5 Questions To Ask Wedding Professionals

5 Questions Couples Should Ask Wedding Professionals, But Don’t

Learn exactly what questions to ask wedding professionals before booking.

The time has come, you’re planning your wedding! Congratulations!

Let me guess, you’re likely experiencing exhilaration, romance and chaos all at once? Yep, that means you’re on the right path!  Chances are, you’ve never planned a wedding before but rest assured – after being a part of over 25,000 weddings – the folks at Mike Staff Productions know the ins and outs of some of the most important details of your day.

Our job is to sit down, with couples just like you, to make sure you get the very best service possible on your wedding day and all of your questions answered! Talk about stress reliever, right? But sitting down with vendor after vendor can be overwhelming, confusing and tiring.

That’s why we’re here to help! The team at Mike Staff Productions have the top 5 questions to ask wedding professionals to ensure you’re getting what you need.

1. Can you describe your style? Can I see some of your work?

Whether you’re looking to hire a professional wedding photographer, cake designer, DJ or florist — you’re going to want to see their past work, that’s a no brainer. While pictures and portfolios are nice, ask wedding professionals about their style and vision to see if it gels with yours!  Those details can sometimes be the deciding factor if you’re stuck between multiple vendors.

At Mike Staff Productions, we lay it all out for you and we also let you choose who you want to work with so there’s no question you’re getting someone that fits your style. That’s right, we trust that you’ll choose the perfect person to work with because you know what you want on your wedding day!  There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all wedding DJ or Photographer – we get that, that’s why we invite you to be a part of the process.

2. Do you have a list of preferred wedding vendors?

This question typically applies just for wedding venues or wedding planners – but it is a MUST! Typically this is one of the first major ‘to dos’ you cross off the list and preferred vendors your venue works with can really help set the planning path you got down next.

Most venues have hard-and-fast list of wedding professionals they strongly prefer to work with based on their experience, knowledge and professionalism. Mike Staff Productions is honored to be on dozens of hundreds of preferred vendors lists!

The major benefit here: Knowing who your venue likes to work with can point you in the right direction of who to book next. It can be an easy, trusted way of building your own team of wedding professionals.

3. What other fees am I expected to cover?

Most likely, your going to be looking for the “base” price to determine how a vendors services will fit into your wedding budget (don’t forget about tipping wedding vendors), but there might be other, smaller fees that you should be aware of and ask about before signing anything. What types of ‘fees’ are we talking about? Depending on the vendor or the service:

• overtime fees
• setup and/or delivery fees
• breakdown fees
• any number of practical costs for their additional services, time or equipment.

Once you pick your vendor, be sure they’ve mentioned all the fees that they know you’ll incur, as well as any optional fees that might come into effect (like overtime) so you’re prepared. For example, at Mike Staff Productions you can add overtime for your wedding photographer, videographer, and DJ.

Bottom line: Never do business with any wedding professionals that does not clearly spell out what you should expect!

4. Can I review this contract with my parents, future-in-laws or anyone else who is paying for it?

We get it, sometimes, you want and need the entire family to help narrow down the perfect cake flavor or you’d like moms opinion on the photography style — especially when family members are helping to pay for certain details of your wedding. That’s totally normal.

Most weddings involve a whole team of people who are making decisions and fronting the costs. Regardless of the arrangement among your family, the bride and/or groom should be the named parties on the contract as they will give the direction for the day.

5. Who will be my main point of contact?

The funny thing about wedding planning, you set up all these meetings and do all of this booking months and months in advance, it’s nearly a guarantee you’re going to have questions down the road or forget a detail or two. So, it’s important to know, up front, who to contact when you need answers throughout your planning process.

If you’re dealing with a one-person business, this is a pretty easy question to answer BUT one person doesn’t always mean efficiency and timeliness. So if you are working with an independent contractor you may want to ask how long it typically takes them to get back with someone and their preferred ways of contact so your email or voicemail doesn’t go ignored.

If you’re on board with a larger business, there will likely be a team of people ready to answer your questions; sales associates, customer service reps, communications professional, etc. But again, you want to be sure you know the best person to call, the best number to call and know their business hours.

80+ Questions to Ask Vendors

While these 5 questions are extremely important, there are plenty of other questions to ask vendors to learn if they are the right fit for you. Download our FREE guide with over 80 questions you should ask vendors, including venues, wedding planners, photographers, videographers, DJs, florists, bakeries, caterers, and transportation companies.