Taylor & Hart’s 2017 “Best Wedding Vendors” List
Ever wondered why they call it the wedding industry? There is a whole machinery working to fulfil your wildest dreams when it comes to saying “I do”. From companies that make sure they capture the proposal on film to such that send thank-you notes on your behalf. Customised, of course. In fact, custom is the key word here. All of these companies treasure your opinion and are devoted to the process of getting married as much as you are.
We have collated over 50 companies who we believe to be the “Best Wedding Vendors” of 2017 which will let you customise your perfect wedding day from scratch and make you want to relive it all again and again. Okay – metaphorically speaking.
Proposing
Wedding Planning
Apps
Flowers & Decor
Financing & Registries
Parties
Photography
Dresses
Bridesmaids
Beauty
Shoes
Stationery
Wedding Suits
Cakes
Honeymoon
Proposing
The owner of this non-commercial website is passionate about all things engagement. You can find inspirational articles on how to choose your ring, how to propose in the most romantic way and how to stick to the engagement etiquette.
Why we love them: The owner’s imagination is limitless and her advice is free. She works with the sole mission to help you have the engagement day of your dreams.
A recently established London-based engagement company which makes sure you have a stress-free proposal planning experience.
Why we love them: Whether you’re looking for private and intimate or something extravagant that makes a statement, no detail is overlooked. They manage to keep the surprise factor in an event which is thoroughly and often meticulously planned.
This one is strictly men-orientated and covers everything from ring searching to honeymoon planning.
Why we love them: The slogan, ‘the unofficial best man’, is there for a reason. The tone of the features is friendly and quirky, it reminds us of men’s magazines with a modern twist.
They organise romantic events and a bespoke engagement experience is part of their services.
They do what they call DIY proposal planning and can also tell you how to hide the ring so you don’t spoil the surprise.
Why we love them: They don’t seem to spare their efforts when it comes to organising the proposal of a lifetime. We have to admit, we shed a tear while watching their videos. Okay, maybe two.
The focus here is catching the moment on camera and this NYC-based company know the city well. They do planning as well and will let your imagination run free. They have different packages depending on your desired location and are the only engagement company that shoot secret videos to meet your budget.
Why we love them: We love the pictures Vlad Leto, the photographer, takes. We realise how difficult it is to stage a marriage proposal, and yet he manages to make it look effortless and natural.
Not many wedding planning websites have special room for engagement planning. This South African site focuses on romantic events and brings along the custom experience.
Why we love them: They have a range of services starting from date planning to vow renewals. No matter if you are in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban – they will do anything to organise your dream marriage proposal. They have a really nice inspirational blog too.
As well as a vendor directory, Engagement 101 gives you good set of ideas to organise your engagement. Because who says that it is all in the man’s hands?
Why we love them: Because we think there should be more companies with a focus on the how-to of engagements. This one includes video tutorials and blog posts.
Wedding Planning
Along with recognisable wedding websites, such as The Knot and Wedding Wire there are many companies that help you keep track of all your wedding planning steps from inspiration to implementation.
Wedding planning for the US. Focusing on location, venues and vendors.
Why we love them: B&B have created their own vendors awards where only vendors can nominate colleagues from fellow businesses. We think it’s a great way to have a professional’s perspective on what are the best companies to trust your wedding planning to, especially for a market as large as the US.
Filled with passion and enthusiasm for all things wedding, The Bridal Theory inspires couples worldwide on a whole host of vendors to result in an enchanting wedding day.
Why we love them: Their offering is led by the theory that ‘wedding planning should be full of joy and beauty.’ Who could disagree with that?!
A gentle colour scheme, inspirational posts and online consultations with experts – Loverly doesn’t seem to miss anything you need for your wedding planning.
Why we love them: They take a friendly approach and have a super useful feature – transportation organisation. Instead of finding your own buses and limos, you can connect with the Loverly Concierge.
Showcasing the best boutique and independent wedding vendors.
Why we love them: WeddingLovely is essentially an online wedding directory where you can collate your plans. You will see no ads inside your planning account which is free of charge.
Focusing on modern LGTBQ weddings.
Why we love them: We think it’s vital for LGTB couples to have a place where they have access to all equality-minded wedding vendors.
Oozing simple, yet sleek style, Carats & Cake represent the best of the wedding industry, helping wedding planners discover the best vendors and venues from their curated edit.
Why we love them: Their chic aesthetic empowers the best of the wedding business, bringing their brands to life through real, authentic content.
A Honeybook company focusing on venues and photographers.
Why we love them: We know how easy it is to get lost in an array of wedding inspirations and styles. This is why we appreciate focus on particular aspects of your wedding planning.
India’s largest wedding site.
Why we love them: Because a lavish Indian wedding requires a rich source of inspiration and meticulous planning.
Aisle Planner A feminine-looking wedding site which will help you to plan, organize, and collaborate with your professional event partners in a streamlined, sophisticated and tech savvy way. Aisle Planner’s tool include a guest manager, budget, checklist to keep you on track and on deadline, a design inspiration studio – and more!
Why we love them: Get started for free, or upgrade to premium for $4.99.
Floor plans and seating charts for your wedding day.
Why we love them: They’re another niche website dedicated to the smartest ways to position your guests.
This London based consultancy will provide you with a tailored experience to achieve a most elegant wedding.
Why we love them: Personal approach is key for any wedding, but The Bespoke Wedding Company say their discerning clients only opt for the best. Perfect for those wanting a luxurious day to remember.
Another luxury wedding planning website operating in London, Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire, UK.
Why we love them: The owner, Lisa Baker, is a Level Two Member of the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners and attends workshops and seminars to increase her knowledge and to help promote professionalism in the industry.
Apps
While most websites have a well-functioning mobile app, we think it is great to have a list of the best-known ones here. The Appy Couple and Wedding Happy will help you do wedding planning straight on your phone.
Why we love them: Considering we’re in an age of millennial weddings, it is only natural to plan your big day on your device and have access to tons of inspiration from your sofa.
Wed Pics
The ultimate wedding photo app.
Why we love them: It is free, easy to use and keeps all your photos at hand.
Flowers & Decor
The devil is in the details. All the tiny objects that make a wedding table look beautiful – like laser-cut sticks, toppers and centrepieces. You name it – they’ve got it.
Why we love them: Everything here is executed according to your taste. You share your idea and their designers will shortly make a 3D or 2D print making every single product on 43 Layers hand-made.
One-stop wedding favours shop.
Why we love them: Beau Coup do party supplies and decorations for all kinds of events, but they preserve their family values in everything they do. We love a business that feels so personal.
DIY decoration flower arrangement kits sent to your mailbox.
Why we love them: Beautiful, fresh flowers delivered to your door two days before the big day? It can be done. It’s By U sends you the kit necessary for your event and it can be up to five times cheaper than typical wedding flower arrangements. Plus, you get the freedom to mix and match until you’re pleased with the result. And they’re launching their home and office DIY subscription kits this July – meaning fast and easy DIY fresh flower designs for your dining room table, front door, or at your front desk as often as you want.
Event decorations, based in London.
Why we love them: We can’t help but love a website which has a separate Peonies landing page. Bloom and Wild make those boho-looking sets of flowers that perfectly complement a modern wedding venue. Plus, it’s affordable. While they do cover events, eCommerce and Technology are their main areas and they deliver internationally, covering the Republic of Ireland, France and Germany.
Beautiful wedding bouquets, centrepieces, and floral projects with their simple how-to videos and tutorials.
Why we love them: Silk flowers! Eco-minded customers can opt for silk flowers and keep the gorgeousness for good. Who wouldn’t love an everlasting reminder of your big day?
Flowers for any occasion; ready to wear flowers for your wedding and minimalistic design.
Why we love them: Nik Southern created her London floral boutique in 2011 and gives her customers bouquets that ‘breathe, dance and sing’. She is all about that green and we admire her signature. She also teaches other green thumbs how to style, foliage and personalise flowers.
This US company has been around for more than a decade and is super customer-friendly. They will quickly provide you with all the pretty little things that will make you special day even more special.
Why we love them: They have an abundance of baskets, boxes and favours, absolutely anything you might need and you can have it customised according to your needs.
Financing and Registries
Lightstream supports you through almost any life event and wedding loans range from $5000 to $100,000.
HoneyFund, Zola and Blueprint Registry are extremely popular crowdfunding websites, ideal for the practical couples.
Why we love them: Registries are one of the smartest ways to turn cash into something useful and vice versa.
Parties
Bach Weekend Organising bachelor and bachelorette weekends in Nashville, New Orleans and Minneapolis, US.
Why we love them: They have a clear strategy and the key word here is ‘party’. The liquor for their VIP parties (two major ones for each of the weekend evenings) is sponsored, they try to cover 30% of the transportation cost and they do… *cough* hangover kits.
Photography
Wedit – They send you a wedding package of five cameras which your guests can use to capture every single moment of your wedding. You return the kit after the wedding.
Why we love them: Your camera-men can be your best friends and this guarantees a unique view on your wedding day. Plus, Wedit have clear and user-friendly terms and conditions and offer video editing services in case you don’t have the time to do it yourself.
Picaboo – The place to design your very own photo album.
Why we love them: Custom book making reflects one’s desire to preserve the unique moments of their life. Picaboo provide you with tutorials on how to upload and edit your photos on a Tips and Tricks page, so you can immerse yourself completely in the recreation of your big day.
Paparazzi Proposals – They coordinate and capture surprise engagement proposals.
Why we love them: We love the tears of joy and raw emotion that is captured by the secret photographers!
Dresses
Borrowing Magnolia is for those who wish to rent out their own wedding dress and most importantly – those who wish to borrow one without paying huge amounts of money.
Why we love them: No matter your financial status, we think renting a dress is first and foremost, sustainable.
The Bridal Gallery is a London-based company offering occasion dresses.
Why we love them: They are very versatile when it comes to pleasing their customers. Be it by letting them make their custom dress or by opting for a rental.
Bridesmaids
Why we love them: We love the fact that you can put aside bridesmaids dresses to try at home as well as shopping for the bridesmaids and the groomsmen’s gifts – like bachelorette party kits and matching ties and socks.
WeddingtonWay – A one-stop shop for bridesmaids. Operating in the US.
Why we love them: Brides can coordinate the process according to their wedding style and choose colour palettes and design. From then on, the Weddington Way help the bridesmaids customise their dresses according to their body type and have the freedom to mix and match.
Beauty
PRIV is a mobile and web platform that delivers vetted beauty and wellness professionals to your location.
Why we love them: You have a variety of professionals to chose from – all from your device. It’s basically like the Uber of pampering.
Uspaah Delivering wellness to your location (as long as your location is London).
Why we love them: We are passionate about anyone who customises their own business to the customers’ needs. Uspaah have a great team of SPA specialists who can visit your home or office on demand. This applies to your wedding beauty routines – no salon fuss, just quiet indulgence whenever you need it to be.
Treatwell – Instantly bookable beauty treatments at your favourite salons.
Why we love them: Their easy to use system inspires you to have the confidence to try new things from a choice of thousands of local partners with plenty of reviews before you book.
Shoes
Ellie Wren – Custom-made wedding shoes
Why we love them: This company is all about the something blue. They will help you design and curate an out-of-the box pair of wedding shoes so you can wear a piece of art.
Stationery
Love Pop – As seen on Shark Tank (one of our favourites)
Why we love them: 3D invitations and cards that are custom-designed for you, matching your invites to the colours, themes, and styles you like – they listen to your unique story and weave it into the print and sculpture of your invite.
PunkPost – Custom-made card and thank-you notes
Why we love them: Imagine having to send personalised thank you notes to all the 150 wedding guests. It could literally take months. However, this cool website allows you to have fun while designing your cards and playing with images and messages. Their scriptists take care of the handwriting. You just get comfortable and send your cards from the comfort of your own home.
Minted – A limitless source of inspiration for anything decor, plus execution.
Why we love them: Mint have created a community of their own and are a real authority when it comes to wedding decoration and stationery.
Wedivite – Online invitations, no paper, no time waste.
Why we love them: We like the idea of being able to create the perfect wedding invitation out of the box. A perfect solution for every eco-minded millennial going for a paper-free wedding stationery.
Elli a team of professional designers working to produce the perfect invitation to any of life’s most important events.
Why we love them: They operate in Oregon and only ship in the US, but this guarantees for a more focused type of business and you can rely your stationery will be crafted just when you need it.
Why we love them: An accessible way to design entirely customised wedding invitations to thank-you notes.
Wedding Suits
The Black Tux rental
Why we love them: We love a slogan that is smart and sharp. The Black Tux plays skillfully with the ‘I Do’. Rent the suit, own the I do. Rent the suit, own the afterparty. Undoubtedly, the linguistic agility speaks a lot about the company itself. The Black Tux rents suits and is a wonderful support to the male focused areas of wedding planning with witty advice and inspiration.
Why we love them: Got a suit in mind and can’t find it? Just send the folks at The Drop a photo of your dream wedding suit, as well as a few measurements, and they’ll make the suit for you, in your size, and deliver it anywhere in the world in a few weeks. And the best part? They’re prices begin at just £299 for a bespoke two-piece suit and £399 for a bespoke three-piece suit.
Menguin rental
Why we love them: An online rental business that watches your back, as they say. A man can design the whole look (not just the suit) online and return it to any UPS location or dropbox.
Generation Tux rental
Why we love them: They too, acknowledge the fact that almost all men dislike shopping in stores, that is why they let them choose their preferred wedding style online and grooms rent for free along with 5 other paid rentals in the wedding party. They do all their fitting online with their new fit algorithm, eTailor (pretty cool stuff!) so no more measuring with the tape measure! They also offer a free home try-on service for the groom so they can make sure everything looks great and fits to their liking before the big day.
Indochino is an industry innovator and worldwide leader in custom men’s apparel since 2007
Why we love them: They have an acute taste for fabrics and a wonderful blog to derive inspiration from.
Cakes
Wicked Good Cupcakes – Freshly baked cupcakes, cakes and brownies in jars.
Why we love them: If you want your wedding celebrations to be unique, your wedding cake should match. And what is more unconventional than… not having a cake but a CUPcake?
All Shapes and Slices – Wedding and celebration cakes (Kent)
Why we love them: You can have a totally bespoke service here, but what we like even more is the fact that you can hire а beautiful vintage cake stand, a knife and a post box.
Honeymoon
Honeymoon Wishes – it’s a honeymoon registry, used by over 28,000 travel professionals, 800 hotel brands and over 590,000 wedding couples
Why we love them: If the best part of love is to create memories, this website give you the perfect chance to make these memories last. You can actually hint at your wedding guests that you’d like them to support your honeymoon. Money well spent.
TripIt – all your travel plans stored in a clean-looking app and synced with your calendar and wallet.
Why we love them: If your flight happens to be cancelled or delayed, TripIt has all the mess covered. You don’t want to spoil your mood while taking off to your honeymoon destination, do you.
Travel Triangle – fully personalised travel packages
Why we love them: A team of experts will help you connect with the best three travel agents for your perfectly planned honeymoon and they provide 24/7 support.
TravelLocal.com – tailor-made holidays crafted by local experts worldwide
Why we love them: Plan your honeymoon with a locally based, in destination travel company for the best experience of a country – all fully financially protected and quality assured by UK based TravelLocal.
For our customers, an engagement ring is just the start of their journey, one that can last a few years, to plan and host the perfect wedding.
As with the ring, “perfect” means different things to different people and as a brand specialising in custom-designed rings, we thought we would venture out and find the best brands to help you plan a truly special and personal wedding.
The companies above are our curated selection of wedding-planning related vendors, ranging from wedding dresses to invitations, beauty treatments to wedding planning apps.
We hope you find our inaugural “Taylor & Hart’s Best Wedding Vendors” useful as you plan your wedding and we would love to hear back from you with your experience as you work with these companies as part of your own wedding planning.
Banner image provided by Smart. Take a look at their wedding photography tips.
