For the last month, I’ve been hinting around at an APW project in the works, and today I finally get to announce the first half of that project (the second half might even be more exciting and is being announced next week). After a lot of thought, and a fair bit of hard work, we’re proud to announce an all new APW vendor directory, launching at the end of September.
The directory is built around the brand new APW Sanity Pledge. All vendors have pledged that they shoot LGBTQ weddings, don’t have hidden fees, and support your wedding however it looks (big, small, funky, traditional, etc.). We screen all applicants to make sure they fit with the APW ethos, and then you can shop for your wedding to your heart’s delight. If it sounds like we’re trying to change the wedding industry a little bit at a time… we totally are.
Having a Vendor Directory allows us to promote more vendors than we can on the front page, including teeny-tiny new businesses and businesses selling items at a super-low price point. You’ll see caterers, musicians, and florists, not to mention photographers, jewelers, officiants, and more… all of whom want to work with Team Practical in particular.
I’m not going to give away *too* much about the way the directory is built yet, but I will say that it’s built as an amazing search tool, thanks to Super Runaway. Think Macy’s website good (not blog good), but for sane weddings.
So, what can you do with this rather excellent piece of news?
- If you’re a vendor who reads the site (and we know there are tons of you, quietly building your businesses while you read), you can apply to be part of the directory here, or email advertising at apracticalwedding dot com for more information. Get in now, while rates are extra low.
- If you just got married and loved your vendors, you can send them this post (have them tell us you sent them).
- Or… you can just wait until the directory launches at the end of September and enjoy happy, easy, pretty, and sane shopping.
Now tune in next week for part two of the surprise… (seriously, it’s even better).
Dude. This is awesome. You need an APW certification label.
August 10, 2011 9:35 am
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They’ll have that “I took the APW Sanity Pledge” badge that they can use. Like the good housekeeping seal of approval, but… different ;)
August 10, 2011 9:43 am
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Genius.
August 10, 2011 9:35 am
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This is such a GREAT idea. I wish I had this directory when I was planning my wedding (and losing my mind). I love the vendors you select for this site and I especially appreciate that most of the time, you publish the prices. Because let’s face it, we all have to watch our dollars these days. (PS- I found my photographer Gabriel Harber through you and we could not have loved him more.)
August 10, 2011 9:40 am
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Yay Gabriel! He’s such a catch, right? Super talented and an awesome person.
August 10, 2011 9:44 am
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Yes. He’s totally awesome. Amazing photographer and a great person. Love him.
August 10, 2011 11:19 pm
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Yay!
August 10, 2011 9:51 am
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Impatiently waiting till September! Thank you so much for doing this, and I think it is safe to say that the entire APW community that is planning their weddings will thank you as well.
August 10, 2011 9:53 am
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Wooooo! I’m so ridiculously excited to be a part of this. It’s my first foray into paid advertising, and I have zero doubts that I’ll get a great return on my investment, AND best of all, I’ll be working with the best people ever. Win-win-win-win-win. And win. S’more.
August 10, 2011 9:53 am
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Very Very Very VERY <— caps excited about this. :) Wahhoo!
August 10, 2011 9:59 am
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THANK YOU! I’m not even going to bother shopping around for photographers until this is up and running.
August 10, 2011 10:05 am
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Well, I mean, I’d shop with the photographers who are sponsors! Lots of them travel. And I loooovvveeeee them.
August 10, 2011 11:47 am
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This is the first reason I’ve had to be glad that our wedding has been put on hold for a bit, thank you can’t wait for this! Also will UK vendors be included?
August 10, 2011 10:07 am
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Indeed, indeed! We have slots for the world. We actually have a slot for the universe (true) but we’re not using it right now.
August 10, 2011 11:47 am
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Great idea! I love the Sanity Pledge in particular. It’s great to have a baseline for talented and sane vendors who won’t be pushy.
August 10, 2011 10:12 am
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Seeing as how I found most of my vendors here already and would have LOVED a comprehensive, sane, vendor directory, YES YES YES THIS IS AMAZING.
August 10, 2011 10:17 am
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Yay!!! Except now I’m going to have to delay any more wedding planning decisions until the end of September. Oh well, at least I kind of have an excuse now to veil my laziness!
August 10, 2011 10:18 am
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Please Please Please publish the vendor prices, or at least a ball-park number. Emphasis on the NUMBER. Prices listed as bells or dollar signs on BigBrideWebsites make me want to hurl. <3 Love APW!
August 10, 2011 10:23 am
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Nope, there are numbers. (Look at the image. Under the name is says Prices from $2800 to $5500). And the whole thing is searchable by starting price.
August 10, 2011 11:49 am
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omg. Searchable by starting price! Meg, it’s like this is going to be a sane directory or something!! ;)
August 10, 2011 2:29 pm
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I second the *LOVE* for being able to search by price. I mean, it’s maddening to find something/someone you love only to find out they are totally out of your ball park. I know there can be huge ranges but at least do like restaurants – $ – $$$$$. I had a strict budget for everything and I always appreciate vendors that gave some hint like “my prices start at ___.”
August 10, 2011 11:13 pm
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This is awesome and SO SO aesthetically pleasing.
August 10, 2011 10:32 am
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Also, I am really REALLLLLY looking forward to APW sanctioned officiants because that part has me completely stumped.
August 10, 2011 10:40 am
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We’ve got two great ones so far, and we JUST started taking applications.
August 10, 2011 11:49 am
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DC is well represented on APW so I am hopeful :)
August 11, 2011 6:59 am
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excuse me while I go share this link with all my vendors. a-thankyou.
August 10, 2011 10:35 am
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“a-thankyou” – makes me laugh. :)
August 10, 2011 5:23 pm
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Another thing I would love would be if on each vendor’s page if you could provide links to their sponsored posts (if there are any.) I found the sponsored posts really helpful in narrowing down choices, and it’s a little hard to search for “Emily Takes Photos” for example, and pull up her sponsored posts since that will get you all the posts in which any of her photos appear.
August 10, 2011 10:59 am
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Oh yeah, and Meg, this is totally awesome. You rock.
August 10, 2011 11:00 am
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Yeah, of course. That’s already done.
August 10, 2011 11:50 am
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Awesome. So excited for this to go live!
August 10, 2011 11:16 am
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As someone who trusted an APW vendor immediately (and whose trust was HUGELY rewarded by Hart+Sol Photo), I am very, very excited to be able to pass this to my wedding-planning friends going forward! What an amazing resource!!
August 10, 2011 12:03 pm
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I LOVE this! The pledge is great, and I love that it shows a price range.
If you haven’t already done this, can you list somewhere if the photographer is available for travel? I think that would be helpful!
August 10, 2011 12:13 pm
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So excited to apply for this :)
August 10, 2011 12:36 pm
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I want to use a word I learned on APW. AMAZEBALLS.
August 10, 2011 1:07 pm
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I love this. APW is just so awesome.
August 10, 2011 1:27 pm
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I’m loving the sanity pledge.
And I’ve already sent this to my favorite photographer (Hi, Tomi!)
August 10, 2011 2:14 pm
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Will we be able to leave reviews?
August 10, 2011 2:21 pm
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Nope, not on this. You can, however, flag a vendor, if you’ve had a bad experience with them/ feel they’ve violated the sanity pledge in any way. That’s private and goes right to us. The sanity pledge is binding (legal contract!) so if we agree that they’ve violated it, we’ll pull them.
The idea is that we only want awesome people here… so if you have a negative review, we want it to go right to us. Otherwise, we’ll assume they are indeed awesome.
August 10, 2011 5:06 pm
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I love that you are trying to change the industry with your sane approach to weddings. They could use it!
August 11, 2011 1:49 am
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I love this! I’m going to email my one vendor right now.
August 11, 2011 5:52 am
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This is most excellent! I am excited to apply to be your first venue vendor! Wahoo!!
August 11, 2011 7:29 am
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!!!!!
August 12, 2011 11:46 am
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Another commenter expressing lament over the fact that this didn’t exist when I was planning. But I count myself lucky enough that I was able to find Christina Richards through APW, and that was all of (gasp) two years ago! You’ve been headed this way for quite some time, so this is the natural course.
Plus I was just asked to be in my best friend’s wedding next May, and I don’t know what’s better: that I will finally get to be a bridesmaid for the first time (I heard it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, but OH WELL, I’m excited anyway), or that I will get to feed her great vendor ideas via this directory.
August 11, 2011 8:36 am
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This is just great. We’ve had something similar in the works for our vendor directory, with an application process. It’s been amazing to see how many WONDERFUL vendors there are out there! They exist!
August 18, 2011 1:14 pm
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[...] month A Practical Wedding kicked off its money-making Vendors Directory project, where vendors will pay a fee to be listed. Shortly after, APW announced there will also be [...]
August 30, 2011 11:34 pm
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