Couples' Favourites 2027: wedding awards decided by couples

Most wedding awards are decided by a panel, or by whoever can afford the entry fee. Couples' Favourites works the other way round. The couples a vendor worked for, and the families and friends who helped plan those weddings, decide who gets a medal. Entering is free for vendors, voting is free for everyone, and nobody can buy a vote.

This is the first year, so here is how it works, plainly.

The dates

• Nominations: now until 31 January 2027
• Voting: 1 February to 31 March 2027
• Medals announced: April 2027

Twelve categories

Venues, photographers, videographers, wedding planners, caterers, cakes and desserts, florists, décor and hire, dresses and suits, traditional attire, make-up and hair, and music and entertainment (DJs and bands, MCs, praise singers and photo booths).

Some vendors are in our directory but not in the awards this year, like marriage officers, stationers and wedding cars. That isn't a judgement on them. In the first year we would rather have fewer categories with real competition than many categories with one entrant each.

Where you compete

Gauteng is counted as one area to start with. When six or more vendors of the same kind from one part of Gauteng are in the running, for example six photographers in the Vaal, that part gets its own category: wedding photographers in the Vaal. The rest of the province stays together as "elsewhere in Gauteng". Every other province is one area.

We did it this way because a medal should mean something. A gold medal won against nobody isn't worth much to the vendor, or to the couple who trusts it.

Gold, silver and bronze

A category needs at least five vendors in the running before gold is awarded, and at least ten before silver and bronze are awarded too. Every medal also needs at least ten confirmed votes.

That means some categories won't have a winner in 2027. We'll say so plainly on the results page instead of lowering the bar or keeping voting open longer. If your category doesn't make it this year, it's first in line next year.

Gold winners get a gold medal badge for their page and their own website, the top spot in our 2027 guide to their kind of vendor in their area, a feature on our Facebook and Instagram, a certificate, a free sponsor spot in one of our giveaways and their story in the winners' article in this journal. Silver and bronze winners get their medal badges, a place right after gold in the guide, a mention in the winners' post and a certificate. All of it is free.

For couples: nominate, then vote

If you got married recently, think of the vendors who made your day work. Until 31 January you can nominate them, even if they aren't on Elite Wedding Society yet. The vendors with the most nominations in each category become the finalists, and they are shown first when voting opens.

From 1 February you can vote. Anyone aged 18 or older with their own email address can vote: the couple, the parents, the friend who did the seating plan. We email you a button to confirm, and the vote only counts once you press it. Each email address has one vote per category in each province.

For vendors: how to enter

Make your free page on Elite Wedding Society and add at least three photos of your own work. That is your entry. Nominations decide the finalists and votes decide the medals, but every vendor with an entry can be voted for, nominated or not.

You may share your voting link with your couples and ask them to vote. You may not vote for yourself, ask your staff to vote, use made-up email addresses, or offer anything in return for a vote, like a discount or a prize draw. We check the votes before the results, and votes that break the rules are set aside. Businesses that belong to me, Karen Pretorius Photography and Wildling, can't be nominated or win.

I've photographed weddings in the Vaal for about ten years, and I wanted an award where the people who were actually there decide. From behind the camera, the vendors couples still talk about years later aren't always the biggest names. They're the ones who stayed calm when the rain came or the power went, who sorted out a problem before the bride ever heard about it, and who treated both families like their own.

The full rules are on the Couples' Favourites rules page. Vendors can enter here, and couples can nominate here.