When Michael and I got engaged and I started planning our wedding, I knew this was going to be an awesome growing experience for the business.  I would be immersed into the wedding industry even further and I would be experiencing EVERYTHING that my brides go through in the planning process! I’m learning ALOT! This industry is so BIG and intimidating at times.  Michael and I started with figuring out the big vendors:

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1. The Church (I mean, Daddy is the Pastor, we had some connections:)

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2. Photography (Literally emailed Jstar the day after he proposed!)

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3. Tent Rental and

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4. Caterer

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The first two were easy! The church and photographer had been decided for a while! The last two were a different story. Oh man, the stress!  Let me preface this by stating that I have NEVER planned a wedding before.  Nor have I planned any event that included over 350 guests! I didn’t know the ratio of chairs to people directly affected that atmosphere of the whole reception or that any caterer that was worth investing in would offer a site visit.  I didn’t even think about renting a light tower for field parking or a generator for the caterer’s setup.  I’ve never been a bride before and all of this information was just a little bit overwhelming at first!

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Throughout the process of picking caterers and tent companies, there is one thing that I found that really drew me to a company.  Genuineness.  You gotta have it! I preach this so much when it comes to photography but it applies just as easily to any type other type of vendor.  I needed to feel like I connected with these people.  I wanted to be sure that they saw “my vision” for this wedding! During our site visit with Jill from PartyPerfect, we were walking around the field, randomly petting the dogs and discussing options.  Jill turned to me and said “So it sounds like you’re really into the details of how it looks first”.   That totally won me over.  Yes! Of course I’m obsessed with the all the little details! Had she not seen Wedding Wednesday before?!! She figured me out and won my trust.  Done.

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It was a FREEZING fall evening when Michael and I drove down to Richmond to meet Ryan from Mosaic Catering.  Not knowing what to expect or what questions to ask, we walked into Mosaics modern showroom and into a elegantly decorated meeting room.  The granite tabletop and glasses of water that were waiting for us made me question if this was really an option for our budget.  Ryan introduced himself and we started talking about 10.10.10 and all the ideas we had.  I explained the theme we began talking about the display of the food.  Halfway through the conversation, Ryan mentioned that the display and presentation of the food is just as, if not more, important than the taste of the food itself!  TA-DA! I was sold.  We kept chatting and as we began to wrap up, Ryan mentioned that we should keep our options open and try out some other caterers to make sure Mosaic was the absolute, perfect fit for us.  As soon as Michael and I got into the car, I laughed and said, “Of course we’re not looking anywhere else! How could it get any better than that?!?”  We booked and I couldn’t feel more confident in our selection.

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Throughout this whole process of selecting vendors, here are the things I found that really sold them to me!:

– They need to LISTEN first, then TALK

– They should patient and extremely explanatory when working with first time brides

– They respond QUICKLY to emails

Last but not least…

– You should be able to see their passion about their work!!

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Vendor selection is by far one of the most stressful parts of the planning process but it can be done well! There are some AMAZING vendors out there and I really lucked out with two of the greatest in Richmond! This past Friday, I drove to Richmond and shot an event for my lovely tent company, Party Perfect.  I was BEYOND THRILLED when I walked in and realized that this event was catered by MOSAIC! Seeing my two vendors work together to put on a fabulous event was so much fun!! 101010 is going to be amazing!!!

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Enjoy some shots from the nite!