Finding the best local wedding suppliers

Wed­ding sup­plier group 1 — local, likeable

On Fri­day we split wed­ding sup­pli­ers into two groups. Group one are local sup­pli­ers, peo­ple who will be at your wed­ding and who you’ll spend time with either in meet­ings or on the day. It’s impor­tant you ‘click’ with these sup­pli­ers, so here are a few tips to help you find the right ones for you!

How to approach your search

This is where you need to look for per­son­al­ity. Trust your instincts and impres­sions, and get to know the peo­ple behind the business.

For the major­ity of brides– and grooms– to be, find­ing a dress is excit­ing, the wed­ding plan­ner is like a fairy god­mother and the pho­tog­ra­pher can get that per­fect smile every time.

But we’ve all heard sto­ries of snooty staff in bridal shops, argu­ments with wed­ding plan­ners and cou­ples who don’t ‘click’ with their pho­tog­ra­pher. In every case, look for some­one you con­nect with.

Imag­ine you’re award­ing a prize for your favourite per­son­al­ity, and always meet a few to get dif­fer­ent quotes.

Where to look

Ask your mar­ried friends. If they had a wed­ding sup­plier they loved, they’ll be happy to show you their wed­ding pho­tos. A per­sonal rec­om­men­da­tion from some­one you trust is worth its weight in gold.

Do your ini­tial research online. Use wed­ding blogs first to get an idea for the style you like, par­tic­u­larly with photography.

Use Google local search. Now that local searches come up on the home page, it’s miles bet­ter than it used to be for find­ing wed­ding sup­pli­ers in your area. But don’t just look for web­sites — these are the offi­cial, pro­fes­sional side of the busi­ness. With group 1, you should look for blogs. This is where you’ll get an idea of what your poten­tial sup­pli­ers are like as people.

Read blogs, Face­book pages and Twit­ter. The lat­ter is full of wed­ding busi­nesses, and you can read their twit­ter feed with­out fol­low­ing them. It gives a lit­tle snap­shot of personality.

Do trust the wed­ding blog­gers. Whether Rock n Roll Bride is your style or you have a soft spot for Love My Dress or Rock My Wed­ding, a blog­ger you trust can be a fan­tas­tic source of inspi­ra­tion — and they’ll do the ground­work for you, chat­ting to the sup­pli­ers they blog about, see­ing their prod­uct first hand and choos­ing favourite designs!

Then meet the local sup­pli­ers you like the sound of. And if you like them and you’re impressed with their ser­vices, it’s time to book.

A final word on group 1 — if there’s any­thing that nig­gles you, per­haps an offhanded com­ment or just a feel­ing about some­one — trust your instincts.