This is the second part of our six-part series on wedding receptions. In this issue, we will focus on general criteria for hiring wedding vendors in order to get greatly compounded service and success. All views expressed are my sole opinion based upon my 7 years of experience performing at receptions as a professional entertainer and entertainment consultant.

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING VENDOR TEAM

The 'Team': I chose to use the word 'team,' instead of the general term 'wedding vendors,' for a very important reason. What many people do not realize is that when they hire a caterer, photographer, banquet manager/facility, videographer, entertainer, cake company, and in some cases wedding planner is that these people have to work together as a team at your event. While each of these people must be able to do the job they were hired for, they must also be able to work in close proximity to and cooperatively with each other. When this is done properly, the positive outcome will be much more than you would ever expect. This concept of the wedding team, as far as I know, has never been published and is the focus of the rest of this article.

References: If you do not know where to start looking for quality vendors, then references are going to be your best friend. However, there are many different types of references and I am not referring to the common ones. The common method of obtaining references is to ask potential vendors to supply you with references. These are important sources of information. Make sure the references are recent and for the specific product or service you need. CALL THE REFERENCES! You must put some time into calling these people. Take note of their attitude and what they say. Obviously the vendor is not going to give you a bad reference, so pay close attention to what these people do not say. It can be just as important as their words. A better method of obtaining references is to ask vendors that you already trust for other vendor recommendations. Also, look for postings on chat boards like and The Knot.com. These are sources of information that the vendors have no control over. Be careful to make sure that the personal opinions expressed are justified. Once again, there is nobody controlling what is said. Use references as a main tool to find quality vendors.

Experience: Experience is extremely important for events that are extremely important. Make sure your vendors are experienced in what you are asking of them and find some sort of proof. Look for well-established companies that will still be in business when your event occurs. My entertainment company gets calls all the time from brides that had a vendor go out of business before their event. If your budget does not permit hiring an experienced company (that often charge more due to the costs of running such a business), then be extra-careful. If you need to hire an individual as opposed to a company, then just be sure that you trust the person and you have many ways to get in contact with them. Also make sure you have written contracts with all your vendors. You do not want to be searching around for a new vendor the month or week of your wedding.

Professionalism: How a company conducts business is just as important as what they do. Most of the time professionalism will go hand-in-hand with experience. You want to choose vendors that know how special your event is to you and that will take a personal interest in creating a spectacular event for you. Pay attention to how they are dressed, what they sound like when they answer the phone, if they have an office or not, and of course the appearance of all their paperwork. You want true professionals working with you on your event.

Personality: Personality is somewhat the same as professionalism. I cannot stress enough how important it is that your vendors enjoy what they are doing and are enthusiastic about it. Your vendors need to work well both with you and the rest of the 'team.' Is a bad attitude reason enough not to hire someone? YES! Choose people you like and will enjoy working with. This will make your experience much more pleasant.

The Compounding Effect: Here is the theory behind the 'wedding team' and the reason for implementation of the term. If you are able to successfully choose all professionals whom have positive attitudes, good personalities, and are experts at what they are going to be doing; then there will be a large compounding effect when they work together. What I mean by this is that each vendor will work together as a team to provide you with the best results possible at your reception. These results will almost always exceed what the individual companies can do on their own. An overly simple example of this is a DJ and Photographer working together. My entertainers know to check with the photographer to see what sort of lighting will be best for their pictures. They also make sure the photographer knows what is going to happen before it actually happens so that he/she will be ready to capture the moment. Simple teamwork like this, when it occurs between five or six vendors can yield amazing results. Put this effect to work for you!

The first step in getting your vendors to work together is to supply each one with a list of all the other vendors. On the list you should include the company names, contact person, phone number(s), email address, website, and anything else that would be appropriate. The more information supplied, the better the results. Do this as soon as you have hired the vendors! You'll be amazed what a couple of phone calls between vendors can accomplish before your event. Make it easy for your vendors to contact each other and stay informed of changes.

I have presented you with the concept of wedding vendor teamwork and what the results can be. It is up to you to use this concept and make it work for you. The knowledge alone will not yield results, please use this knowledge to make sure that you have the best reception possible put together by the best possible vendors. If you gather a true team, then you are in for amazing results. If not, then average is about all you will be able to yield from your vendor team as a whole. Good luck!

As always, if you have any questions on your particular event please feel free to email me here or call my toll free office number at 877-504-0186.  I will do my best to answer any questions and help you in any way possible.  All events deserve to be the best they can be.