“Is it okay to text my wedding vendors?”
Take a look at this advice before hitting send on that text.
If you’re the type of person who texts everyone from your bestie to your co-workers to your grandma, you’ll probably expect to text your wedding vendors as well. After all, you probably want to develop a friendly and positive relationship with your vendors, and it’s sometimes quicker and easier to just send a text, right? But is it really the best way to communicate with your vendor team?
Here’s our advice when it comes to texting your wedding vendors.
Avoid texting at first
Whenever possible, it’s best to schedule an in-person meeting with potential wedding vendors for a few reasons. Most importantly, you’ll get the best sense of a vendor’s personality and style when meeting face-to-face (or via video chat, if an in-person meeting is not possible). Before your initial meeting, you’ll likely have to share some information with the potential vendor in advance—for example, your wedding date, budget, style, venue and more. Since there’s a lot of information for your vendor to keep track of, it’s best to communicate it via Messages, email or phone, rather than texting.
Discuss and confirm communication methods
Messages, and some are okay with texting, too—and some vendors are cool with a combination of all three. If texting is a way you would like to communicate, specifically ask if your vendors are comfortable to have you reach out in that way when you're short on time. Whether you have an idea for your wedding décor or a question about your payment, you’ll want your vendors to get back to you in a timely fashion, so establishing which methods of communication are best to receive a prompt response is a good idea for both you and your vendors.
Only text quick notes
We’ve all received those texts that are impossible to decipher. When your friend texts back “fine” to your last-minute dinner cancellation, is she mad at you or actually totally “fine”? This issue comes into play for your vendors as well—it’s often hard to figure out the meaning behind texts that are written in the usual shorthand. Your vendors want to get to know you, as well as every nuance of what you want for your wedding—and texting is probably not the best way to get there. We recommend reserving texting for quick notes when time is of the essence—confirming meetings, making sure payments have been received, or other “yes or no” questions.
Understand a vendor’s schedule
It’s great if you and your vendor have a friendly relationship and feel comfortable texting one another. But remember that your wedding vendors are business owners and likely have other clients, other responsibilities, and personal lives. When you send a text, you likely expect to hear back quickly, no matter what time of day or night. Respect your vendor’s time, discuss expected response time from the get-go, and try to keep communication to business hours. And if you do have to send a message in the evening or during off-hours, don’t get upset if you don’t hear back instantaneously. Of course, if a vendor is taking many days to respond to your requests, it could raise a red flag, but not hearing back within seconds shouldn’t.
Save the inspiration for in-person (or email)
Messages or sharing a Pinterest board with your vendor can be great ways to get your style across. And if you do have a texting relationship with your vendor, texting a quick photo or two is usually okay—just try to save the more in-depth conversations for in-person or email.
Bottom Line: If you and your vendor are both okay with texting one another, that’s great. But try to save the in-depth conversations for in-person, video chat, phone, Messages, or email. Save the texting for the quick, yes or no stuff.