Help!! Vendor Pricing??

[RissaLou]

Hello Ladies, I lurk a lot but hardly ever post, but I am needing some help and this forum is so nice it''s the first place I thought to turn. I am the first child in my family getting married and all my married family got hitched ages ago so I don''t have anyone to turn to for advice. My fiance and I are paying for a large portion of the wedding ourselves so we are trying to make the wedding as affordable as possible. (Our wedding date is Sept. 4th of 2010 by the way). I''m trying to work on a budget so I''m needing some help. I''m doing OK doing price comparisons when it comes to caterer''s, venues, dresses, invatations, little extras like decorations and party favors, but I''m having a hard time price shopping DJ''s, an on-site hair and make-up artist, and officiants. I know when you do a church wedding the average cost for an officiant is a donation of $500 to the church but we are not getting married in a church. I know quality is important as well as making sure I like the people I''m working with but there seems to be a large range of prices and I would like to at least get a rough general estimate of what some of you lovely ladies have paid or been quoted. Any help is much appreciated!!

 

[Luckyeshe]

Our wedding is on the Sept. 18, 2010 so you and I have a lot in common

. But you''re definitely way ahead of me with the pricing stuff...

. Anyways, you may want to look at pros.com and they may be able to help you with a dj or do a package for you. I''m currently looking into them and they appear to have gotten recognization from The Knot Magazine for a few years in a row. I haven''t had much dealing with them yet, since I just started but you may want to contact them and see what happens. For officiants, you have a few options. 1. You can see if anyone of your close friends or family would like to take an online course and be the officiant for your wedding. 2. If you have a notary or know of a notary, they can "perform" your wedding for you as well. 3. You can get referrals from other people you know who got married recently and interview their officiant and see what they are going to charge...on the same vein of thought, I walked into a bridal boutique and came out with names of a possible photographer as well as officiant who I am currently in the process of meeting. Sometimes local wedding boutiques work with other wedding professionals on a referral basis and you could strike a bargain with them for cost of services after you meet with them and you like their work.

Good luck on your wedding planning!

 

[RissaLou]

Thank you Luckyeshe for the helpful tips, unfortunately I do not know anyone who has gotten married yet, I''m the first WOHOO!! So that means I couldn''t go to anyone for referrals, but your tip about having a friend be the officiant was a great idea, turns out a really good girlfriend of mine has been ordained for four years because she did her sister''s wedding, I had no clue, she never mentioned it till I brought it up. The website you gave me pros.com didn''t work, so I''m still waiting on some help with a hair and make-up artist, and help with a DJ. I am having a morning wedding so I can''t go to a salon for hair and make-up because they are not open yet. PLEASE HELP LADIES!!! What did you all pay for your DJ''s and an on site hair and make-up person??? I don''t want to be taken advantage of because of lack of knowledge so I could really use some help, my bridesmaids and the women in my family haven''t done the "Big" wedding thing so they are clueless.

 

[Inanna]

Hi RizzaLou

It sounds like you have your officiant figured out, but just for reference, my hired officiant charges $250 to officiate and file the marriage certificate. She also charges $75 for being at the rehearsal, so its $325 total. All of the officiates we contacted (in the S. Florida/FL Keys area) were about the same price.

As for a DJ, we got 3 quotes. 2 of them were from musical entertainment companies and they quoted us $1050 and $1200 for 5 hours plus setup. The third quote was from a self-employed DJ who gave us a rate of $950 for 5 hours plus 2 hours pre-ceremony setup (additional time is charged at a rate of $75/hour). We ended up going with the third DJ because we knew who would actually DJing our wedding (as opposed to a DJ who is just assigned to our wedding), he seemed the most organized, and we just "clicked" with him the most.

Unfortunately I can't help with on-site hair and makeup artists, but hopefully you'll get more responses on that.

 

[RissaLou]

Thank you Inanna that gives me a good idea of what to expect for a DJ I was really clueless, alright ladies, can anyone help with what kind of price to expect for a hair and make-up artist??