or Mel from Makin’ it Lovely, who are both fabulous decorators and day-of coordinators!

When I first started in this industry, I noticed a trend: brides tended to overlook the need for a videographer, or – as in my case for our wedding last Summer – booked their videographers as a last minute decision (big, big mistake on my part, as I know it would have been a huge regret to not have these moments on video!!). Nowadays, on the other hand, videographers are becoming more and more popular and as a result are booking up much sooner in advance.

If hiring a videographer is in your budget, here are some of my favey local videographers in Ottawa: ChapterOne Collective, Rowland Films!

Remember that wedding vendors want to work with other amazing wedding vendors who we work well with, so we’re happy to offer recommendation and thoughts on who to reach out to.

There’s lots to do, and a lot of people to meet, but please don’t hesitate to lean on your vendors as you go and ask them questions along the way! We’re here to help + we’re happy to help! xo