Choosing Vendors For Your Wedding Day Pt 1.

So Happy 4th of July everyone.  I hope you all had fun bbquing, hanging out and watching the fireworks?  Well I had fun catching up with former brides turned friends and friends turned brides.  I know, I know.  Sometimes its hard to do business that way, but I have met some incredible people and I wouldn't trade the experience.  Anyhow, when we got together, we started talking about their weddings and the experience - emotions, vendors etc .  So forgive me people this is going to be a long 2 part blog post. 

So I was speaking to one of the brides and teasing about wedding photos because I hadn't seen any professional pictures yet, she looked at me and said matter of factly "If I had them, you would have seen them".  At that point we were no longer joking and I heard the pain of a person at a complete loss.  Mind you, her wedding was August 2008.  She said "I don't know what to do, I have called, emailed even left nasty grams and no response".  WOW!!!! "The only thing we have is an unedited CD we received a couple of months after the wedding and this is because we insisted on at least having some pictures so he gave us the raw CD".  Ok .... "My cousin doesn't have her pictures either and she got married a month after me" WHAT?!!!! "Yes this guy has 7 lawsuits pending against him for failure to deliver albums, videography etc and no one can seem to get a hold of him, he has changed his company name and is doing business as a completely different company ....."  Ok so at this point I am panicking, irate and livid.  You ask me why?  Well, I have a few brides this year who are going to be using this vendor.  Ok and why is that an issue for me?  It's called GUILTY by association.  Clients tend to associate vendors with each other based on the events that they do.  Case in point; I had a client who was at the very same wedding in August 2008  and she booked almost all of us, the same vendors - decor, photography, band  etc for her wedding which was in Sept 2009.  And guess what?  She and her friend who got married last year and booked this "photographer" don't have their wedding pictures yet.  

So, I am baffled and confused as to why this vendor is even still in business and why he doesn't have a big black X against his name and business name.  I know he is not the only vendor getting away with this and ruining people's wedding day memories but let's make it harder for vendors like these to give excellent vendors a bad name.

Well it boils down to 2 things: Vendor deceitfulness and client negligence.  And NO this is another Boston Law episode.  It is called uncontrollable and controllable variables.  With this particular vendor, he has found a way to deceive clients by showing up at major wedding shows and offering "Amazing deals" that sound too good to be true.  Yes everyone loves a bargain, but brides BEWARE.  If it sounds too good to be true, momma is right, it probably is.  Vendors like these have a "bait and switch" method.  They bait you with fantastic deals and then switch up on you, by either trying to add more to your bottom line cost or not delivering what they have promised.  They are constantly making excuses as to why they don't keep appointment times, why they can't provide you with basic things and they seem to always be MIA. 

These are uncontrollable factors as you can't do anything to affect them.  You can't take responsibility for an action you can't control or change.  However you can take control of your own actions and reactions.  You can arm yourself with information that would help you make better decisions and save yourself from the heartache these vendors cause.  And I'll provide tips on how to do this on the continuation post next week.

In the meantime, please share your thoughts, comments and stories. 
We want to hear from you,
See you on the blog,

Happy Blogging,
AJ

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