Aimee Hardenbergh writes:
I don't believe you will find any other article in the entire universe that will talk about the insider secret I am about to let you in on. It's so basic that I believe it alludes many couples planning their wedding.
The key to a successful venue search begins with ...virtual drum roll please...the quality of your inquiry. Honest to goodness. While handling all of the correspondence and appointments for a unique venue for over a year, I saw all kinds of requests for information. Every venue gets excited to see a new inquiry. Every venue gets super excited to see a quality inquiry.
How do you create a quality inquiry? How do you write your inquiry so the venue wants to respond to you and not ignore you? Yes. You can be ignored. If you think you are somehow protecting yourself by not giving the exact date, month or year you really want in your initial contact along with the true number of guests you may be having is a good move, you are wrong. Venues get inquiries every day. Lots of them. They like it when all of the information is present to know if that potential wedding is a good fit for their property or not. They respect you for having a good grip on what your wedding looks like and want to work with people that appear organized. Lack of key information is a sure sign that you are not serious about planning your wedding and moving forward.
A good idea is to set-up an email account that is dedicated just to receiving all the correspondence from vendors for your wedding. That way, you just simply delete the address and don't have to worry about your personal inbox filling up with information that you no longer need after your wedding (because you're married now! Yippee!). Be careful about the Internet provider you decide to use to set up this account. Make sure that it can receive emails from businesses that have word documents or photos attached. I've had problems with emails sent to Hotmail accounts bouncing back when I was trying to send the requested information.
If you're using www.getmarried.com or www.theknot.com or any other online resource for your search, it is especially important that you double check how you've entered your contact information. A venue has no way of figuring out what is wrong with an email address that you provide or an incorrect phone number. One wrong number or letter means that you are not going to get the information that you are looking for! Be careful!
Make your inquiry conversational and not stiff. Otherwise, you sound like you're the venue's competition shopping their prices! Ever read Trip Advisor and wonder who really wrote that review? It goes without saying that you should be polite.
And, I am going to go even further and say that the person that is responding from the venue should be friendly, warm and polite. I cannot tell you how many times I heard "You're so nice!" or "You're the only one that returned my call" (I love talking to brides on the phone!). If you get a rude response or a bad vibe from someone that is representing a venue...run. Run very fast! It will not get any better from there for you. Ditto if you've provided good, accurate, complete information and the venue does not respond to you. The venue is either disorganized, overwhelmed or doing bad business and you don't need to have your wedding tied up with any of that.
Now you've got the inside track on making your inquiry one that will get respect and a response!
*****
Aimee Hardenbergh is the owner of True Wedding Events and is the Washington, DC and Virginia exclusive Wedding Scene Specialist. Contact Aimee at info@trueweddingevents.com today for your complimentary wedding planning or venue consultation or visit www.trueweddingevents.com for more information on her services.
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