Do you have to use suppliers from your venues preferred suppliers list?
Not necessarily, as far as I am aware it just means that they have worked with them before and consider them reliable and good quality.
Hi some venues won't let you use the suppliers you want to use :)
Check with your venue directly. Some will have a recommended suppliers list but you they will allow you to bring in your own (generally as long as they have a certain amount of public liability insurance). But some venues will only allow you to use the suppliers from their list.
I'm probably going to go with their recommended suppliers or someone i've seen who have been to my venue before as they know the venue already and can work really well with the space from past knowledge