Holy cow – YOU ARE ENGAGED!

This is the moment you’ve been waiting for your whole life, it’s so surreal, yet definitely happening!

There are so many things to think about, so many things to plan and so many people to contact! Cheese, where do you begin!?

Committing to the love of your life, for life, is scary and amazing at the same time! 

According to ThePerfectWedding.nl, you should start planning your wedding atleast one year in advance. Now, before you start sending thousands of emails, consider these next 4 things you should do as soon as you start planning your wedding! 

Choose the top 3 things that are the most important to you.

The first thing you should do is write down the top 3 things that are the most important to you.

Let’s say, for example, your top 3 are:

1. Venue
2. Photographer
3. Florist

The reason I choose the florist is that your bouquet is one of the things that will be in most of the photos. Which means, if the wedding photographer is also on your list, you’d definitely want to make sure you’re choosing the right florist who can make your pictures look so much better.

Once you have the most important aspect of your wedding written down, you can start with the research process. (Do not start with the research process before making this list!).

It’s easy to just start sending emails to different vendors and start hiring people based on price. However, if you start narrowing down the most important things for you first, you will definitely start planning your wedding with a different mindset.

Choose your style

Now that you have the 3 most important things on your list, you’d want to see what fits your style. For example, as a wedding photographer, there are different styles of wedding photographers. 

My clients describe my style as bright, authentic and dreamy. Some photographers have this dark and moody look, and other’s have really strong colours. There are no right or wrong way – it’s just based on your preference.

You can start your research by creating boards on Pinterest. Create different boards and see what style of photography fits your style best and then go from there. Once you’ve pinned for about 30 minutes, you will see that you’re most attracted to one specific style. This will definitely help you choose your style.

At this point, you’ve narrowed your list further. It’s time to look for the perfect vendor.

Look for personality

Once you know what style fits your wedding and which vendor can provide that, is time to look out for their personality. 

This is HUGE! I believe that personality outweighs portfolio, reviews and even pricing.

Now, let me get this straight, your photographer will spend around 10 – 12 hours with you on your wedding day. You DEFINITELY want to hire someone that is outgoing and you feel comfortable around – right!?

Here are 3 Key Ingredients on Hiring a Professional Wedding Photographer

The best way to see your vendor’s personality is by stalking them on social media. Social media is the best way to see if you’d really like to have that person around on your wedding day. 

Once you know who fits best for your wedding, THEN you can start inquiring.

Inquire.

Once you know what’s important to you, your style and the vendor whose personality is a match (and that can make your dream come true!), then you should look for their pricelist. 

Many couples like to do this step first – and I get it. Planning a wedding can be expensive. However, if you’re going to plan your wedding based on saving money, then you’ll end up booking the wrong kind of vendors. I promise, I’ve seen it many times.

Start with what’s important to you, see who can provide this and then start sending some emails.

Let’s say you have three different photographers that can deliver to your standards. Now you can start comparing different packages and prices. 

For example, a wedding photographer can deliver only digital files for x amount of euros, and another photographer delivers digital files and also an album for 100 euros extra. Compare what works best for you! 

More than anything, trust in your vendors is the most important things that you should be looking for. You want to make sure that the people that will be working on your wedding are as invested as you are. 

There’s no point to work with people that are not excited for your day! Spend some time narrowing down your list and I hope you have an amazing journey planning your wedding!