We do not keep a preferred vendor list, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we do have is a lot of Saturdays spent watching good people work on this property, and a fair idea of what this particular farm asks of each of them. Here is the honest version, category by category, so you know what to ask for when you go looking.
Photographer
Book this one first, and book someone who has shot outdoors in Florida. The oaks and the Spanish moss give beautiful shade and very contrasty light, and the front pasture at the end of the day is the reason many couples pick us. A photographer who knows what golden hour does out here will build your whole timeline around it, which is why we tell couples to set the ceremony time with their photographer rather than in advance of hiring one. Ask to see a full wedding, not a highlight reel, and ask what they do in the barn after dark. There is a lot of ground here and they will want to walk it before the day.
Florist
The property does a lot of the work already, so the florists who do best here tend to add rather than compete. The ceremony site has the oaks overhead, azaleas along the edge, a paver walkway and a pine-straw path out to the wooden gate. The barn has three chandeliers, exposed trusses and the light wall. Ask your florist what their arrangements do if rain moves the ceremony under the barn roof, because the answer to that question tells you a great deal about how much they have worked outdoors.
Caterer or food truck
Outside caterers are welcome and so are food trucks. We provide the tables and chairs and set them up, and we do not provide linens, cups or silverware, so make sure somebody has claimed those in writing. The whole thing has to be finished, packed and off the property by 11:00 PM. We wrote a longer piece on this: working with a food truck on the farm.
DJ or band
The barn is open air, which most DJs love and a few need warning about. There is power on the wooden posts. The hard number to give them at the first conversation is the cutoff: music ends at 10:00 PM on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays so that everyone and everything is off the property by 11:00 PM. A DJ who knows that from the start will build the last hour properly. A DJ who finds out on the night will be cutting a set short.
Officiant
Ceremonies here are outdoors and often windy in the good way, so ask about a microphone. Two hundred guests seated under the trees is a lot of people to reach with an unamplified voice. Ask whether they will come to the rehearsal, and remember that we schedule one hour of onsite rehearsal the week before your wedding at the final planning meeting.
Hair and makeup
Your team works out of the Bridal Suite on the ground floor of the Manor House, the room that was Ms. Violet's. It has hair and makeup space, two restrooms, gown hanging space, a snack and drink area and an ice machine. The window light in there is good and the porch is right outside. Ask how many artists they bring for the size of your party and how long they need, then count backwards from your ceremony time, not forwards from breakfast.
Cake
Two things to say to your baker: the barn is open air, and this is Florida. Buttercream in August behaves differently than buttercream in January. Ask what they recommend for an outdoor reception in your month, ask about delivery time and whether they set up, and tell us where you want the cake table.
Rentals and linens
Linens can be rented through us or you can bring your own. Anything else comes from a rental company, and the thing to confirm with them is load-out. Rentals and vendor items normally leave at the end of your event. If there is no wedding here the next day you can ask Diane or Glenn about a next-day pickup, but that is a request, not a given.
Transportation
This is the one couples underestimate, so we will be blunt. We do not run a shuttle, and rideshare drivers are usually not out here at the end of the night. You can get an Uber or a Lyft to the farm easily enough. Getting forty people home at eleven o'clock is a different proposition. If you have guests who will be drinking, book a shuttle or a bus for the end of the evening, and put the hotel name and the pickup time on the invitation. We have parking for 300 cars and it is free, but a full parking lot at midnight is not the goal.
Videographer
If you want one, hire them at the same time as the photographer so the two of them can sort out how they share the day before they meet on it. This place films well: the tree-lined gravel road, the porches and rocking chairs, the wooden fences, the rope swing, the jasmine wall, the 1953 Ford, the horses in the front pasture and the enchanted forest in the back. Tell them about the 10:00 PM cutoff as well, since it decides whether the last dance makes the film.
One more, if you want it
A day-of coordinator is not included in our pricing, but you can add ours. They direct the wedding party and the guests, manage vendor and decor setup, oversee the floor plan, hand out the personal flowers, run the announcements and make sure your things go home with you. Couples who add one usually say it was the best money they spent. And whatever else you hire, the bar is not on the list: when alcohol is present you use our certified bartender, and you supply the beer, wine and champagne.
If you have worked here
We would love to see it. Photographers, florists, planners, DJs, trucks, anyone who has spent a Saturday on this farm: send us your favorite frames and a link to your work at info@all4onefarms.com. We share what we love, and couples ask us for names every single week.
For couples, this is roughly the order most people book in, and none of it needs to happen before the date is yours. Check your date first, then start at the top of this page.