Why have a wedding supplier

The age old question that pops up on blogs, in magazines and on tv programmes when looking at wedding planning, is ‘Why have a wedding supplier?’ This is often related to cost and how to reduce the cost and do it yourself. Now I am not here to say you have to spend a fortune on your wedding and I truly believe everybody should have the wedding they want to, with the budget they have. My personal tip is to think about what is really important to you for your day and consider do you have the right person, item, or supplier in place to make sure that happens. Everybody has different values and priorities and budgets and it is about doing what is right for you, your day, your lifestyle and your relationships.

So with this in mind, I thought I would ask a few fabulous, fellow wedding industry experts as to how they can make a difference.

The Wedding Planner
Benessamy Wedding and Event Planning
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Why should I invest in hiring a wedding planner?
Well in short, to save time, stress and money.

Time
On average, it can take up to 250 hours to plan a wedding. Between full-time work and wanting to spend time enjoying your engagement, it can be a strain.

Stress
Professional wedding planners know the wedding industry and have good contacts. We know all the right questions to ask suppliers, we know how to schedule a wedding weekend without missing a trick and we know who to ask for what you want. It takes the burden off your shoulders of having to think about every single aspect of the wedding, or what could go wrong and when – that’s our job. On the day itself, my clients have found it invaluable to have someone there who they know can be the liaison and point of contact for everything – leaving them to relax and enjoy their wedding day.

Money
Sometimes people are worried that having a wedding planner will be expensive. A good wedding planner can help you with your budget planning, advise you on ways to make your money go further and how to ensure you get good value for the money you spend. My advice has resulted in clients saving money too.

The Stationery Creatives
Tickled Pink
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Hiring a professional versus paying a friend or going down the DIY route are three options we hear a lot.
I know from talking to couples or brides and their hens, that they can have a great time over a weekend or two, or three making their invites. A bit of a party, a lovely hand-made and personal touch. However I have also spoken to brides who loved shopping for components, making the first 20 invites they stuck together, were flagging a bit by the 30th and hated them by the 60th. They NEVER made it as far as placecards or table numbers and definitely not an A1 table planner! One groom who really liked our designs quoted how long they’d taken and how much he’d saved. I pointed out that our invites cost less and he could have had those 3 weeks of evenings back, he seemed surprised. Everyone seems to expect our stationery to cost a lot more.

Getting a friend to design and make them. Take care. So very, many of my stationery design friends have done that, in lieu of a wedding present. One didn’t speak to the bride again for over a year. All have said that they took on a bit of extra work, expecting maybe 5 hours at the most, but it turned into too many evenings and weekends. Sourcing card, or finding a good printer added extra to the time they spent. Someone has to find the card, the matching envelopes, the printer. It’s not so simple as drawing a beautiful picture for the couple. All have said that on balance it was the most expensive present they had ever given.

So what do couples pay for when we make their stationery? Our training, our knowledge, our experience with wording, our time. Nikki designs them, changes colours, places text so it scans. Tom cuts, folds and makes them by hand. If you want to see how much effort he takes with each pocket, there’s a little slideshow on our website homepage ( www.wearetickledpink.co.uk ) Are you paying for our luxury lifestyle, exotic holidays? I wish. It’s our family income, from food and household costs, to the everyday and the extras, it’s a weekend Guide camp for our daughter, or new school shoes for our son, maybe even a holiday staying with Nikki’s parents. One thing we’ll never be is rich! We care about what we make. It’s all made by hand and nothing is churned out in a sausage factory style and none of our designs are simple. That’s not us. What you do pay for is two talented craftspeople. Our designs are created, drawn, coloured by us in our studio, training and a university degree and many years experience selling greetings cards to the UK and USA markets as well as a decade designing wedding stationery. We do know about stationery. Also though, we care. Each order is a fun and a new way to meet people, design fun artworks and scrape a living. We’d earn more shelf filling, but we both LOVE what we create.

The Dress Maker
EK Bridal
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Having a bespoke dress made especially for you on your big day is a very happy and personal experience. The best reasons to hire a professional seamstress to make your wedding dress is that you have the ability to be as involved as you would like to be in the process from the designing of your dress as a sketch to choosing your own fabrics from the swatch books, colours, structure, and then evolving your dress from a picture to a toile (a basic bodice) to your finished dress and at each stage being able to change parts of your dress to suit how you want it to look. You will know that the dress is bespoke and nobody else will have one. Although you may think having a dress made especially for you has a price increase you will be surprised to hear that I am very competitive with price and have many fabrics to suit different budgets.

The Wedding Caterer
Thomas the Caterer
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Do you really want to be stuck in the kitchen on your wedding day or the days before?? I love cooking but even I like to chill out and kick back and let someone else do the hard work.. And that’s truly what it is … Hard work.. We generally work 16 hour days in the run up to a wedding, cooking is only 60% of it there is transporting cookers, fryers, tables, plates, coffee cups and indeed the FOOD.

Even if you delegate, which I think is a very important part of working with family and friends towards your wedding, does your delegate have a suitable kitchen to prepare all this food and will it be stored correctly? Best leave it to the professionals. At least you can be safe in the knowledge that your guests will all enjoy the food served at your wedding.

The Hair and Make Up Artist
Victory Rolls Hair Parlour 
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I think it is very important to book a professional hair and makeup artist on your wedding day, because not only will they make you look fabulous, they will also take the stress out of trying to do it yourself. ( We all know how hard eyeliner is to get even.)

Looking back on your wedding photographs in years to come you want to think you looked the best you have ever looked, not wish you had booked a hair and makeup artist. Hiring a professional will ensure that your hair and makeup will look fabulous all day, keep you calm on the day and bring a wealth of help and knowledge to help you through your wedding morning.

The Bar
Mambo Mobile Bars
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The benefits of hiring a professional mobile bar aren’t only good quality drink and service, which is probably what is seen, but there is also a list of things that you don’t have to think about when you hire us:
You don’t have to worry if the stock is getting delivered in time, or to the right place.
We store all the stock.
Bring all the equipment you need to chill every single drink on the day.
Glass and bottle collecting keeping the place looking smart at all times.
Return your glasses dirty at no extra cost.
Dispose of all the empty bottles the day after.
We’ll take care of all the licensing requirements.

The DJ
Dancefloors DJs & Events
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It is worth investing in a professional wedding DJ who has over 10 years experience in providing this service. They have the skill to read a crowd, know when to play the correct music at the right moment, have professional reliable equipment, have back up equipment in case anything happens, have full public liability insurance and all equipment PAT Tested for health and safety. A full time business which is totally dedicated to entertainment industry and not a second job. A DJ provides entertainment for you and your guests for around five hours of your wedding evening. Will the guests remember this, or the chair covers?

The Photobooth
Red Carpet Photobooths
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Photobooths are the must have at weddings and parties at the moment and as with everything, there is a huge range of quality in both booths and companies that supply them.  We have heard horror stories of booths running out of paper in the first hour, or worse still, just not turning up on the day. The physical booths can vary greatly from a pole and shower curtain across a cheap frame with some fabric stretched around, to high quality factory built booths with purpose built software run on MAC with the ability to instantly link to the clients social media pages.  I guess the easiest way to work it out is to do your homework.  Visit the booth suppliers website, Facebook and Twitter pages.  Look at feedback. (Especially on social media pages) One thing I always say to brides is we aren’t the cheapest supplier on the market (and neither do we want to be) but I have yet to meet a bride yet looking for a “cheap” wedding.  What you want and deserve on your big day is the best.  That is why we go the extra mile to make sure what we give our clients is the very best Photobooth experience around.  We have the feedback to back this up and have done events for Katie Price, X Factor winner Sam Bailey and a number of Leicester’s finest sports stars.

The Florist
Designer Daisies
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We do have a ‘provide only’ service where we can provide you with all the flowers, foliage and ribbons you made need to create your own wedding bouquets and table decorations from home. Although not many brides opt for this option, because with the added worry, time and possible errors, along with the over purchase with large wholesale quantities, there are no real saving to have.
At Designer Daisies we have the expertise to have your floral blooms just peeking at their best whether that means a week before the wedding date, or a day before, warm or cold room conditions and we have the knowledge and experience to make sure it’s just perfect for you. When it comes to wedding flowers we go the extra mile that can prove to be worth a million miles when it comes to your wedding day.
We have a full in depth meeting with our brides in our well-equipped wedding room with everything on hand to show you. Your flowers are then designed and created to suit you and your special day. With all our flowers finished to the highest of standards and delivery to your home, along with your venue arranged and set-up, we take away the stress leaving you to enjoy your special day.

The Cake Maker
Sharon’s Sugarcraft
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Most people think that wedding cakes are expensive and that they can do it cheaper themselves, but when you weigh up the cost of ingredients, electricity and their time etc., it works out about the same, or more even, as it would take an inexperienced person longer. Also most suppliers will deliver and set up the cake for you at the venue on the day to take away the stress of trying to fit it all in yourself, so you can sit back and focus on enjoying your wedding day. Plus it will have that professional look everybody wants to complete their special day.

The Photographer
Joanne Withers Photography
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As this is me writing this, of course I am going to say have a photographer, but here are a few things that us professionals can offer that may not have occurred to you. You can get a pre wedding photoshoot to feel comfortable on your day with your photographer. You can get a professional wedding album designed to tell a beautiful story as opposed to just snaps stuck in a book. Your images can be archived securely. They have so many fellow photographers in the industry to call on if needed to assist. They are used to working in all weather conditions and all types of low lit churches and venues. They have back up kit. They understand the timings of your day, because they do this a lot. They will work from 7am in the morning to 11pm at night because they know your wedding story is about the whole day and all the little moments. They care because they have chosen to do this for a living and will pay attention to every little detail of your day and love it as much as you do.
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