Which vendors are must meet in person?

I would say photographer. There is a website ran by a wedding photographer and she had great tips about what to ask and what to want from the photographer but the common theme was does this person work well with you. She asked can you tolerate this person for 10 hours on your wedding day and do you two have a good vibe. Even a photographer I am meeting with said the same which made me feel comfortable so I will meet up with her.

I have meet everyone in person but they are also local so it was easy for us.. I would definitely meet caterer, venue, and planner in person !!! And your planner can even help you if you cannot make it to any meetings or anything

I FaceTime’d both my photographer and videographer before booking bc I wanted to make sure we clicked. This worked surprisingly well. Good luck!

I've sat down with all of our vendors in person, only b/c they all live in my city. I'd say if your baker is separate from your caterer or your venue, you should meet them in person too so you can discuss and taste cake flavors and go over design. I agree with Kristin as well. Meeting your photographer in person is a good idea too. If you can, try and schedule a time for you and your fiance to tour your wedding venue with your photographer. My FH and I did this and I'm so glad that we did. Our photographer had never done a wedding at our venue before and by giving her a tour with the venue coordinator, she was able to start writing down photo ideas and locations for photos throughout the venue she thinks will be great wedding photos for us.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Kristen—you’d think that if you like the pictures in their portfolio that’s all you need to know but the personality thing makes a lot of sense. I will add it to the list!

I would for sure meet the person in charge at your venue. I didn't meet my photographer in person until we did engagement pictures because she is 45 mins away from us. We did meet our DJ in person and got along right away.

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That is what I thought but the most recent photographer has great prices so I was skeptical but I was asking her about her reviews, social media pages and she realized quick why I was asking all the questions and she agreed that I should inquire because it is important. Photography I am most nervous about as some brides have had bad experiences or bad pictures and I do not want that.

Makeup and hair artist! That’s what I’m really bummed about for my “destination” wedding. I don’t have the time to make it up there for a trial. Honestly, that would be on the top of my list - if I had the option. Everyone’s skin, face & hair is different. Even if they have a great portfolio - it’s best to work out the details through a trial before the big day.

Photographer, videographer, DOC, and officiant for us. We spent 10+ hours with our photographer and videographer on our wedding day, so meeting them wasn’t so much about learning about their skills or packages, but to make sure that we got along well and they were people we would want to spend the majority of the biggest day of our lives with. The officiant and DOC for similar reasons.

I planned from out of state and I made in person appointments at the venue, for cake tastings, catering, rentals, and hair and makeup trial. Photography, flowers, music, transportation, hotels, and officiant I did online.

We had an out of state wedding and we met with every vendor at least once, but most of the communication was done via email and telephone calls. The only time we met our photographer was for engagement photos otherwise all of the wedding planning with her was via email and telephone. We met with our videographer once and everything we talked about honestly could have been done via phone. He is the one that insisted on meeting. We wanted to meet the DJ before the wedding to make sure we clicked. We met with the coordinator at our venue multiple times. We also met with our florist multiple times. Our venue provided the catering so we had our tasting prior to one of meetings with the coordinator. Our venue worked with a specific bakery so we went there prior to the tastings at the venue to try the different cake flavors and select the design for our wedding cake. Another important thing to us was to decide where we wanted our rehearsal dinner. We went to a couple of different places. We went to one for lunch and one for dinner. We also just toured a third. We tried to do multiple meetings with one day/weekend.

Must Meet In-Person:
- Venue
- Caterer- Photographer - DJ/Band- Officiant
You really only need to meet your bakery for the tasting and design part. Other optional vendors such as videography and if your bar services aren't included with your caterer or venue, don't really call for an in person meeting since your videographer is just going to show you videos of past weddings and bar services are pretty clear cut. I don't have a wedding coordinator, but I do have a day of coordinator as she comes with my wedding venue. We also don't have a baker since my best friend/bridesmaid is a pastry chef and is helping me make our cake.