Finding Amateur Vendors?

I wouldn’t hire an amateur caterer if you paid me a million bucks to do it. We found a photographer who was restarting her business after taking a few years out to have kids, and that worked out really well for us - she was experienced but not charging huge amounts.

I did a lot of searching on wedding sites and Facebook for either an amateur hair and makeup artist, or someone doing it on the side. I found a few promising leads, but they ended up either already booked or away at college and hadn't updated their page haha. There are definitely some vendors I wouldn't trust to a newbie, but something like hair and makeup where I could do a cheap trial run was one I was willing to give a shot.

You could try out Thumbtack

I second thumbtack. You should be able to find some local vendors that are not on the big wedding sites. There are some people I know that do photography or dj on the side and do a great job but I think you need to see reviews and previous work to be sure before hiring anyone really.

I used thumbtack and Craigslist aha. Craigslist is how I found my day of coordinator but he was also on thumbtacj

Agreed on Thumbtack!!
I found ALL of my vendors there! They let you search for vendors that can work with your budget so you don’t get constant rejections for your budget being too low.
Don’t go the amateur route, my SiL did and she never even got her photos back, it’s been 11 months!

Cut back on how many hours you need and go with someone who knows what they’re doing.

Thumbtack didn't work for my area. Got no interest from anyone. I used local wedding "buy-swap-trade" pages on facebook and found the perfect people. Got a newer couple to do photography, beautiful stuff on their pages and so great when I met up with them in person. Catering is harder, my suggestion there is to find a restaurant or current catering business and don't tell them its a wedding. Telling them its a wedding up the price of the same food $10 a plate on average (in my area at least). My cater doesn't know it's a wedding and I don't care that they don't know. They know they are feeding 80 people the menu I set and can set up two hours early if they want, in my opinion that's all they need to know.

My only suggestion is regardless of who you hire, vet them carefully and really think about how important the service is to you. You'll see some horror stories on this forum from people who hired less-professional and/or "friendors" and had terrible experiences. Just this morning there is a post from a bride who literally wants to throw away all her wedding photos because the uncle who took them did a terrible job.... Do all you can to not put yourself in that position, if you can avoid it. Daughter saved a lot by comparison shopping, but she had really strong standards about what would be acceptable. She was also less concerned about things like flowers and cake than she was about food, photographer, and DJ. Only you can figure out your priorities.

I would look into contacting vocational schools or community colleges. It wasn't wedding related, but a friend needed help with a deck project and reached out to our local VoTech school. The carpentry class turned her project into a service learning project for extra credit.

We found our photographer through the community but she also worked our friends' wedding and we loved the shots. Our caterer does it on the side and is a friend's son. Our officiant is someone I know as well but is much more established. In all three cases we had an opportunity to see/taste their work. Often new businesses will try to connect with other vendors so ask for recommendations. Just remember that whether they are new, amateur, or seasoned and established, research!!! I can look at a pretty picture but I also need to know the photographer was professional in getting that shot.

My future sister in law had her aunt take her pictures and no one else was aloud to take any. Well her aunt some how lost all the pictures and she has no pictures of her wedding

Horror story right here!
I had an amateur photographer. I have maybe six pictures of my wedding day that are usable. I spent $1,500 for 6 hours and basically wasted all of that money. I would have preferred to have just done 3 hours with a true professional

We had a great Vet DOC who we hired. Unfortunately she booked a vacation during the week of our wedding so she contracted out her role...to an amateur. He forgot to set up our venue (had to do most of it the morning of our wedding). Was combative and rude during our room flip. Was absolutely blind drunk for the reception and had to be locked in the basement.

I have posted before about a wedding I attended in college with an amateur caterer. There wasn’t enough food and I had cross-contaminated food. Had to use my epi pen and leave the reception.

There are ways to cut costs but things like food and photos are not places I would cut.

One thing I wouldn't skimp on for sure is a photographer. Those pictures are for a lifetime and you want to truly be happy with them. So definitely do yourself that favor and get a good photographer. As far as everything else, I would probably find amateurs. Also, don't forget the DJ does lighting and announcements ect, so that's another thing to think about.