How to choose a wedding agency?

It’s fascinating and often not easy to choose a wedding agency and a wedding planner. You might get lost and miss significant details in a diversity of pretty pictures and good-looking reviews. Here we talk about how you should start, which features you should pay special attention to and why.

Before starting the search for your dream wedding planner ask yourself two questions: where and when do you want to have a wedding? When you decide on season and landscape, collect a list of the countries that can offer you this particular type of nature and weather. Then, open professional wedding aggregators and search for planners who work with that specific country. Apart from the catalogs, you can also check any magazines and platforms about weddings. Let’s assume now have a short-list of the agencies you’ve liked most of all. Now is the hardest step – to choose the team that you’ll work together for months and sometimes even a whole year.

We believe that the agency’s face is their portfolio and reviews from the real couples. Normally, you will find the portfolio on the agency’s website and on their official pages on social media. By the way, we assume that any professional team undoubtedly has its own website and somehow appears on social media (such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest). We also think that sometimes a beautiful website is only a nice cover which doesn’t necessarily mean the great quality of the services behind it. That’s why search for real examples of the agency’s work.

A portfolio will help you get an idea of ​​the style of weddings that the agency prepares, as well as their scale and quality. For example, some agencies exceptionally engage in inexpensive weddings on a budget. Others, on the contrary, specialize in luxurious events with exclusive content. Some offer standard ready-made solutions, others are ready to follow any of your ideas and will gladly take up the creative execution of the most original ideas. How does the agency’s position on these issues correlate with your desires and capabilities? Do you like photos in their portfolio? Do you see harmony and taste in the decor? Are the couples happy, do the guests look glad? Did you get a complete picture of the content and mood of the holiday, reaching the last photo in the series? Answers to these questions will tell you a lot not only about your subjective attitude to these weddings but also about the objective level of the agency.

The second important criterion when choosing a wedding agency is the newlyweds’ reviews. Of course, we are not talking about artificially created comments, but about genuine messages from people who worked with this team. Therefore, we recommend that you pay attention to the presence of the names of couples, their profiles, or contacts. By the way, those reviews to which couples attach photos or videos are especially useful. So you can get a holistic view of all the wedding stages: communication with the wedding planner, the holiday itself, and how the collaboration ended.

You may also find it helpful to mark comments from couples who mention the specific organizers they worked with. Note for yourself the names of the specialists whom couples mention most often, and at the stage of signing the contract, check with the sales manager if this wedding planner is available on your dates.

We mentioned the contract, and this is the third most important evaluation criterion. There is no doubt that a professional approach to any business is secured by the official registration of the company and the establishment of its obligations. When it comes to such a large and important event as a wedding, the signing of a contract is a paramount condition in working with any vendors. Having a contract will protect you from most risks, as well as give you confidence in the quality and responsible execution of all agreements.

In addition to having an agreement, the professionalism and responsibility of the company are indicated by the list of services indicated on the website or on the company’s page. Does the agency openly talk about its services? Are the prices for services indicated? Is there a clear and detailed description of the services? Do you get answers to your questions after studying these pages? Does the agency work officially? What payment methods does the agency offer? Openness and expertise in these matters indicate the professionalism and adequacy of the team.

When studying portfolios and reviews of couples, pay attention to whether the names of photographers, videographers, stylists, decorators, and other contractors are indicated. The work of the wedding organizer is, among other things, constant communication with partners, which means that their feedback can also be useful to you. Did, for example, a popular international photographer like working with this agency? Were conditions comfortable for stylists? Does the agency fulfill its obligations, including financial ones? In addition, this way you will get an additional idea of ​​your future wedding because the agency is likely to offer you these specialists.

And finally, when you send a request to the agency, you get an excellent opportunity to assess the style and level of communication with team members (as a rule, this is a specialist from the sales department and a wedding organizer). How quickly does a sales manager answer you? When answering your request, does he/she pay attention to each of your questions or does he/she touch only part of your message? Are you being taken care of from the first minutes of communication?

When meeting the wedding planner, schedule a video call. First of all, when it comes to a wedding abroad, evaluate the wedding planner’s English level, because in the future you will have to discuss very important details in which there should be no misunderstanding. Does the organizer make an impression of an adequate, open, and tolerant person? Do you also feel being taken care of from the first minutes of communication?

Also, some agencies engaged in destination weddings offer their couples a personal meeting at the company’s office. A visit to the agency can be combined with an inspection tour of potential venues for your wedding. So, even before signing the contract, you will have the opportunity to truly get to know and make friends with your future wedding planners.

We are convinced that the ability to be attentive, caring, and sensitive is one of the mandatory character traits for everyone who works in the wedding business, and especially for the wedding planner. When choosing an agency, evaluate not only the professionalism of the team but also their human characteristics. This will help you not to be mistaken and choose exactly those people whose work will bring you only pleasure. 🙂