If you were married in the last 12 to 18 months, this shelter-in-place order is a GREAT time to leave reviews for your wedding vendors. Everyone is saying to help small businesses during this time, but since photography studios, caterers, wedding venues, hair salons, florists, makeup artists, bakeries, and lots of other vendors’ businesses are at a standstill right now, this a great way to help them out instead.

Current and future brides will read reviews of vendors to help plan their weddings, so if you loved some of your vendors, spread the word! Any positive, heartfelt review will go a long way to help these small businesses both now and in the future when the pandemic has passed.

Don’t know where to start? Here is a roadmap:

1) Google it! Simply search for the business name that you want to review. You’ll get a screen that looks like this:

Then click on the right-hand side where it says “12 Google Reviews.” That will take you to that business’s reviews page:

Then click on the blue button that says “Write a Review,” then type your review.

Photographers’ Pro Tip: if you don’t see the above profile for your business, be sure to register under “Google My Business” to claim your profile.

2) Search wedding sites. Many wedding vendors are on sites like The Knot or WeddingWire. Search your vendor there and click “Write a Review” on their profile to leave your kind words. You can even copy and paste the same text from your Google Review so it’s easy and fast!

3) Hit up Facebook! Nearly every wedding vendor I know has a Facebook page, even if they don’t have a website. So visit their Facebook business page, and on the left-hand side under the profile picture, there is a menu. In that menu, click “Reviews” and then under the number of stars it will say “Do you recommend XYZ vendor?” Click yes, and you will be able to leave your review. Some vendors have this feature turned off, BUT if you left a review on Google or one of the wedding sites, your vendor will be able to pull that text and add it to their Facebook page as a Testimonial instead.

Your vendors will LOVE you for taking the time to boost their businesses! I know I am always thrilled when I get an unexpected review notification out of the blue. This is a great non-monetary way to help the economy during these difficult times, and it only takes a few minutes out of your day. Thank you in advance for your kind words!!