The Pros of Booking Your Wedding Vendors Early

We want to give you a little advice on why it’s so important to book your vendors early while wedding planning

I can only imagine what it’s like to follow a wedding vendor you love on social media, patiently wait for your time to come to plan your dream wedding, only to have them tell you they’re already booked! Coming from experience, it’s heart breaking for us too!

In 2017 we were fully booked for our 2018 season by that fall. This meant we could hit the ground running and start serving our couples with a fantastic client experience! But for the 70+ couples we had to turn away, it meant they were left searching for another photographer to fall in love with. The list of available photographers becomes drastically lower and lower the closer you get to your wedding date.

We believe booking your vendors as far into the future as possible will take care of you in so many ways. You'll be setting yourself up for success all around. Having time on your side (a year+) to get a head of your to-do list, find the vendors you want (and they'll more than likely have your date available), and these added benefits:

1. Gives you a chance to shop around and make the best choice for the people who you will click with!

   
   I know it’s wild to think about, but you’ll spend more time with your wedding photographer on your wedding day than your future spouse! Don’t you want to love that person?

2. Your budget will thank you.

   Setting a budget will be easier to stick to because you’ll have it all planned out in advanced.

   *Pro Tip: Ask all your vendors if you can set up payment plans! That’s something we offer at no extra charge. It’s been crucial to our couples planning!

3. Stress be gone

   Another vendor booked is another item checked off your to-do list and is one less thing to worry about!

4. Get your significant other involved

5. Actually enjoy your wedding planning experience

When is the best time to book your wedding photographer?

We feel the best time to book your photographer is immediately after you book your venue which should be at the very least a year and a half out from your wedding day. There are quite a few reasons for this. We want to get as much time with you as possible because…

We want to get to know you!

We spend more time with you two on your wedding day than your partner. That’s the truth in the matter! Our goal is to show up for you on your wedding day as friends, and trusted confidants who knows exactly what this day means to you, how you’re feeling, and what to expect from the day.

Client Education

The happiest, most relaxed couples are the ones who are prepared. For most couples, this is the first time you are planning a wedding. You probably have millions of questions like “do people still do the garter?”, “what’s a first look?”, or “what’s an unplugged wedding?” That’s where a photographer comes in - especially if you’re not hiring a planner (we 100% recommend a planner). An experience full time wedding photographer has probably been to 100+ weddings in their lifetime which makes stockpiling a lot of helpful information for new couples easy. At Eisley Images it’s our job to make sure we give you the space to ask these questions and to lead you to answers and solutions.

Engagement Session Planning

Are you having a fall wedding but want a summer engagement session for your save the dates? My friend, that just won’t work out. We can’t wait for almost an entire year to get your save the dates out and I’m quite certain we can’t tell New England to turn the heat up. She works in mysterious ways, but even so, once summer is gone it is GONE.
Booking well in advanced means we plan your dream engagement session from what to wear, the location and when it all takes place. This process brings us closer together and let’s us peek inside that beautiful wedding planning brain of yours.

Timeline Planning

Together you and your photographer will plan a wedding day timeline that works for you, the venue, the sunset, traveling, and various circumstances. We start educating our clients on timeline expectations very early on. It would be devastating for you to plan our your whole wedding day alone only to realize you didn’t schedule enough time for portraits or you didn’t take the sunset time into consideration. We want to set you up for success, capture all the happenings of your wedding day, and communicate the plan so you know what to expect!