Saturating Your Market Through Vendor Recommendations

In a world where your industry is saturated, find your people, encourage them, cheer them on, & build your community!

I say it all the time y’all. The reason we have been so successful in the Williamsburg, VA market is because we built our own community of support and love! 90% of the inquiries we get are from referrals. And these referrals come from vendors, other planners, and venues. Yes, even other planners! And guess what…we do the same for other planners that we know and trust. We don’t market ourselves, we don’t pay for advertising, we put all our effort into building relationships with our vendors and venues! And it’s paid off BIG! We are constantly getting inquiries based on recommendations from our vendor friends & venues and it’s how we book our weddings. Be kind to your vendors y’all!

Here are 5 things you should be doing for your vendors so they want YOU at all their weddings!

1. Have your bride make a bridal detail box and have it ready the morning of the wedding. I can’t tell you how much our photographers love us when they arrive to the wedding day and the bride has all her details ready to go in one box/area. We typically set her dress, shoes, and the box out by a natural lit area. We will make sure the bride has placed the rings, the invites, the save the dates, the jewelry, and any other details she wants photographed in this box. We also make sure the veil and dress are steamed and ready for their photo op. And we always confirm with the florist that they can provide some blooms and greenery and provide it at the same time of the arrival time of the photographer so they can use these with the details! Our photographers always feel like we have taken care of them when we do this and in turn, they tell their clients how much they need someone like us on their wedding day!
2. Join the couple and the photographers during the photos. We know this can be tough if you don’t have a team in place. But if you have an assistant or additional team members that can stay back to ensure the ceremony & reception are all taken care of, you should join the couple and the photography/videography team during photo time. During this time you can keep everyone on time, hold the brides bouquet, bring everyone drinks/snacks if needed, and just be present with the couple and the photography/videography team. This is not something that many planners do, and when you do, do it, I promise they will be so impressed by you. Not only do the vendors love it, but so do the couples!
3. Provide detailed load-in and load-out directions for all your vendors. How many times have you received a call on the wedding day with load-in issues from a rental company? We used to get these all the time, until we changed up our wedding prep and provided all vendors with load-in and load-out directions. We go onto google maps and canva and draw out how each vendor will handle load-in. If we have time and things are particularly difficult, we will physically go to the venue location and film a walk through video of us walking them through how they will get from point A to point B and the obstacles they might face!
4. Arrange your vendor meals for when big events AREN’T happening. This one can be tough because you are at the mercy of the venue or caterer, but if you can help it, arrange that all vendors get a meal while the guests are eating and no big events are taking place. We also ask for sodas/water to be set out for the vendors inside the vendor room. If we know a vendor room won’t be provided, we try to find a quiet space for everyone to go to and we place a case of water inside the room for them. If we know it’s going to be a really crazy day, we will put together a little snack bag for the vendors to choose from too.
5. Focus your marketing efforts on your venue coordinators and other vendors. Each season we will send a little Starbucks gift card to our vendors wishing them a wonderful wedding season! We might spend $100-$150 on this, but it shows our appreciation for them and it reminds them that we care about them just as much as we care about our clients.