Life as a Maid of Honor – Part 5 – Vendor Reminders!

One thing that has remained true throughout this entire process of helping my best friend Christina plan her wedding is that not enough vendors give any estimate of pricing on their websites! That or vendors fail to follow through, and that ends our hopes of working with them almost immediately.

I see it allll over groups – should you put your starting price on your website? The answer is YES. Every bride has a certain budget, and it has been like pulling teeth to get answers out of folks regarding their pricing if it’s not listed, and it got to the point that we wouldn’t even bother with a vendor if they didn’t list it because we didn’t want to waste anymore time. Wedding planning is a big deal, and it takes a TON of time and effort on the bride’s end already. By having that info already up, it lets a bride know if she can afford you from the beginning or not, and that will take out so much frustration on both ends.

The other thing mentioned is vendors dropping off the face of the planet. I know it’s busy season, and I have also fallen to this because it is insane on my end. I’ve been dealing with having to move half my things, move Chad in, edit 15,000+ images (not an exaggeration), take care of my crazy dog that likes to eat random things that may or may not be good for her, answer emails, figure out timelines, do sessions, travel to weddings, deal with my sister’s school stuff, try to get the right insurance, contemplate the idea of getting a house, doing taxes, etc. I KNOW it is busy. But oh my goodness, brides are there with their checkbooks out ready to book people, and it drives me crazy to see how many just didn’t follow through with what they said they’d do. One person said they’d be checking on pricing for a certain product, and never returned the call. It’s been three weeks now, so Christina just found someone else. Christina also had a two hour meeting with another vendor over supplies, and the vendor never sent her a contract after all that, so again, she just found someone else.

These things are SO IMPORTANT, guys! Your dedication to respond to simple requests speaks volumes about whether a couple can count on you to show up and provide what they need for their wedding day. If you can’t answer a simple question of how much something is going to be, how do you expect them to trust that you’ll remember their wedding to begin with? I don’t mean this to come off harshly, but a change is needed. If you are super swamped, set up an auto-response on email to let folks know you are busy, but will respond as soon as you can, and then do it. I will personally be taking these same tips and working harder to implement them into business to ensure my couples feel they can fully trust me!