How to get on a Wedding Planner's Preferred Vendor List

Each week I'll cover strategies, tips, tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. So much for tuning in today. Let's dive in. Hey everyone, it's Nicole from The Wedding Pro Academy and today we have episode 18. We're going to be talking about how to get wedding planners to recommend you.

So I'm specifically talking to all the other wedding vendors out there wedding photographers, videographers, officiants, florists, new who's trying to get into the wedding industry who has this idea that you could get in on the preferred vendor list from a wedding planner to book more weddings. How do you get these you know established wedding planners to recommend you? We're going to talk about what is the best way to reach out to these wedding planners and also we'll go over the five things that you must include in your email in order to even get a reply. And I will give you a list of what things not to do because I see so many of you guys doing the wrong things. And lastly, I'll go over how you can get recommendations from an established wedding planner without doing this cold pitch.

So another way in. Okay, let's get started. This is going be a good one. So first, let's go over the best way to reach out to a wedding planner. And I'm not talking about newbie wedding planners.

I'm talking about more established wedding planners who are booked out, who have full calendars, who have lots of weddings and therefore lots of opportunities to throw you business, right? So what is the best way to reach out to these wedding planners? It's NOT by asking them out on a coffee date. It's definitely NOT by asking them to do a Zoom meeting with you or a phone meeting. And here's why: it's because they don't have time for any of that and they're definitely not going to make the time for a new wedding vendor who they do not know because they're just too busy.

Don't even bother doing it that way because that will be an instant turn off. Instead, you just need to email them. Not DM them, not call them on the phone, just send them an email. I'm going go over next exactly what's included in that email, but don't bother asking us out on coffee dates because honestly I just don't have time for that. Unless you're a dear friend of mine, I'm not going to make time for that either because I don't know anything about you and it's not worth my time.

I'm not trying to get anything from you, you're trying to get something from me. You need to work around my schedule and getting an email is going to be the easiest way for me to get to know you. So just send me an email that's the easiest way to reach out to a well established wedding planner. Let's talk about okay we know we need to send an email but what are we going to say in this email? I have no idea.

I'm going to tell you exactly what to say in five simple steps. One) You need to introduce yourself. Two) need to build a genuine connection. Number three, you gotta find a way to stand out or be different. Number four, you need to offer the wedding planner something of value.

And number five, you need to make it super simple for them to click on your to see who you are, to see your credentials and your price list. Okay. Let's go into a little more detail with each each of those items. Number one, introducing yourself. That one's super simple, but here's the important part: make it genuine.

How would you email someone that you're just meeting? Be super genuine and authentic. Be real. I don't want a copy and paste email that you've sent to 15 other wedding planners. I want you to be genuine when you're reaching out and talking to me. That's going to make me pay attention a lot more. Two. Build a connection. A genuine connection. How do you build a connection with someone you've never met?

You need to spend some time learning about this wedding planner. Who are they? What do they do? What kind of person are they? What's their style? What kind of weddings do they do? How do you relate to that? How are they as a person? Who are they as a person? Can you relate to any of that stuff? Is there anything about them that you love or that stood out? Anything about them that impressed you? Talk about that and be very specific. Be relatable. Here's an example.

You could say Hey, I'm Amy. I'm a new wedding photographer that just moved to New York City and I just stumbled upon your website and love your style. I'm so impressed with your business and I love that you work with intimate elopements. I too am a Korean American who is now based in NYC and I noticed that there aren't that many of us here so I just wanted to reach out and say hi. I also, just like you, love working with couples of different ethnicities and faiths.

That is special to me and I would love to get to know you a little bit. So just something like that that built a sort of simple but genuine real connection right away. The next thing, number three, is you need to learn how to stand out. What makes you different? What makes you unique?

What makes you special? If you are a photographer and have a different style of shooting, a different style of editing that couples really love, tell me about that. What makes you, you know, stand out from all the other wedding photographers? Why would me why would this wedding planner pay attention to you? Why would their couples care about your photography over somebody else that they have?

You have to be something you have to have something that makes you stand out. So it could it could be your style. It could be the way you produce the product or it could be your pricing. Maybe you're more affordable than anyone else. I mean, that's always a plus for wedding planners if we have options of different price ranges.

Sometimes it's helpful to have someone on a lower price range for my couples as an option. Maybe you offer extras that makes the couples experience so much cooler, so much better. Figure out what makes you different and how you stand out and then find a very simple way to say that to the wedding planner in like two sentences. Next, number four. You need to offer the wedding planner something of value.

Something of value to them. Here's some examples. You could offer them if you're a photographer you could offer them a photoshoot for their team. Maybe you say I'd love to get to know you and if you have time in the next month I could do a free photoshoot for your team just to get some so you could see what it's like working with me and get to experience my work firsthand and have some awesome team photos too that you could put up on your website. Or if you are a videographer you could offer to do some behind the scene footage of the wedding planner of them working.

Say like I'll do a behind the scenes shoot of you during your next wedding and put together five reels for you that you could use on social. That would be really appealing right and of no cost. The whole point of this really is that you give the wedding planner a chance to get to know you in real life so a chance to get to know you personally and a chance to see what it's like to work with you and you give them an example real life proof of your work. You show them what it's like to work with you and what the final product is like. You give them this proof because they are never going to recommend you to one of their couples if they don't think you're amazing, they don't trust you, if they don't know that it's going to be an incredible experience working with you and you need to find a way to show them that.

That's how you can do it by offering them something of value. Lastly, five you need to have your credentials very very easily found at the bottom of your email. I'm just talking about simple website link, socials link, price list and not a very long fancy over worded price list just something very simple I don't want to have to open something that's going take like five minutes to download because then I'll just skip it. I just need something very simple that gives me an idea of what your pricing is. Okay so quick recap what to say in this very important email if you are planning to email a wedding planner and want to get you know recognized and noticed by her and would love to work with her.

You want to introduce yourself, build a genuine connection, stand out, find a way to stand out, offer something of value and then make it very easy for them to look you up. So have your credentials and a price list right there ready for them to look at. Here are some things you do NOT want to do so DON'T do these things: Don't cold pitch copy and paste emails. I don't want to see an email that I know you've sent to 10 other wedding planners that has no authenticity, no personalization. I get these all the time and I just delete them so try your best to spend some time making this email original and meaningful and heartfelt.

Those copy and paste emails I can pick them out right away and I don't ever usually contact those vendors. Also, don't brag about why you're so awesome and give me a list of all of your awards because that doesn't matter to me because I don't know you. You you know? Like, I need to have proof of working with you. I need to see what it's like to actually experience your service in order to recommend you.

Bragging doesn't really work. Also, don't skip out on including a price sheet because you're scared of what your pricing is. You're not confident in it. I need a price sheet to know whether or not you're a good fit for my couples so if you're reaching out to a wedding planner definitely include a price sheet and keep it super simple. Also always include your website and your socials and while I'm at it do not have a crappy website!

So if you're going to link up to your website you better make sure that your website looks professional, looks cool, looks beautiful, is inviting because if I'm going to recommend my brides and grooms to you they're going to check out your website and if they get a bad feel from it because you know it looks crappy that is going to reflect badly on me and that is never ever going to work because I need you to be a good representation of me. Your website needs to be solid, to look professional, needs to be beautiful, needs to be appealing to brides and grooms and so does your social media presence. I need to know that when I recommend you as a photographer to my bride and groom that they're going to check out your stuff and be impressed because you are essentially a reflection of me, if that makes sense. So all of that stuff needs to be in place before you decide to reach out to wedding planners. Also, don't ask to be on our preferred vendor list without first getting to know us because if we don't know you, we've never worked with you, we don't trust you, we don't know anything about you, we're not just gonna put you on our preferred vendor list and for the same reason we cannot recommend somebody we don't stand behind that we don't have experience with.

Also I said this earlier don't request a coffee date or a phone meeting or a web meeting because we don't have time for that. Also I wouldn't slide into a wedding planner's DMs and say hey let's get connected would love to do a wedding with you put me on your preferred vendor list' or whatever because that never works either. You'll get a much better response with a very kind genuine real email something that's very thought out. Okay, so now let's talk about how you can get recognized, acknowledged, recommended by wedding planners without doing these kinds of cold pitch emails. Well this one is a little bit more of a long term effort but you need to get connected with more wedding vendors.

The more wedding vendors that you meet that you get to know, that get to know you, that you become friends with, the more likely that these wedding vendors will mention your name to the wedding planner. If I have a officiant and a videographer and the florist that have all mentioned your name or who have all recommended you to me it is very likely that I will reach out to you and connect with you and recommend you to my brides and grooms. The more times I hear your name the better feedback I get from vendors that I have experience with that I know, like and trust the more likely I will just naturally want to work with you and recommend you to my couples because if I know that other couples have had an excellent experience and vendors have said amazing things about you I'm going to want my couples to have that same experience too. So getting the ins with the wedding industry and getting recommended behind the scenes is super helpful and will help wedding planners to take notice of you. Okay, so recap the most important thing I want you to remember is authenticity goes a long way.

You want to offer something of value and show them how to easily find you and always include a price sheet. Just be real like no copy and paste emails. One thing to remember wedding planners especially established ones who have a full booked out calendar are busy. We don't have time to like read through super long emails or go through super long price lists or do coffee dates because we don't need to. We already have a team of vendors that we love, that we like, that we use all the time.

In order for you to break into that circle you're going to have to stand out. You're going to have to be different and if you take these tips I think that will help you to stand out, help you to kind of break in so that we actually take notice of you and give you a chance. You really just need to get in the door because once we've worked with you and you can show me what it's like to work with you and I like working with you and I get to know you personally and I get a feel for what my clients will experience because I liked working with you. I know my clients, my couple will like working with you. I now have solid proof that you're trustworthy, that you're amazing at what you do, that you provide an excellent service and product and you give a 10 star experience, I'm going to recommend you to my couples.

But you need to get in the door first and I need to have a way to work with you because if I don't work with you I'm never going to recommend you. But if you take the time and put in this effort it is 100% going to be worth it because now you will have somebody who is very well established and trusted and who has a solid amount of you know weddings under their belt and booked and who is looking exactly for what you offer they'll be recommending you. So that's instant marketing and you know this marketing is so much better than you just trying to reach out to brides and grooms that have never heard of you before. You're going to book them so much easier because I have had experience working with you and when I recommend you I'm going to do so in a way that already pushes them to book you. I'm going to give you a glowing review, I'm going to tell them why you're so awesome and they're most likely going to just book you.

It's going to be a much easier booking and that's going to be super helpful. It's going to book you more weddings, make you more money, plus you're going to have friends in the wedding industry. That is going to make your business propel forward and allow you to really be successful. That was a lot. I hope you guys found it helpful and I hope you can use some of this stuff If you are a wedding vendor trying to reach out to wedding planners and get in with us and get recommended by us, follow these steps and try to go back to this episode before you send out these emails and take note of some of the things I've said because I have gotten so many cold pitch emails I know exactly what works and what doesn't and these are some of the things that would definitely work with me.

Okay, happy Friday you guys! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please leave me a review if you found this helpful and you can check out TheWeddingProAcademy.com if you'd like to learn more about how to improve your wedding business and by improve I mean make more money, get more bookings, get better at the business side of things so that you can start to really take off and not be struggling so hard, by getting some coaching from somebody who has done just that. I will see you guys next week. Bye for now.