LET’S TALK VENDOR RELATIONS!
Piecing together the jigsaw puzzle and choosing just the right vendors to bring your destination wedding in Cabo to life is a huge task. At times it’s exciting, at times it’s stressful, and sometimes it’s downright scary. From officiants and photographers to caterers, decorators, and musicians, you’ll review an overwhelming number of options in a myriad of categories before making those big decisions and hiring your talented providers. But how do we all interact during planning and on the wedding day? Today, we wanted to give you all of the information you need when it comes to vendor relations!
WHOSE THE POINT PERSON?
This depends. If you’re a brave DIY bride who has chosen to go it alone, you’ll be the primary contact person for all vendors. That’s a lot of emails, phone calls, and back and forth to take care of from afar. In most cases, your Los Cabos destination wedding planner is the glue that holds it all together, an invaluable resource for brides, grooms, and vendors. He or she will be the middle man, helping field vendor questions and identify glitches, often fixing problems behind the scenes during planning before they arrive in your inbox. As photographers, we don’t want to bother you with questions as to when hair and makeup finishes, and when you plan on cutting your cake. A local wedding planner is accustomed to keeping us all informed.
DO CERTAIN VENDORS REFUSE TO WORK WITH OTHERS?
In Los Cabos, we are one big happy family! It’s a small town, and the vast majority of vendors work together frequently, get along just fine, and often share seafood and margaritas on our off days. Don’t be surprised if you discover your DJ is married to your florist or your photographer lives down the street from your officiant. It’s very rare that a vendor will refuse to collaborate with another, and the only diva on the wedding day should be the bride!
HOW DO I COORDINATE MY TIMELINE BASED ON EACH VENDOR’S NEEDS?
Your Los Cabos luxury wedding planner will always take care of this for you. Here are some of the points she will consider when drafting your timeline:
Whose setup will take the longest and how can we avoid overlaps?
If your decorator is covering a swimming pool in acrylic so you can walk on water or your sound guy is installing a stage and audio system worthy of Coachella, they’ll likely begin a day before the wedding and won’t affect the movements of other vendors setting up the morning of. Photographers won’t need to begin as caterers set tables at 8 AM, as no one wants photos before the venue is camera-ready! These are just two examples, and it's an intricate web of decisions that your wedding planner will help take off your plate.
Access to the venue and parking.
Every location has a different set of rules regarding vendors. Your wedding planner will know what proof of insurance and ID is required, where vendors may unload and pick up, and where we must park our vehicles. Venues with limited access and space, such as some private villas, mean it's impossible for your caterers and your florist to offload at the same time. When the festivities draw to a close and it’s time to leave, you’ll probably see a few of us debriefing and comparing notes while loading the car!
Meal Times
Those who work longer hours will request a vendor meal when they present their contract (think photographers, videographers, DJs, and the planners themselves). Your wedding planner will assign meal times so as not to affect your timeline. For example, a photographer will never be scheduled to take their meal break at the same time as your first dance, just as you won’t find your videographer requesting their snack during the ceremony.
WHO WILL YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER WORK CLOSELY WITH?
We are people persons, so you’ll find us high-fiving our favorite security official and introducing ourselves to the DJ who has just flown in from your hometown. But when it comes to crunch time, here’s who we work more closely with and why:
The Wedding Planner
They let us know what they need and we go straight to them if any situations arise. It’s a seamless synergy honed over the years that makes your day flow just as smoothly as we had planned.
The Videographers
At every wedding, you have the choice to hire one vendor for photo and video, who brings members from their own team to cover both services or two companies who will work together to create wedding magic. During pre-planning, we are all in contact to hash out the details, regardless of which route you take. On the wedding day, shooters work together to make sure all angles are covered. It’s like watching a colony of ants advancing in perfect formation and avoiding collisions seamlessly. There’s nothing worse than missing a shot because of poor coordination, and some moments simply cannot be recreated, so it’s crucial we are all in sync.
The Hair and Makeup Artists
Generally, the first people we run into on the day! Brides wanting getting ready photos will normally schedule photo and video services to begin right toward the end of hair and makeup. This means you’ll be camera-ready, and your stylists will work with us to stage those getting-ready moments. During the planning stages, hair and makeup artists chat with us about our style and venue lighting before deciding what products and techniques they need to use when creating your GLAM.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE WEDDING?
Odds are high many of us will see each other the next day at a wedding! In the weeks and months that follow, we share our material, promote each other on social media, and hype each other up. Once your wedding is over, you’ll be one of us too! It’s a small and close-knit community, and we are proud to be a part of it.
One Love - Gary
Copywriting by @bloggingwithlove.mexico
