Three weeks before my wedding a hurricane was on track to hit New York, and suddenly my wedding anxiety included my bachelorette party being cancelled, and the century-old oak trees surrounding our venue crashing through the roof.
At the crux of those worries was that fact that we didn’t have any kind of contract with our venue, a laidback little nonprofit nature sanctuary that was very new to the wedding game. The idea that they could basically just up and decide to not let us in on the day of our wedding stressed me out so much I couldn’t see straight, and had to pass off dealing with them to my partner. In the end, trees did fall, they were cleared from our ceremony space with plenty of time to spare, and we signed two pages of basic formalities saying the place was ours to get married in on the date in question. But in the end what mattered as much if not more than dotting those i’s and crossing those t’s ,was the willingness of our vendors to roll with the punches, communicate reliably and openly, and over deliver instead of let us down. Like how our photographer threw her back out the day before our wedding, but showed up with her partner in tow, and he ended up not just carrying her gear but second shooting what became some of my favorite photos of the day.
Now Let’s Talk About 2020
None of those wedding mishaps hold a candle to what 2020 wedding folx are going through right now. But I’ve been noticing the fact that, despite progress industry-wide in putting clients first, some wedding vendors are just… not doing that right now. (Our APW vendors are awesome and you should hire them. But we’ve spent a lot of time checking in on wider wedding industry, and some of what’s going down is painful.) There are some vendors who are so focused on protecting themselves, that they’ve stopped focusing on serving clients. This is up to and including signing clients with non-refundable deposits on weddings they know realistically won’t happen.
But all that said? Most vendors are awesome humans, and they just want to know how they can step up and serve. And we wanted to help you help us, so we can help them do that. (How’s that for a lot of the word help?)
What Do You Need Out Of Wedding Vendors RN?
APW is a couple facing business. At the end of the day, our mission has always been to serve you—the people getting married. But we also know, love, and work with tons of wedding vendors. And that means that we’ve been fielding non-stop calls wondering what clients who are getting married in 2020 or 2021 (or who just got engaged) want and need. What do you need to feel comfortable booking a vendor and signing a contract? (Pro-tip: signing a new contract with non-refundable deposits for later in 2020 probably isn’t it.) What kind of support do you need from wedding vendors? How are those of you who are newly engaged approaching planning in the madness?
We know many of you have had hard talks with your vendors in the last few months. Or maybe you are looking for 2021 vendors who aren’t living with their head in the sand (in which case, the APW Vendor Directory is probably where you want to start), so I wanted to open up today’s thread to ask you about what vendors could be doing to make your life easier right now? (And if you just need to vent a little, that’s fine too.)
There are so many problems we want to solve here at APW, and connecting couples with the right small businesses to support your wedding is pretty much why I get up in the morning. We have a hunch what’s going to be the name of the game as we all navigate a new way to have weddings—flexibility, for starters. But we want to hear it from you, so we can tell them how to best be of service.
GIVE US ALL THE DIRT: TELL US THE MOST FRUSTRATING PART OF WORKING WITH VENDORS ON YOUR PANDEMIC WEDDING? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN A VENDOR FOR 2021? WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM THEM TO MAKE LIFE EASIER?
