The questions to ask every wedding vendor before you book

Booking a wedding vendor is mostly an exercise in trust — you're hiring someone months ahead for one unrepeatable day. The couples who feel calm on the morning of the wedding are rarely the ones who found the cheapest quote. They're the ones who asked the right questions early, wrote the answers down, and made sure every vendor was working from the same plan.

Here's what to ask, by category.

Ask every vendor (no matter what they do)

• Is our date available, and do you hold it with a deposit? Get the number and the deadline in writing.
• What exactly is included — and what costs extra? Travel, overtime, setup, teardown, taxes.
• When do you need final details, and in what form? Headcount, timeline, floor plan.
• Who is our point of contact on the day, and what's their number?
• What happens if you're ill or can't make it? A real backup plan is a green flag.

If a vendor can't tell you when they need the final timeline and headcount, that's usually who'll be calling you at 9am on the wedding day.

Photographers & videographers

• How many hours of coverage, and when does the clock start and stop?
• When do we get the gallery — and roughly how many edited images?
• Do you do an engagement session or a venue walkthrough beforehand?

Caterers & bar

• How do tastings work, and when is the final headcount due?
• How do you handle dietary needs and vendor meals?
• Is the bar packaged, corkage, or consumption-based?

Venues

• What's included in the rental — tables, chairs, linens, staff?
• What are the access and load-in times for other vendors?
• Is there a backup plan for weather, and a noise curfew?

The detail nobody asks about: coordination

The biggest day-of problems aren't usually one vendor failing — they're vendors who never spoke to each other. The florist blocks the caterer's load-in; the band needs the outlet the photographer is using; the DJ guesses the start time because no one sent the final run-sheet.

So ask one more question across the board: "Can you all see the same plan?" When your photographer, caterer and venue are looking at the same seating chart and the same timeline, coordination stops being your job — which is exactly the problem Latido was built to solve.

Write the answers down as you go. Future-you, three weeks out, will be grateful.