Photos on thumbnail courtesy of Hayden Jordan Photography.
Here at Madera Estates, one thing that our team has always emphasized is the importance of creating a stress-free wedding planning experience. It’s you and your partner’s special day. As such, you should enjoy every last moment of it, including the planning activities in the months leading up to the wedding day itself! With this being the case, it should come as no surprise that we often publish blog posts covering wedding planning tips to ensure you avoid any unnecessary stress along the way. Having a timeline or checklist is a terrific way to stay on schedule and help ensure you don’t get behind on key wedding planning tasks.
In this week’s blog post, we’ll be discussing an item that you’ll certainly want to highlight on your wedding planning checklist. Your team of wedding vendors will undoubtedly play a significant role in your celebration. Furthermore, you’ll also notice that there are several different vendors that will be involved in a wedding. Once you have a general overall budget established for your wedding, it’ll be time to get a rough estimate of how much you can spend for each of these vendors. After that, you’ll find yourself browsing through social media feeds of vendors, meeting with them to discuss pricing/availability and ultimately building your wedding vendor dream team as the big day approaches! Throughout our blog post, we’ll mention a few of the vendors that you’ll want to make sure you book fairly early in the planning process!
Wedding Venue
A common theme you’ll notice throughout this blog post is the idea that wedding vendors can get booked up months (or even over a year) in-advance. Especially on some of the more popular wedding dates, it’s no surprise why we encourage you to get started early on booking several of the key vendors. We’ll start off with your wedding venue. Your wedding venue package will likely be a bigger purchase, but one of the main reasons why we mention it first is because it will inevitably help streamline future decisions. For instance, if you book with a venue that offers all-inclusive packages, that will certainly help simplify some other choices. Likewise, assuming it’s not a brand new venue, they will probably also have suggestions on local vendors that they’ve previously worked with for weddings or events. This can be a tremendous resource for quality recommendations. A final reason why we encourage you to book your venue early is because it will give you a locked-in date to share with other vendors. You’ll have one of the bigger purchases finalized and a specific date, which will make it that much easier to determine which vendors you can consider for the other areas of your wedding celebration!
Photographers/Videographers
Another vendor that you’ll see quite often on your wedding day will be the photographer (and videographer if you choose to include one in your wedding celebration). Particularly in bigger markets (like Houston), you’ll notice there are a number of reliable wedding photographers to choose from. Given that everyone wants some beautiful photos that capture different moments of their wedding, you want to make sure that you select the perfect photographer for your special day. In addition to making sure they’re available on your date and fit within the price range you have allocated for a photographer, it would also be a good idea to look through their social media feeds for examples of their work and even inquire about whether or not they’ve previously worked at the venue you booked! This is all important information to take into consideration when booking this key vendor.
Caterer
Just like with a photographer, the catering company that you book will also serve a big role on your wedding day. After all, every couple wants to make sure that their guests have delicious food to enjoy, right? While you can learn a lot about a photographer’s ability by looking at some of their past work, in order to truly determine whether a caterer is right for your wedding day, you’ll want to schedule tastings. Since you may schedule a few tastings with various caterers, we recommend getting the process of booking your caterer started fairly early on too! Have any friends or family members that recently tied the knot? If so and you attended their wedding reception, that could be a terrific way to get some ideas (especially if there was one with food that really stood out to you!).
Florist
Next on our list is the vendor responsible for creating those beautiful floral arrangements that will be shown in many of your wedding photos and truly add to the magic of your big day! With flowers playing such an integral part of your wedding, you’ll want to select a local florist capable of creating something amazing. Along with meeting different florists in your area, another good strategy here is to browse around social media for different styles that catch your eye. Screenshot and save any styles that you really like and share those with your florist. In addition, I’m sure the florists you meet with will also have plenty of amazing ideas to consider too!
DJ/Band
Up to this point, we’ve covered the venue, photos, food, and flowers. So…next on this list of important vendors is the DJ or band that will supply the entertainment and keep the dance floor packed all night long. This is another good example of a vendor that you can lean on your venue for suggestions. They’ll likely have experience working with a number of different local DJs or bands and can help steer you in the right direction for the vibe you’re hoping to achieve for your celebration! All in all, they’ll be a major factor in your reception, so once you’ve made headway on the vendors above, focus on the music aspect!
Wedding Cake Baker
The last vendor that we’ll feature today is the wedding cake baker. We already touched on the food element once before with the caterers, but you can’t understate the importance of a beautiful and delectable wedding cake. Not to mention, with the creativity of wedding cake bakers nowadays, there are simply so many options to pick from. You’ll want to start this process more than a couple months in-advance to ensure you have time to choose a style and flavor that you truly like! Not to mention, if you’re planning on having your wedding during a busy season, you’ll want to make sure they’re available too!
Still Need a Venue?
As we mentioned above, one of the first tasks that you’ll complete shortly after celebrating your engagement will involve touring and ultimately booking your wedding venue. This will set the backdrop for your special day and can even have an impact on future decisions, such as booking several of your wedding vendors. While there is no required order in which you need to select vendors, it is always a good idea to finalize many of them early on, as well as anyone that you consider to be a must-have. Throughout this week’s blog post, we covered a handful of the vendors that you’ll want to avoid procrastinating on during the booking process. However, it’s important to remember that there are several other vendors that will serve big roles in your wedding celebration too!
Engaged and searching for a wedding venue near the Houston area? If so, we would love to show you around our luxury wedding venue and event space, Madera Estates. From the getting ready suites and Grand Fireplace to the Hacienda and more, our team is here to help bring your dream wedding life! To learn more about our venue, feel free to click HERE to request a copy of our Investment Guide. Have any questions for us or are you interested in scheduling a free tour? Don’t hesitate to fill out the form HERE and a member of our team will reach out!