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Writer's pictureAbbi-Kaye Ellison

How to deal with Wed-min Overwhelm - Advice From A Wedding Supplier.

At the time of writing this pice, October, aka spooky season is upon us. And as a wedding supplier it truly is a scary time to be alive. With the stereotypical hustle and bustle of the more popular summer wedding season months truly out of sight. And although wedding trends are changing in terms of the date that couples are choosing to actually host their wedding days. There's still a very obvious pattern in when the wedding planning and enquiries come flooding in. The nesting months, Oct-Feb.


As the nights draw in, and the winter months approach along with engagement season (eeeek!). A lot of you soon to be weds knuckle down and start making moves with the wedding admin aka "wed-min" and planning. Which means you’re going to be in contact with a lot of suppliers, requesting details and asking for availability. It can be a big task with lots of leads to follow up on. And as a wedding supplier (a wedding singer to be precise) as well as booking habits, I've noticed a more concerning trend.... Enquiries that vanish into thin air!


AKA


The Ghosting Epidemic.

With messages along the lines of: "Hi, we loved your work, could you provide us a breakdown of your packages please?" "Hello, are we able to check whether you still have our date available?"

"It was great speaking with you, we'll have a think and get back to you for sure"


After not only doing a mini celebration dance, gassed and honoured at the thought that a potential couple have admired our services on offer but have then taken the step to start a conversation with us. Most suppliers then spend much time responding, are inquisitive about you as a couple and keep note/track of your enquiry. Furthermore, depending how far down the line couples get with their enquiry, some suppliers even begin drafting up plans depending on their field of expertise. (e.g florist mood board, stationary designs). With the hope and expectation that the enquiry is live and kicking. However, what follows next, can only be described as...crushing.

Tumbleweed. Look, I get it. I’m not even planning a wedding and I have been guilty of accidentally leaving folks on read from time to time. Consider this my public apology to any of my victims.


But as a supplier who is not alone in being on the receiving end of dead air (many wedding professionals have also experienced the same). I sympathise of course, but in most cases. I suspect there's an element of anxiety in said silence. But there's no need to worry. As suppliers, it's our job to help and we should always be more than happy to answer any questions and advise our couples as much as possible. No question is too silly!


As well as couples simply loosing track of enquiries due to organisation overwhelm, my main suspect behind said silence, is that as a couple, you've decided to go with an alternative option, the price is out of budget or you've simply changed your minds and you don't have the heart to tell us.


Spoiler alert:

 That is totally okay, wedding suppliers are human and we completely understand this!


It's part of the business. Of course it's disappointing to a degree when a couple decides other options. But as active members of the wedding industry we understand and promote the idea that your wedding should be perfectly tailored to the two of you as a couple. So if things are no longer in alignment with the suppliers you've initially enquired with. That's okay. (It's worth noting that we're talking about the enquiry stage of the booking process. If you've changed your mind with a supplier after you've already booked in/paid your deposits. This is where booking contracts ect come in to play).

Author of the blog smiling in a diner, dressed in 1950s style clothing

Remember we suppliers aren’t just names figurative floating on a screen. We’re real people.

See insert: me, a real wedding supplier, smiling because I received a message from a couple rather than being ghosted.

All jokes aside, we're real people with a real passion for helping you achieve your wedding dreams. So whether that’s via us or an alternative supplier (which again, I cannot express enough, it's fine!). We ask that you try your hardest not to leave us in the dark after getting in touch. A simple message is all it takes to close off an enquiry.


As mentioned I can of course sympathise with the mammoth task that is planning a wedding. As I do, being a supplier tracking my own enquiries and couples. My main tip to help with the wed-min organisation, avoiding overwhelm and said left on read-dread, and this works vice versa by the way:


Using a good old spreadsheet.


Hell, I probably would go as far as to making a separate spreadsheet for every element of the wedding, e.g live music, florals, stationary suppliers. To which each supplier you’ve messaged and where you've messaged them, you note them down, and colour co-ordinate the heck out of your yes, nos, maybe’s. With an extra cute lil tick column next to their names, dedicated to showing whether you’ve followed up or not. This way, you can rest assure that not only are you keeping track of your own progress when planning. You can make sure that you’re not getting ghosted yourself and equally have no supplier skeletons, waiting in the closest for a response…win win!


With all of this in mind, happy halloween and more importantly wedding planning!


My inbox is always open for enquiries and for further wedding advice.


 Just please don’t leave me on read All the best, Abbi-Kaye (Viva la Vintage) x



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