This entry is from our Expert Guest series where wedding and honeymoon professionals share their best tips on creating memories that last a lifetime.
If you’re like most brides you fall into one of two categories — you’ve been dreaming of your wedding day all your life, or maybe not, but once you met the one you started picturing what that day would look like.
BRINGING YOUR DREAM WEDDING DAY TO LIFE
Maybe you pictured yourself descending a villa’s spiral staircase on the grounds of a romantic vineyard and smiling pleasantly as you navigate past dozens smiling guests on a petaled walkway. Maybe a formal affair is more your style as hundreds of people watch you float down the aisle of a grand cathedral in a sheath gown fit for royalty with your veil dramatically stretching out behind you.
Perhaps you saw the whole ceremony at the foot of a special tree on your favorite hiking path with just your families there. And there’s always the chance that instead of the ceremony you were imagining the raucous celebration that followed or you just knew the city you wanted to be married in.
No matter what you’ve pictured—or haven’t pictured for your wedding, it probably didn’t include the logistics of how to make that happen. Unless you’re a professional event planner, you’re going to need to assemble a team you can rely on. It takes a village, as they say, and that’s why it’s valuable to plan your wedding using local vendors.
Plus, it’s never been easier to simplify the search for local vendors with companies like Brides of Oklahoma providing a vetted list of the best in the local wedding market.
THREE REASONS TO USE LOCAL WEDDING VENDORS FOR YOUR BIG DAY
1, They have experience putting together local weddings.
You can spend your entire engagement learning the technical side of event planning with all the little logistics or you can find an expert to be a partner in the process.
If you host your ceremony at a repurposed warehouse downtown, do you know where your guests can park without getting a ticket? Where do you house dozens of flowers that had to be picked up a day early? What happens if your customized favors arrive with the wrong initials? Your vendor can help. Your vendors know how to get a street parking permit for your guests, reroute an early flower delivery, and get those favors replaced. This isn’t a hobby for them, it’s their job. And the wonderful thing about local vendors is that they are passionate about their work and their community, so you are in good hands!
With all this experience comes the access to ideas that even Pinterest hasn’t seen yet! They have their finger on the pulse of the industry and can help you achieve—and maybe even exceed the dream day you had pictured!
Booking a local vendor means you are getting a local expert.
2. They have connections to get you the best deals on the best stuff.
Not only do you get the benefit of their experience, but local vendors also come with lots of wonderful connections for everything you could ever need for your wedding and they can help you get the best price.
You may be thinking a bower of peonies is beyond your budget, but your florist knows where to find a farm-grown selection that’s not open to the public and because they are a regular buyer, they can get you that bower under budget. Whether it’s a photographer who knows where to get the best deal of vintage furniture rentals or a planner who knows which venue will let you set up 24-hours early, they can help you accomplish the job more smoothly than if you were tackling it alone.
Because your vendor works with other vendors in the same community, they can give you the inside track on what might be available and how to get little-known discounts in the process.
3. You can relax knowing you have a wedding advocate.
You have to remember that you’re not just planning a wedding, you’re also planning for your life together and blending two families. You don’t need to spend your engagement, however long or short, being stressed out with all the little details. With a professional, local vendor in your corner, you can relax a little more and try to enjoy the process. A recent industry report noted that 96% of couples planning a wedding said it was stressful and the majority of those people reported experiencing three or more stress-related symptoms.
Additionally, your vendor is your wedding-planning advocate. As lovely as it is to talk about wedding plans with friends and family, they will all inevitably have different opinions on what you should do—and strong ones at that. Your wedding vendors will respect your vision and be excited to help you achieve it with the added benefit of the fact that they don’t get tired of talking about weddings!
FINDING YOUR VENDORS
There are no set rules on how many vendors or what type you need to make your day a success. That’s up to your preference. The goal is to find people that you work with well. There are great resources out there such as Brides of Oklahoma that give local vendors a place to showcase their work and simplify the search for local brides. Find what works for you.
No matter what style or size of wedding you have been picturing, there are local vendors that will be excited to make your vision come to life!
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Wedding day is always a very big and one of the most important days of everyone’s life that must be managed well so I also agree that contracting with local vendors is a good option for this purpose. Local vendors help out a family very well to manage their wedding ceremony. Well, I prefer reading people’s reviews at EduBirdie source before hiring an essay writting service to write me an essay on topics like this.