Interviews
How to choose the right wedding vendors: a planner’s guide
Wedding planner Gina Damato of Lucid Events shares how to choose the right wedding vendors, avoid common planning mistakes, recognize red flags, build a strong vendor team, and create a…
Von WedVeil · 31. August 2026
How to choose the right wedding vendors: a planner’s guide
What couples should know about building the right team, avoiding costly mistakes, and creating a wedding day that feels effortless
Featuring Gina Damato
Wedding planner | Lucid Events
Choosing the right wedding vendors is about much more than finding beautiful portfolios. Your planner, venue, photographer, videographer, florist, entertainment team, and other professionals ultimately become the people responsible for turning months of ideas and preparation into one real, fast-moving day.
According to Gina Damato of Lucid Events, the strongest weddings begin with thoughtful planning, a clear understanding of the budget, and a vendor team built around trust, experience, communication, and collaboration.
We asked Gina to share what couples should know when choosing their wedding professionals, which mistakes to avoid, what happens behind the scenes, and what truly makes a wedding successful.
When is the best time to hire a wedding planner?
At what stage of the planning process is it best to hire a wedding planner — and why?
The best time to hire a wedding planner is at the very beginning, before any major decisions are made.
Early involvement ensures every element — from the venue to the vendor team — is aligned with a clear vision from the start rather than pieced together later. It also gives couples access to top venues and in-demand vendors who book quickly, especially for luxury celebrations.
Just as importantly, having a planner involved early helps couples stay on budget and feel educated throughout the process, allowing them to make informed decisions instead of reactive ones.
Ultimately, bringing a planner on early protects both the investment and the overall experience, helping create a seamless, well-executed event from start to finish.
What really happens behind the scenes?
What part of your work most often happens behind the scenes, yet has the biggest impact on how the wedding day turns out?
The most impactful work happens during the planning and production phase, long before the wedding day arrives.
Behind the scenes, we’re building detailed timelines, managing vendor communication, anticipating potential issues, and aligning every moving part so nothing is left to chance.
It’s a constant process of problem-solving, refining logistics, and ensuring each vendor understands not only their individual role, but how that role fits into the larger vision.
When it’s done well, this work is almost invisible — but it’s the reason the wedding day can feel effortless, cohesive, and fully in sync.
Where should couples start when choosing vendors?
Should couples start with budget, style, location, or the team?
Couples should start with their planner and overall budget.
From there, the right team, style, and location can naturally fall into place with intention. A well-structured budget paired with expert guidance helps ensure every decision is strategic rather than reactive.
What matters most when selecting key vendors?
What criteria matter most when selecting a planner, photographer, videographer, or venue?
Beyond talent, it’s about trust, communication, and experience.
Couples should look for professionals who not only execute at a high level, but who also understand how to collaborate, anticipate needs, and operate seamlessly within a team environment.
The wedding vendor team plays a major role in making the wedding day feel seamless, which is why experience, reviews, and credibility matter so much.
Why loving someone’s Instagram isn’t always enough
Why doesn’t loving a vendor’s Instagram necessarily mean they’re the right fit for your wedding?
A strong Instagram presence can show aesthetic, but it doesn’t necessarily demonstrate consistency, professionalism, or how someone performs under pressure.
Weddings are live events, and execution matters just as much as visuals.
That’s why interviewing potential vendors is so important. Couples need to make sure there is genuine alignment beyond what they see on social media.
How can couples tell when a vendor is the right fit?
There should be a sense of ease, clarity, and trust.
Communication feels natural, expectations are aligned, and the vendor understands both the vision and the priorities behind it.
Most importantly, the relationship should feel collaborative rather than transactional.
Do wedding vendors need to have worked together before?
It can make a meaningful difference, but it isn’t necessary.
When vendors have worked together before, there is often a natural rhythm. Communication can be faster, expectations are already understood, and the day may flow more seamlessly.
That said, a strong planner can align any professional team by establishing clear communication, defining roles, and creating cohesive execution — even when it is the first time those vendors have worked together.
Choosing based on price instead of fit
One of the most common mistakes couples make is trying to save a relatively small amount of money instead of booking the vendor they truly want.
That short-term decision can lead to compromises in quality, experience, or overall alignment.
Weddings are deeply personal, once-in-a-lifetime events. Choosing based primarily on price rather than fit and trust can result in a team that doesn’t fully understand the couple’s vision or execute it at the level they originally imagined.
Waiting too long to establish the fundamentals
What do couples often put off until later, even though it should be decided early?
Hiring a planner and establishing a clear budget are two decisions couples often delay, even though they influence almost everything that follows.
Without those elements in place early, couples can quickly become overwhelmed or make choices that don’t align with the bigger picture.
That can lead to unnecessary stress, fewer available options, and avoidable costs later in the planning process.
Letting outside opinions shape the wedding
Which decisions are most often made emotionally — and later regretted?
Often, it happens when couples listen too much to outside voices instead of each other.
Family opinions and social media inspiration can begin pulling the wedding vision in different directions and lead to decisions that don’t feel authentic.
The most successful weddings happen when couples stay grounded in what feels true to them, using guidance as support rather than direction.
Saving money in the wrong places
Planning, music, photography, and florals are some of the areas where cutting corners can have a noticeable effect on the wedding experience.
If a planner lacks experience, couples can feel it in real time through constant questions, disorganization, or a lack of direction. If the music isn’t strong, the energy of the celebration can fall flat. And compromising too much on design can result in something that doesn’t match the couple’s expectations.
The goal isn’t simply to spend more. It’s to understand where an investment will have the greatest impact on the experience and memories of the day.
What should immediately raise concern?
A lack of recent reviews or portfolio work is a major red flag, as is an inactive or outdated online presence.
Limited tagged work, no visible client feedback, or difficulty verifying previous events can indicate a lack of real experience.
Another major concern is a vendor operating without a clear contract — or being unwilling to provide one.
Professionalism, transparency, and credibility should be apparent from the very first interaction.
Why choosing vendors based on price alone can be risky
Choosing a wedding vendor based solely on price is rarely the best approach.
Lower pricing can sometimes reflect limited experience, inconsistent execution, or gaps in service that only become apparent once the wedding day is underway.
Weddings are live events with no redo. Prioritizing value, trust, and proven performance over relatively small savings can lead to a much stronger overall experience.
Don’t book a venue before understanding the full budget
Booking a venue before establishing an overall wedding budget is one of the biggest planning missteps.
The venue influences almost every other decision — from guest count and design to vendor costs.
Without understanding the complete financial picture first, couples can commit to a space that limits their ability to execute the rest of their vision properly.
Three things to do right after getting engaged
Gina recommends three things:
Enjoy the moment before making any major decisions.
Establish a realistic budget and priorities.
Hire a planner early to guide the process and help prevent costly missteps from the beginning.
Why the wedding day timeline matters so much
The timeline is one of the most critical elements of the entire wedding.
It determines how the day flows, how vendors operate, and ultimately how the experience feels.
The planner or coordinator should create and manage the timeline because they understand how every moving part needs to align throughout the day.
What helps couples stay calm and present?
Trusting the team they’ve hired.
When couples feel confident that every detail is being handled, they can fully step into the moment instead of thinking about logistics.
Preparation, clear communication, and a strong planner allow couples to let go of managing the event and simply experience their wedding day.
Problems happen — but couples shouldn’t have to manage them
Delays, minor logistical issues, weather, and last-minute changes are among the most common challenges on a wedding day.
A strong vendor team anticipates these possibilities and adjusts in real time — shifting timelines, rerouting the flow, or quietly solving problems behind the scenes.
The goal is simple: the couple should never feel the disruption.
Protecting the couple’s experience
A planner protects many things throughout the wedding day, but the couple’s time and emotional experience are especially important.
The day should feel calm, intentional, and completely theirs.
That means creating space for real moments, shielding the couple from unnecessary stress, and preserving the atmosphere so logistical concerns don’t pull them out of the experience.
What couples often underestimate about their wedding day
One of the biggest things couples underestimate is how little time they may actually spend alone together.
The day moves incredibly quickly. Without intentionally creating space, couples can find themselves surrounded by people from start to finish without ever having a chance to pause.
That’s why taking some private time immediately after the ceremony can be so valuable — even if it’s simply stepping away, having a few bites to eat, and being together.
Couples also often underestimate just how many moving parts are involved in producing a wedding. Multiple vendors may be working simultaneously to create one experience.
It takes a village — and that’s why the strength of the vendor team makes such a difference.
Stay anchored in what matters to the two of you
If there is one essential piece of advice to remember throughout wedding planning, it is this:
Stay anchored in what matters to the two of you.
There will always be opinions, trends, expectations, and outside pressure. But the most meaningful weddings come from clarity rather than noise.
Make decisions together and with intention, then allow everything else to support that vision.
What are couples often most grateful for afterward?
Hiring a strong planner — and allowing themselves to be fully present on the wedding day.
Couples consistently find that their favorite memories come from moments they didn’t have to manage, but could simply experience.
When someone else is handling the logistics, couples can actually enjoy the celebration they spent so much time creating.
What truly makes a wedding successful?
Ultimately, it is how the wedding feels.
A successful wedding is one where the couple is present, the energy feels genuine, and the experience flows effortlessly.
When guests can feel the intention behind the celebration and the couple feels comfortable and at ease, budget becomes secondary to the overall impact of the day.
The myth: wedding planners are too expensive.
In reality, a great planner protects the couple’s investment, helps avoid costly mistakes, and ensures the wedding budget is allocated with intention.
For couples who want to experience their wedding instead of managing it, that value extends far beyond logistics.
The moment when everything comes together
For Gina, one of the most rewarding parts of a wedding day is the room reveal.
It is the moment when everything finally comes together after months of planning. Seeing the vision fully realized — and watching the couple experience it for the first time — is incredibly rewarding.
And for couples who are just beginning their wedding planning journey, Gina Damato of Lucid Events leaves them with one simple piece of advice:
“Hire a planner. It’s worth every penny.”