Picking vendors for our wedding was the worrisome part. Can they really be trusted? Are they any good? Are they even going to show up to the wedding? Unfortunately, although we’ve already picked our vendors and signed the contracts, none of these questions will get answered until the day of the wedding. With all of the scary stories we’ve heard from people, we cannot help but wonder if we’ve made good choices here.
In our search, we did, of course, ask everyone we could for recommendations, but, in the end, we relied on on-line reviews the most. I was so grateful for the www.weddingwire.com. This site is amazing, and the availability of reviews was very helpful. Then there are also these good sites: www.bridesclub.com and www.theknot.com.
Dealing with vendor contracts was a completely unexpected twist to this story. There was not a single contract that we did not ask to tweak to make it more customer-friendly. Most of the vendors really try to guard themselves, and the contracts are often more about protecting the vendor than the consumer. For example, one photographer made his contract to say that if the photographs are lost (e.g., due to hardware damage or other disaster), he is not responsible and still gets paid the full amount. Seriously?! Yet, this same vendor had a huge paragraph on how he needs to be fed at specific times, describing this in a lot of detail. While some vendors were willing to work with us, others would not back down. Needless to say, we did not hire such vendors.
It did not take us too long to pick our photographer, DJ, and the florist. Finding an officiant, however, was surprisingly difficult. Most of the officiants who had good reviews and looked likable were already booked! After a rather long search, we did manage to find one with good reviews, whom we both liked. But, guess what… In his entire career as an officiant, he has never used a contract. So, he was a bit surprised (and maybe even slightly offended) when we insisted on having one. I did have to write it myself, though.
Here is the list of our main vendors. If you know any of them, please let us know what you think:
Photography – Maxine Toh (this is the only one we picked because of a friend’s recommendation)
DJ – Jonathan with Elation Entertainment
Officiant – Pastor Martin West
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