Who to Bring To Your Wedding Vendor Meetings

Ready to start putting together all the fine details of your big day? Well, one of the first tasks you’ll need to tackle is talking face-to-face with wedding vendors. That’s right, in the months leading up to your big day, you’ll be meeting with a ton of different people: photographers, venue coordinators, caterers, wedding dress designers and more. Very rarely will you fly solo to these events, but you also don’t want to bring your whole squad and family along with you to every single meet and greet. We’ve hashed out exactly who you should be bringing to all of these appointments, so you can let them know to clear their schedules.

Here’s who to bring to your wedding vendor meetings.

Visiting wedding venues

One of the first wedding planning tasks you’ll tackle is finding your wedding venue. This will probably lead you to doing a handful of venue walkthroughs, and for those you’ll want to bring your partner, wedding planner, and whoever is footing the bill so they know what they’ll be paying for. It’s important to have your wedding planner/event designer there so that they can get a feel for the space and ask the venue coordinator important questions that you may not even think of.

Meetings with your wedding vendors

You’re going to be hiring a lot of wedding vendors, and the only person you need by your side for meetings with them is your partner. Of course, if your parents (or another generous soul) is paying for their services, they may want to come along. If you’re really lost, you may want to bring your wedding planner to guide the conversation and get the important questions answered, too. Just be wary of involving too many people in these meetings or you may end up planning a wedding that doesn’t suit you at all (you know how the saying goes, “too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the broth”).

Trying on wedding dresses

You’ll want to bring your mom and key members of your bridal party to your ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ moment. Remember, you’ll definitely want opinions, but bring people who build you up, not the debbie downers who will criticize everything about every wedding dress you try on. A positive environment is definitely necessary for such an iconic shopping event.

Your engagement photoshoot

Your engagement photoshoot is all about you and your partner, so you should be the only ones present (aside from your photographer, obviously). Since a large audience tends to heighten anxiety, It’s especially important to keep your guest list limited if you’re camera shy. That being said, if you want to involve your kids or a four-legged friend in your engagement photoshoot, you should totally go for it, the results will be downright adorable.

Shopping for wedding rings

You and your partner are going to be rocking these wedding bands, so you don’t need anyone else with you to shop for them. Remember, these baubles should suit your personal styles, and you don’t want anyone distracting you from that.

Creating your wedding registry

Your wedding registry is basically just one giant wish list, and there are only two people who know what wedding gifts you actually want and need: yourself and your partner. It’s important to focus on your hopes and dreams for your wedding registry, and having multiple peoples’ input can be extremely distracting. Sure, you can ask your friends and family for their opinions (they may have a few awesome ideas that you didn’t think of) but this one’s really all about you and your partner. P.S. If you don’t want to ask for traditional gifts, like dishware and home decor, check out some other popular wedding registry styles.

Tasting wedding food and cakes

Though you’d probably love to bring a bunch of friends and family to sample out amazing food and taste wedding cakes with you, caterers and bakers really can’t accommodate that many guests for a wedding menu tasting. Keep things simple and only bring your partner because at the end of the day, it’s your and their tastes that matter most. If you want to bring your planner along, too, that’s usually cool, just remember to ask ahead of time.

Wedding dress fittings

While you can totally attend your wedding dress fittings solo, you’ll probably want a few extra sets of eyes to assess every inch and give you their honest opinions on if things could hug all your curves and edges better. We suggest bringing along a parent, your MOH, and/or a trustworthy friend or family member.

Hair and makeup trials

Your wedding hair and makeup trials are a chance to try out different looks to see what you like. Since you probably don’t bring anyone along to the salon with you, so you probably don’t need anyone present for your hair and makeup trials. If you really feel like you need a second opinion, go ahead and ask your MOH to tag along.

Premarital counselling sessions

Obviously, the only people who need to attend premarital counselling are you and your partner. Things can get pretty personal, and you probably don’t want your dad or your best friend along for the ride.

Getting your marriage license

Check your province’s marriage laws and see who you need to sign your marriage license. It’ll most likely be you, your partner, and sometimes a witness. Those are the only people who you need at a marriage license meeting to get the job done, so only bring them!

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