If you follow me on Instagram, you might know that every month I send out an email newsletter about different topics of wedding planning. I always try to provide a lot of value in those newsletters so that anyone planning their wedding doesn’t even have to leave their inbox to get all my best wedding planning tips. This post first appeared in April’s newsletter, and it was so good that I had to turn it into a blog post! I hope it’s helpful to you as you choose the perfect vendors that will bring your wedding day dreams to life! Since I know this process is the bulk of wedding planning and can be overwhelming and stressful at times, I decided that, in preparation for the newsletter, I would go through the experience myself and share all my tips and tricks with you! This is the same process I used when I was planning my own intimate wedding in Rocky Mountain National Park three years ago, and it’s the same process I’ve been using over the last few months to collect information for my preferred vendors list. While I’ve narrowed my list down to Northwest Arkansas vendors who specialize in elopements and prioritize sustainable weddings (like me!), you can use these 10 tips to find the vendors that fit the vision you have for your wedding, whatever it is!
10 Steps to Find Your Perfect Elopement Vendors
Step One: Keywords
Before you start researching vendors, take the time to sit with your partner and discuss the things that are really important to you as you plan your wedding. This could be cost, aesthetic, personality, sustainability, location, etc. I recommend writing down two or three keywords, whether it’s in a Google doc, in a wedding planner notebook, or just on a piece of paper. I call this process your “Wedding Planning Dream Date”, because it’s a time for you to really connect with your partner while you dream big dreams of what your wedding day will look like. For my recommended vendors list, I have chosen the keywords location (Northwest Arkansas), specialty (elopements), and sustainability.
Step Two: Vision
Write down the vision you have for your wedding. Don’t worry about naming specific vendors; instead write down everything else … the song that will play while you walk down the aisle – will it be a recording or will live musicians be playing? What does your makeup and hair look like – neutral, bold, classic glam, curls, updo? And your dream dress – sleeves, cape, a-line, neckline, bustle? Are there guests present? Is the ceremony outdoor or indoor? What colors are your flowers? What food is served at the reception? What does your cake look like? What is your first dance song? Every detail you can think of, write down what you’re envisioning. This should read more like a story than a list.
Step Three: List
This step is definitely a more tedious task – but I promise it will be worth it! On your document, make a list of every wedding vendor you can find that aligns with at least one of your keywords – this list should be long. Look on Google, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest – anywhere you can think of to find vendors. I recommend listing 5-10 vendors for each category (venue, photographer, caterer, etc.), and put them in order from your favorite to your least favorite. On my document, I started with vendors located in Northwest Arkansas, but you should vary your list based on all of your keywords. You don’t have to limit your list based on geography, since many wedding vendors (and especially elopement vendors) are willing to travel.
Step Four: Information
While you are completing step three, collect as much information as you can about each vendor. I recommend creating a template and filling it in for each vendor so that you have as much information as possible when it comes time to make your final decisions. During this stage, you are not yet reaching out to any individual vendors, so if you don’t have all the information you want yet, don’t worry. I just want you to have a base knowledge of the vendor before you actually reach out to them. Below you can see the information I researched for my document, but you can always add more things based on your keywords. If you come across anything during this stage that you think might not align with your vision, I would recommend leaving that vendor on your list anyways for now.
Vendor Business Name
Name:
Website:
Social media handles:
Email address:
Location:
Sustainability:
Step Five: Contact
Now you get to finally contact vendors! I recommend starting with the venues and then after locking in your venue and your date, moving on to the other vendors in the order of importance to you (usually photographer/videographer and attire are pretty high on the priority list due to availability and tailoring time). From a wedding vendor’s perspective, it is always best to submit an inquiry on the vendors’ websites (unless they have an alternate preferred contact method listed on their website or on social media). This ensures that they see your inquiry – often DMs get lost, and there is information that is important for them to know in their inquiry form that they would not get if you just emailed or DM’d them directly. Even when people DM/text/email me, I will redirect them to fill out the inquiry form. Often there is a “Tell Me More” box on inquiry forms, and this is where you can share the vision for your wedding that you wrote in step two.
Step Six: Evaluate
From the time you discover a vendor, you should be evaluating to see if they are the right fit for your wedding. Do they respond to your inquiry in a timely manner (anything within 24-48 hours is a reasonable expectation)? Check out their Instagram stories to see what kind of personality they have. Look on their website for testimonials to see what other clients have to say about working with them. Get to know them as much as possible.
Step Seven: Get to Know
After the initial inquiry is sent, do your best to set up an in-person meeting or at least a phone or video call with each vendor (*if for some wild reason this is not possible, make sure you get all of your questions thoroughly answered). This is the perfect time to get to know each vendor on a deeper level, let the vendor know more about your vision for your wedding, what your expectations would be for them specifically and what is most important to you. It’s also a good time to let them know that they are not the only vendor from their category that you have contacted. As long as you are upfront and honest about it, it shouldn’t be a big deal. I personally love it when clients consider more than one photographer because then when they choose me, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am the right photographer for them.
Step Eight: Narrow Your List
Once you no longer have any questions for any of the vendors in a certain category, you should be able to narrow down that list to two or three vendors. Remove the vendors who don’t align with all of your values or who don’t seem like a good fit personality-wise. Discuss all the final options with your partner (by the way, both of you should be participating in all of these steps), take in all of the factors, trust your gut, and choose the vendor who will make your wedding dreams come true.
Step Nine: Communicate
As you are eliminating vendors from your list, send them a message to let them know that you are going with a different vendor. This is the respectful thing to do, and I promise vendors appreciate it. There’s nothing worse than getting ghosted.
Step Ten: Get Married!
Congratulations! You have your wedding vendors. I know that all these steps may seem tedious or complicated, but by being methodical and organized you are truly able to find the vendors that will breathe life into your wedding.
I hope this blog post is helpful as you plan your wedding! If you would like to be the first to have access to helpful wedding planning tips like this blog post, all you have to do is fill out this form and you’ll start getting emails next month. Oh, and did I mention that with each monthly newsletter, I release a brand new freebie that you only have access to if you’re on my email list? That right there is a good enough reason to sign up for the list. Some of the past freebies include a style guide, a sample wedding day timeline, a sample wedding budget breakdown, and a wedding day family photo shot list (I also have some really good freebies planned for upcoming months, so don’t wait to sign up for my email list as soon as possible!).
*All my blog posts contain a selection of images that I’ve taken. If you are interested in booking a wedding or session with me, I am more than happy to send you a full gallery upon request!
I’m a wife, a dog mom, a foodie, a wanderer, a registered nurse, and a couples/intimate wedding/elopement photographer … and this blog will cover it all! If you enjoyed this post, first of all thank you, and second of all please follow me on Instagram + Facebook to get updates on future blog posts, see sneak peeks of my amazing couples, and so much more! If you have any questions about elopement photography, my journey from nursing to photography, or my time spent as a full-time RVer, drop a comment and I just might write a blog post answering your question (but I definitely will)!
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