A Guide to Finding Wedding Suppliers You Can Totally Trust
Time for a little wedding planning advice from one of Scotland’s leading wedding suppliers: Harper Scott Photo. Organising your wedding can feel overwhelming at times. After nailing down your date and venue, you have the exciting - and at times daunting - job of curating your A list of brilliant Scottish wedding suppliers. Pulling together your team of wedding suppliers who are talented, trustworthy and totally worth it isn’t always the easiest. If you’re not working with a wedding planner (highly recommend one my friends Fin Flukra and Scarlett & Bell) then cultivating your team is down to you. Where do you start? Great news: you’ve come to the right place. This post contains a host of top tips on finding the perfect suppliers for your day.
Scotland is bursting at the seams with folks who’re outrageously talented; people who’re on your side and who’ll pour their heart into making your wedding day worthy of your investment.
Unfortunately, there are some suppliers not worth your attention. Some suppliers lack experience and a proven track record of delivering consistently high standards of service. From florists and musicians to bloggers and caterers – the wedding industry is largely unchecked and unregulated. There’s no centralised body ensuring everyone is insured, experienced and up to delivering what they say they will. Any one can set up an Insta feed. Any one can create a business that seems credible. This can mean it’s a bit of a minefield for planning couples new to this scene.
Don’t be daunted by all of this. It just means that couples like yourselves have to do a little bit more digging and due diligence to make sure you’re pulling together the right team.
Vegan wedding cakes by Rawnchy: check out the full blog post
READ WHAT OTHER COUPLES SAY
Please, please, please, check your prospective suppliers’ Google and Facebook reviews. If they’re loved by their couples, this will be evident in what’s said about them. Look out for the red flags: no reviews at all or deactivated reviews. If in doubt, trust your gut.
STYLED SHOOTS VS REAL LIFE WEDDING CONTENT
Watch out for this one! It’s especially true of photographers and planners. Ask to see a broad portfolio of work spanning at least 3-4 years. Study the content of any prospective suppliers site and socials. It’s become increasingly common for suppliers to get together with a model couple in a jaw dropping setting to create a highly stylised photo shoot. Sadly, too many are positioning this content as real life rather than what it is: artificial and heavily directed.
FIND A DIRECTED THAT’S CREDIBLY CURATED
There’s lots of fantastic directories out there. It can be tricky to decipher which ones to trust. Some directories accept applications from anyone. One stand out is The Wedding Collective. Their directory is packed full of the best suppliers within the UK. Suppliers have to be stand out in order to gain membership into TWC. A proven track record is a must. Being recognised and respected within the industry is another requirement.
ASK YOUR OTHER SUPPLIERS FOR THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS
Word of mouth. You can’t beat it! There’s a plethora of different channels wedding professionals are able to market by: Instagram, wedding markets, blogs and Pinterest. Nevertheless, the all time best place to begin is via word of mouth. Your friends (and friends of friends) won’t suggest someone they don’t like working alongside, or who they’ve heard horror stories about on the grapevine.
LOOK AT YOUR VENUE’S PREFERRED LIST
Venues often have lists of suppliers they like working with. People they’ve worked with before. Folks they can trust to do a good job with their space.
TAKE A LOOK AT MY FAVOURITES
Head over to my list of great people. This is a group of people I love to work with. Everyone is a friend of mine. I can vouch for them personally. More importantly, I’ve worked with them at a wedding and they’re brilliant.
Killer City Sound performing at Meghan and Paul’s Gleneagles wedding: check out the blog post