I’m the first to admit that there are plenty of vendors that put much thought and are willing and able to communicate their excitement, warmth, and intangible level of service in the words and unseen space in their emails. I’d like to think that I’m one of them. And I love working with these vendors - their joy in words always makes me feel their dedication and helps us bond in our mutual passion for our work and for our customers. I love planning events which is why I’m still in the business and through the years I’ve met quite a few others that feel the same way - a never-ebbing desire to continually improve and better our services.

But then there are those vendors that really just sound indifferent, snappy, and altogether rude.

As someone who advises clients on being selective with their vendor hires, with so many choices out there, I feel strongly that communication with the service provider, whether it is in person, phone, or email, should always be an enjoyable experience. After all you’re paying for their service and no matter how good they are at what they do, you can most likely find someone else to do the same if not better job with a happier attitude. So although the vendor tones and attitudes are usually part of the interview process for most couples, I cannot stress enough how important it is that you pay special attention to their attention to detail when it comes to simpler things other than their main line of work: their email signatures, the tone of their emails, their tone over the phone. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about someone from the little things in addition to your judgment of the work from their portfolios and even references (because who would ever provide the contact information who disliked their service?).

And for all those vendors out there trying to improve your phone and email etiquette? Try these easy tips, not very comprehensive but it’s a good and simple start:

• Love your work and it’ll come through your voice and words
• Always have a warm signature for your emails, for example: Best, Best regards, Sincerely, Yours Truly, Warmly. Don’t end emails with your name and contact information - that only communicates indifference and coldness. You’d be surprised what a difference it makes.
• Address the person, for example Hi Tom, Dear Amy. Not addressing the person starts the email off to a cold start and it gives the impression that you care only for the bare minimum of what you have to do and take care of, you really don’t care much for the client himself/herself.
• Express your excitement when you are excited (assuming you’re not using a “!” at the end of every sentence) - let your client know that you are happy to work with them and that you are indeed honored to be taking care of them for their event.

One of the starting points of your wedding is making sure you have a good wedding website — somewhere people can go and refer others to to find out more about your wedding, without having to look for the invitation they may have misplaced. Very quickly your wedding website is becoming just as important as your wedding invitations. Though it is not your formal way of inviting guests or even informing them about important details and times, it is a way to set the tone and ambience of your wedding even before the day arrives. Just the like invitation it’s able to give your guests a feel for how you’re planning your wedding so they can dress, gift, and respond accordingly.

With most of our packages we offer complimentary custom-built wedding websites for our brides and grooms. However there are also plenty of online resources that provide you with beautiful templates to use for your wedding website. And the best part is that they’re free! Here are just some of our favorites places to design

• My Wedding
• Wedding Wire
• Wedding Channel
• One Wed
• eWedding

There are many, many more websites that provide free wedding websites so this list is nowhere close to comprehensive. However hopefully it gives you a good base of templates to work with and hopefully one of those templates will make the perfect impression on you and your guests.