NEVER use these words when shopping for Wedding Vendors
When you’re shopping around for various wedding vendors, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about doing things.
Most couples getting married have little to no knowledge about the wedding industry and just try to ‘wing-it’ when they book the venue, wedding photographers like Carole and I and other various vendors.
One of the biggest mistakes couples make can easily be avoided and it will help you find the right vendor for your wedding day, faster and with less stress.
Blog Sections:
The words ‘affordable’ or ‘cheap’
Be as specific as you can
Saying “It’s for a wedding” myth
Don’t Use “Affordable” And Here’s Why
What’s affordable to you is not always affordable to the next couple and vice-versa. Let me give you an example that you can relate to, purses.
Let’s take Louis Vuitton, it’s a high-end luxury brand. Can you afford their Alma BB Monogram purse that costs more than $1,600-$3,000+?
Is that purse affordable to you??
Well for nearly 95% of us, no, it’s not affordable or even obtainable within reason, most ladies would buy a more affordable brand like Michael-Kors or Coach for a couple of hundred bucks.
Some people think those less costly brands are not affordable too, it’s more of a mindset and what you think is reasonable, or price to value that something offers, in business terms.
The wedding industry is the same way, there are huge price ranges in wedding vendors in just about every category that you choose.
Affordable is a relative term, we use it in our business model, but it’s not descriptive, meaning it may or may not apply to you and your budget.
When you ask online for someone that’s ‘affordable’, what you are doing is being generic.
Like I said, what’s affordable to you may or may not be affordable to the next person.
So, how do you get around this?
Be specific in your Query
When you’re searching on Facebook or any forum, be as specific as you can.
Nearly 84% of couples are NOT specific when they ask for a good wedding vendor and they wind up literally getting anything and everything under the sun.
That creates a bottleneck because you have to literally weed out the vendors that are out of your price range, take time to figure out if they’re a match and it’s just frustrating for the end-user.
It’s also the number one thing brides hate about wedding vendors.
Which sounds better to you?
“Looking for a wedding photographer that is affordable and can cover my wedding?”
“Seeking a wedding photographer in the Washington area that can cover my July 12th wedding at the ABC venue. Our range is $2,800-$3,200.”
If you ask for something generic, you will get something generic.
The first sentence has no date, no price range, no details.
The second sentence does have all the details that others can help provide to you. Offering a range allows you to slightly open the funnel within reason and giving that range also tells people that’s budget you are looking for too.
Telling a Vendor “It’s For a Wedding” Myth
It’s actually a common myth that if you tell someone their products or services are for a wedding that it will cost you far more. While it’s true weddings are expensive, it’s for a reason and allow me to take a minute to explain.
First, a wedding is a LOT more than just the number of hours you set for the big day. Since we do wedding photos and films, let’s use that as an example.
When you say that you only need a wedding photographer for 8 hours, you actually need them for far more.
There is usually a few hours of prep time ahead of the wedding day and a LOT in the post-wedding. In fact, on average, a professional wedding photographer will spend a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio.
That means for every hour spent at the wedding, it can take 2-3 hours or copying, editing, processing, and finalizing images or video.
Hours Worked at a Wedding
It’s not really about it being a wedding, but rather the entire time it takes to make a final product or service for your wedding.
And it’s not just wedding photographers or videographers either. Florist and catering companies will spend a lot of time prepping food and flowers, DJ’s spend time picking out the songs that you want and line up their evening based on the reception that you want, even the makeup artists and officiants need to prep long ahead of time for your big day.
And that simply translates into time, time is money.
While it’s true that professionals do cost more, it’s not because you mention the word ‘wedding’, it simply means there will be more time before and after the wedding that vendors have to work, thus the higher costs.
Here is a great online tool I created to show you a good approximate hourly rate of what a wedding photographer really makes.
ISO a “Cheap” Wedding Vendor
When you say “cheap” you’ll still get a lot of people out there offering services for weddings. While most times is inexperienced people, asking for someone cheap or because you are on a tight budget isn’t really something you want to say to vendors, and here’s why.
Words like “cheap” or “on a “tight budget” or “doesn’t break the bank” tells vendors you don’t have a lot of money to spend on that service.
Instead, simply give a budget range.
What’s interesting is that in the wedding industry is that there are far more people willing to do work for next to nothing than just to get the job, but they realize they don’t actually make any money and quickly either burn out or get out altogether.
FREEBIE? Do It for the “Exposure”
While it rarely happens to me and Carole today, asking for something for free or asking to do it for the exposure is something that does happen to many of us in the wedding business and it’s NOT something that vendors tend to like much.
While some vendors will barter among each other, having someone come to you and say they’re just looking for someone to toss up a tripod and capture their wedding with images or video for the “exposure” is a slap in the face.
You will find many newbies getting into the business that want to do some work for free to build a portfolio, but you can’t raise the bar too high because it’s free.
If something goes wrong you can’t really expect them to fix it because the work was given to you at no charge.
I did a survey in 2018 asking couples on Facebook that had hired someone for free if they were satisfied with their work or if they should have hired someone.
Roughly 79% of couples said if they could do it over again, they would have spent the money and hired someone instead of finding someone for free or little pay.
Satisfaction Rate
The old adage is true, you get what you pay for in life and that goes for the wedding industry as well.
That doesn’t mean you should overpay for a wedding vendor either, what you should pay for them is based on YOUR budget, not their rates.
If you find a vendor is beyond your budget price range, then you need to either rethink your budget, spend more overall or find a more affordable vendor.
Navigating the wedding industry can be a difficult one if you don’t have the knowledge beyond how everything works and we try to work with couples to help provide them the best knowledge and services we can provide too.
