Who Is Your Wedding Team?
So you've got your venue, your structure, your theme, your technical stuff and a good idea of the skeletal structure of the event. Now the question becomes...
How do we put it together?
The possibilities for what you can have at your wedding are endless (depending mostly on your theme, budget and timescale) so the main factor to consider is who plans to do what.
If you're planning a DIY wedding make sure you've enlisted the support of some reliable and competent friends or family because once the day gets underway you want to be able to hand over the reigns and trust that everything will run smoothly.
Understand what each of your suppliers is providing before making a booking or paying a deposit – will they be available throughout the day in case anything happens, for example? If not, what is the contingency plan?
Most of the time your venue will act as a main support service, particularly if they're insistent on you using their providers (for food, lighting and sound etc) and if not, it might be worth hiring in a wedding planner, event co-ordinator or simply waiters and bar staff if your caterig company aren't providing that service.
Other assurances to expect from your service providers include:
- A contract
- Terms and conditions
- Evidence of insurance
- Risk assessment
- Health and safety policy.
A good, reputable company will always be willing to guarantee their work and customer service so keep an eye out for or ask them about their guarantees.
Often, events companies will offer you standard packages which are easy for them, but may not suit you. Have an idea of what you want and get as close to that as you can. You deserve to get as much choice as you want for your wedding day, so hire companies should be putting their efforts into creating as bespoke a service as you require.
Your marquee company should always be able to advise you on what you need for your specific requirements. Sometimes you will need a separate company to do things in this section (especially for a bigger event) but you will quite often find that the marquee company will be able to provide the basics.
It's important to check in with all of your contractors in advance to make sure that what they're doing all works together, so have a big picture plan in mind when you start discussing ideas with them and make sure you share the relevant information with them or you might want to appoint a wedding planner or ask one of your contractors to take over the overall management of the event to take the pressure off. We're happy to do that if you need us to.
It's always better to over-communicate your needs so that you can be sure everything will work well together. By now you'll have some ideas about the type of furniture you're after, whether you need rigging to hang anything, the placement and style of the entrance and what type of flooring should go where. As always if you have questions about these ideas or anything else, simply drop us an email and we'll come right back to you.
This is not to say however, that the advice of the hire company isn't useful. They are ideally placed to know which parts of their equipment work best with which other bits. Just make sure there is a dialogue and don't be afraid to ask questions. If you want to know more, head back to our website to do some browsing with your fresh knowledge, or send us an email and bring us up to speed on your ideas.
We love weddings and love chatting about them even more.