This entry is from our Expert Guest series where wedding and honeymoon professionals share their best tips on creating memories that last a lifetime.

Are you planning your own wedding?

Don’t forget your wheels! Wedding cars are as ubiquitous as the three-layered cake couples share on the big day. Which is why you shouldn’t delegate the task or wait to the last minute to have one squared away.

You wouldn’t want to roll into your dream wedding in a Ford Pinto now, would you?

Ride In Style On Your Wedding Day

Here’s a short guide on how to choose the right wedding car. This is a general guide that will work for other people’s weddings, too. Make sure you lend a helping hand by sharing!

Start Searching Early

Whether you are getting a car for yourself or choosing one for an event, the planning should always start way ahead of the time. Before heading out on foot, go online and scour the internet for wedding car hires in your area. The earlier you search for a vehicle, the better your chances are of getting some nice wheels. Try to book a car for one month in advance to avoid any scheduling conflicts. There should be plenty of listings, but you should only aim for the ones with actual reviews and testimonials to make sure you’re hiring a car within the lemon laws.

Social media, friends, family, and contacts can play a crucial part during your search. Make a list of all potential wedding car services in the area and choose the top five. Call and set up a visit so you can inspect the vehicle yourself.

Time For A Ride

After narrowing down your search, it’s time for you to go to the garage and inspect the wedding car. Check the car history report and any signs of neglect. The last thing you need is a dirty and smelly interior or the car breaking down on your wedding day!

A vehicle inspection is also the perfect time for you to make some measurements. If you’re a bride, make sure the car has enough room for your wedding gown AND the groom! Exotic sports cars are great, and all, but aren’t really wedding friendly.

Your Theme

Does your wedding have a theme? Make sure the wedding car you choose matches your theme. Vintage cars go well with a retro-style wedding for example, and ATV’s have a place in beach weddings. Most car hire services will offer you different options depending on the scenario. Choose the best one that fits you.

Your Style, Your Car

If you love the quirkiness of the VW Beetle and think it matches your style, then go for it! Cars reflect our style more often than we’d care to admit, and your wedding is the perfect day to choose a vehicle that you can identify with. Rent the wedding car of your dreams, because after marriage changes everything, you won’t be able to!

Keep It Local

When looking for a bridal car, you should choose local companies first. The drivers are local, and they would know everything about the area. The drivers have inside info on beautiful locations for photos, places to avoid and the fastest route from the church to the reception.

Renting a wedding car from a local service is also cheaper because fuel won’t be much of a concern. You only go for a car hire that’s out of state if all the local services are booked on your wedding day, or if you have your heart set on a specific car brand.

Read the Fine Print

Make sure to read the rental agreement and ask questions. Now is the perfect time to ask what other services come with the car, such as a chauffeur, champagne, decorations, and rental duration. Knowing the facts early on will give you enough time to look for a driver or decorate the vehicle.

Now that you have a wedding car booked, fueled and ready, it’s high time you found a willing dance partner! Stop stressing about it. Go out there and get one!

Help finance your wedding costs with a Honeyfund honeymoon registry.

Bio: Sophia Moore is a passionate writer and a blogger leading her own blog at awebtoknow.com. She started freelancing as a way to connect to other people, to reach to their hearts and make a difference with through words. The blog was born out of a pure desire to connect. To have the freedom of writing what really matters, what actually makes a difference.

This entry is from our Expert Guest series where wedding and honeymoon professionals share their best tips on creating memories that last a lifetime.

Planning your own wedding can be a daunting task.

From finding a location to choosing the right caterer, the number of moving parts that make a great wedding are staggering! It’s the logistics, details, and fine-tuning that stresses people out the most. A good wedding planner takes this burden off your shoulders, but they can be pretty expensive. Here are a few tips for choosing the best wedding vendors so you can focus more on your wedding day and less on everything else!

Tips For Selecting Wedding Vendors

Tip 1: Gather Input from Everybody

Try to recall the wedding you recently attended. Were you blown away by the food or the bride’s gown? Make a list of everyone you know who got married in the last five years and go talk to them about wedding vendors. Social media, the internet, and Google are great tools, but nothing beats first-hand experience. Word of mouth is still king. Be on the lookout for repeat vendors and ask your source if they got it from someone within your circle. If your friends or family keep mentioning a particular vendor, it’s not a coincidence. The vendor in question may actually be very good at what they do.

Tip 2: Online Customer Reviews

After asking around and gathering vendor data, it’s time to put your Facebook skills to good use. Do a social media check and hit all the other outlets such as Instagram and Twitter. Look for local wedding forums about vendors.

Online reviews are an excellent resource for getting more information on wedding vendors. But as with anything online, you should take it with a grain of salt. There’s a lot of hate and negativity on the internet. Haters gonna hate, right?

Tip 3: Set-up Meetings with all the Possible Vendors

The next step is to set up meetings with the top wedding vendors on your list. You can schedule the meetings per vendor type.

For example:

Monday – meet with all photographers and video production teams.
Tuesday – sit down with clothing designers.
Wednesday – food tasting.
Thursday – drive to possible locations.
Friday – talk to wedding car services.
Saturday – churches.
Sunday – watch wedding singer perform.

The beauty of this type of schedule is that you can compare each vendor while everything is still fresh in your head. Or, you can just schedule your meetings depending on the location. If the clothing designer’s studio is near the possible venue, you can hit two birds with one stone.

Tip 4: Know Who Your Vendors Are

When you have a shortlist of possible wedding vendors for your big day, you must do your due diligence and find out more about them. Is the vendor a well-known and respected member of the local business association? Are the vendors listed on any database for public records? If so, then for what purpose?

As the saying goes, knowledge is power. Doing your homework helps mitigate the risk of getting a lemon wedding vendor and avoids any future scheduling conflicts.

Tip 5: Set a Budget

How much are you willing to spend on your dress? How much on food and booze? You have to set a price limit for each vendor that fits your total wedding expense budget. If your dress costs more than half of the wedding budget, you have to look for other options no matter how much you love the design! Knowing your budget limits is also crucial when you’re negotiating with wedding vendors. Haggling and asking for a discount is common, and vendors actually expect it. Don’t be shy to ask for one!

That’s all for now.

Good luck!

Set up a Honeyfund honeymoon registry to help finance your dream wedding!

Bio: Emily Andrews is the marketing communications specialist at RecordsFinder, an online public records search company. Communications specialist by day and community volunteer at night, she believes in compassion and defending the defenseless.

Wedding vendors

Your Complete Guide to Choosing the Right Wedding Car