Wedding Planning 101: Customer-Supplier Relationship

I am almost done with booking our major suppliers.:) I think I only have three more left on my list and I am done. And our Daisy Path ticker shows we have 16 more months to go hahaha! Well such is the wedding preparation life for couples on a budget like us. You take advantage of the price locks hahaha!:)

Now that I am closer to finishing booking our major suppliers, it made me think of what kind of customer-supplier relationship would I like to establish with my suppliers. It cannot be over emphasized enough that establishing a good working relationship with your suppliers is very important in ensuring a good working environment on your wedding day and days after that. You sure do not want to be stressed out on your wedding day and of course the gauge of every suppliers' service I believe, is the delivery of the output afterwards.

In my readings at W@W, brides and grooms before us have taught us "newbies" that being friends with your set of suppliers help. You can sweet talk your way in getting extra service or discounts. Being friends and having a good working relationship with your supplier brings a lot of good things on your wedding day. There are a lot of stories about couples being surprised by an extra service on the wedding day apart from what is written on the contract simply because the couple and the supplier established a good working relationship.

But on the other side of things, a bad relationship would bring just all negative feelings for the couple and for the supplier itself. I would like to believe that as much as we hear horror stories from couples on a certain supplier, I bet the suppliers' themselves have a lot of horror stories to share as well. I bet there might be a forum as similar as W@W for suppliers where they rant also of their horror customers hahaha! There are always two sides to a story and being that my convictions on fairness dictates I listen to both side, I always take with a grain of salt a negative review on a supplier I got.

Based on my experience in meeting suppliers, I am first drawn to those who response promptly and on a friendlier note to my email. I am your typical Piscean (although with the "new" horoscope they say I am Aries now:P) who always live by my gut feel and if at the first email I get that "this is it" feeling, I will be meeting up with that supplier. So far, in all the suppliers we met, we had a very good feeling about them and that I can sense we can establish a good customer-supplier relationship short of saying that we jive or click.

And in order to take good care of the kind of relationship I am so far having with our suppliers, I am employing the following strategies:

1. Let them have a full reign on how they would execute their services on our wedding based on my inspirations and ideas.
-Of all the suppliers I met, I always tell them, do as you may please with our wedding. Why you may ask? Because the reason why we hired them in the first place is because we believe in their talent. I sure do not know a thing about photos and videos nor styling the reception, so I leave everything to my suppliers. I just would like them to follow my inspiration and theme. I found out the they appreciate this kind of trust that we give them and hopefully this will work well for us in the end.

2. Establish and continue an open communication line with your suppliers.
-Every good relationship is established by an open communication. Since our wedding will be 16 months away and we have booked suppliers as early as now, I am intending that we update our suppliers every once in a while and then drop a "hi or hello" so they would remember us hihihi!:) I believe that we should always tell our suppliers our concerns and not just sit around on it waiting for our concerns to be solve by themselves. If you do not like a particular outcome, let them know. If you feel that their service is taking long, confront them. Of course do everything in the most civil way possible. Just because you are friends with your supplier does not mean that they should be lax also. Just speak up and be heard.:)

3. Feed them well on your wedding day.
-I always believe that people work at their best on a full stomach that is why on the wedding day itself I will feed my "army" with the best food I can buy. Mabubusog tlga sila hihihihi!:)

4. And lastly, APPRECIATE, APPRECIATE, APPRECIATE.
-Saying thank you is free right? Never be stingy in appreciating your suppliers for all the efforts they have made. As much as they do business with us, what makes them happier is knowing that couples appreciate their talent and their service.

These  are my battle plan in establishing a good relationship with our supplier. So far so good. I am hoping that this will bring us less stress in the future and then "some" of course.:)