My advice to all couples who are planning their wedding, or any event, is to provide as many details as you can on your enquiry so that you can get all the information you require without the to and fro. For example if I am contacted by someone for a quote, I can provide an estimate, however I will not know if the wedding will be out of my area and therefore I will be unsure if there are additional fees for travel. So, in that example once I reply with an approximate quote I will also need to check the location and my availability on the date they have chosen. This will involve a reply from them with (hopefully) both the location and date. To which I will then be able to reply with my availability and a full quote. Can you see how much extra work this involves for both parties?! There is also a risk that in that time of back and forth I may accept another booking, there are particular wedding dates that book up very quickly!
Most times I am contacted directly for quotes by email and phone call, however with social media these days a lot of times I am ‘tagged’ on to a post that is seeking a celebrant. Again, I encourage you to provide a detailed post of exactly what you need, this is time saving for both the vendor and the quote seeker. I.e. a vague post requesting celebrant leads may result in hundreds of tagged celebrants (trust me, I have been tagged on a post with hundreds of other celebrants, sometimes I am tagged multiple times on the same post). They would then need to contact each celebrant individually to ask them their quote. However, if the post includes the information with the date and location of the ceremony and a request for quotes to be sent to them directly, then only the celebrants that are available will make contact and then they can provide a quote.
This principle can be applied for any other services involved in the planning, such photographers, hair and makeup etc etc.
There are a heap of facebook groups that are tailored to people planning weddings and also the people working in the industry. There are DIY wedding groups and then groups unique to the areas that you wish to get married, such as the #newcastle area, #Sydney, #Illawarra, #Canberra etc etc.
Example of great social media posts are included here
“Hi, I’m getting married at #JervisBay on 21 October 2020, we are thinking perhaps early afternoon around 3pm, we are having a large wedding and will require a PA system for our guests to hear our ceremony and vows and ideally it can play our music also. Please contact me with a quote if you are available”
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