Weddingbee Blog

Shockingly, Urban Dictionary does not have a definition for this yet. My personal, bare bones description would be: a friend who is also a vendor for an event (like…a wedding); aka, a friend with some form of mad skillz that you just must make use of.

There’s lots of information and articles on using friendors for your wedding - heck, just look here on Weddingbee: Mrs. Ostrich, Mrs. Sloth, and Mrs. Argyle (to name a few) all wrote fairly recent posts about the matter. As with anything, though, there are general pros and cons of using said friendors. Having a friend as a vendor allows you to include some friends in significant ways for your wedding, it can give you a better understanding of certain aspects of vendors, and it can even result in a reduced rate for said vendor. On the other hand, you may have a friendor who now can’t enjoy your wedding because they are too busy working, confrontation may escalate quicker than normal, or you don’t feel comfortable being completely honest with them since you don’t want to hurt their feelings. It’s definitely a fine line—hiring a friendor takes a lot of trust and a lot of commitment.

So far, Foxy and I have hired 4…count ’em, 4!…friendors. Here’s the list:

1. Invitation designer

The very first thing I started thinking about after we got engaged was the invitation suite (what, that’s not normal?). I was convinced I would design and assemble the whole thing myself - easy peasy, right?. Well, I started to design it and hated everything. Fortunately, my good friend Michelle emailed me not long after and mentioned that she would be willing to design our invite suite at a sweet discounted rate, because, duh, she’s a graphic designer. I really have no idea how I forgot this, but I jumped on the deal and Michelle whipped something up in no time. In the end, we only had her design an invitation and RSVP card, as her business started picking up and had many other (full paying) clients to tend to. Foxy and I were a-OK with this—we just adore the look and feel of our invites. I’d say friendor #1 has already been a success!

2. Officiant

I wrote about this just the other day, but our friend E will be officiating the ceremony. We’re thrilled at this, as we just know she will make the ceremony personal and work with us on getting all the details just right. She and I have yet to sit down and really discuss all things ceremony related, but I have high hopes!

3. Hair Stylist

So get this.. the hair stylist for myself and the girls is actually Officiant E’s sister-in-law, and she was hired before E was! I met Brianna about a year ago now, and we connected quickly over our mutual upcoming weddings and her fabulous stylist skills. A few months and several Facebook messages later, she was booked! I’ve heard and read wonderful things about her work from E and others, and very much look forward to working with her. I kind of want my hair trial NOW. But word on the street is that 6 months out is a bit too early. Oh well.

4. Makeup Artist

This is the most recent friendor addition, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Remember my wedding twin, M? She’s always been fabulous making herself up and has a mighty impressive makeup collection. We had a phone date not too long ago, chatting about details of our respective upcoming weddings, when the issue of hair and makeup costs came up. When I mentioned my conundrum (which would be lack of funds to afford one, and wanting one to come to our venue rather than me going to them), she mentioned that she had wanted to ask me if I wanted her to do my makeup for the wedding, as well as that for the rest of the bridal party. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing…one of my bridesladies, completely willing to donate time to pretty up the party. Of course I said yes on the spot—how could I not?? I’m going to owe her big time, and I couldn’t be more thankful for it!

That’s about it (for now)…although you could add another 5 on there if we indeed do the Flip Wedding and have friends film everything for us. Ohh, friendors. Love you.

I’m hoping to ultimately do another post once the wedding is over to recap how everything went—here’s hoping all goes well!

Are you hiring any friendors? Or, if you already did, how did it pan out? What are some pros and cons of hiring friendors?