I’m currently researching for photo and video and one red flag for me is poses. The same poses over and over. For video it was the walk towards your dress and admire it, or do the twirl and dip. I saw this in every video with a vendor and it was just a no no. I don’t want to be just another client where they go in and know what to do from doing the pose so many times. Same thing for photo. I’m not used to being in front of the camera and neither is my fiancé so photographers who just have you posing in all pictures is another red flag for me. I want to be able to just walk with my hubby, talk and laugh and have the photographer capture those moments.
@@aliciacoble7854 I just got married this past Saturday. I told this to my photographer and he understood! It was actually amazing and the groom was a fan of him as well as my entire in law fam, the bridal party and people at the wedding loved my photographer!
Can you make a video on what happens in a wedding Rehearsal? Ie what should happen, who should be there? I love watching your videos! So much helpful information in every video!!
Yes! I love the tip where the bride and groom switch sides at the altar, but then who would I pass my bouquet to, the best man? I need logistics of how to pull this off!
@@123Orangea I know and I absolutely love that video! But I hope she makes a video on the wedding rehearsal process, I’ve seen some people make one but it would be awesome to see how Jamie goes about it!!
At my brothers wedding you would bring the parents, flower girls, ring bearers, bridesmaids, groomsmans, the couple getting married and if you want the pastor wedding the couple this is optional, you would rehearse walking down the aisle making sure your practising walking in time to the music if ur playing a song ,so get the flower girls walking then bridesmaids and then the bride just keep practicing how to get down the aisle as smoothly as possible and then practise standing at the alter not saying ur vows ofc but just practise speaking testing the mics the parents can find a way to get the papers signed as they r the witnesses. On the day of the wedding my sis in law walked down the aisle with her flowers and then a bridesmaid fixed her dress and took her flowers tucking them behind her this was done fairly quickly too so not to much pressure and when everyone stood up and clapped after the ceremony the bridesmaid gave back her flowers and the couple walked back down the aisle
Same. I'm grateful and lucky as well. We booked our vendors in March 2020. Our wedding was suppose to be June 2021. Due to the pandemic and my husband and I losing our jobs, we had to postpone to June 2022. All our vendors were understanding and we got to postpone without any fees.
Me too. I am very nervous about my photographer, who didn't make me feel heard and took unflattering pictures... We are having a re-shoot at the end of March but tbh I'm scared that our relationship might be permanently impacted. Also they were $1-1.5k less than most photographers in my area even though they've been in business almost a decade...
I'm only 4 minutes in and I'm so happy you confirmed I'm not picky! My number 1 complaint and why I didn't choose my dream venue is due to response time. I legit sent 3 emails over the course of 3 weeks before anyone would acknowledge me. I personally felt like if you're already not responding when you're trying to get my business I'm sure as heck not about to trust you with my big day!!
I had a dj that asked for about 1000 dollars less than any other, he took forever to get back to us( like over a month) with no explanation, when he did, he just sent a contract with all wrong info, even our names and date was wrong. When I brought it up he just said sorry. No rewrite or anything. Yeah, we are paying 1000 dollars more now but with a way more professional DJ.
Yes. They can. I'm so grateful I hired my wedding coordinator. She is the best. She helped me through picking our venue and other vendors so far. We are having a destination wedding and having her over there is great since she knows the area and who or what vendors to recommend. She has also been super helpful and understanding with our postponement since the pandemic hit.
@@haleybrink3018 You're welcome. Yes, they kinda are. We hired one because I did not want to stress or be in charge on my wedding day. I need someone to deal with all vendors and be on top of things and make sure things goes smoothly. My husband and I just want to enjoy the day and not worry about anything. We also didn't want our family and bridal party doing work on our wedding day. We want them to enjoy it as well. That is why we spent the money on a wedding coordinator. Worth the money for sure.
Along the lines with web presence, I make sure that their website works on mobile. Or at least looks decent on mobile. If it doesn't then they aren't as up to date as they maybe should be.
I feel like negative reviews have gone up a bit because people are not understanding that contracts state that some things are non-refundable and COVID is a situation that has cancelled weddings and people can't get all their money back. Thoughts on this? Like is it okay to kind of ignore the "we are mad that we didn't get our deposit back from our contract because of COVID" reviews?
I don’t know if I agree on the web presence point only because I know many businesses that have a thriving Instagram page but have little experience in weddings. In particular, florists and photographers. Some photographers might have outdated websites but are actually very experienced at photography (not just photoshop) and some florists are great at insta but aren’t as efficient or knowledgeable about flowers and how long they keep best ones to get for the season etc etc. also with google reviews: so many companies pay for fake reviews. If you see too many five star reviews that is also a red flag. It’s worth taking the time to check some of the reviewer profiles on google before believing the reviews. These are just things I’ve come across and in the industry I’ve worked in things that have happened unfortunately. Word of mouth is usually the best way to know if someone is legit. I didn’t mention hairdressers/makeup artists either! But they also fall into the same category. These are people who are great at their profession but may not necessarily be great at social media. I’ve seen many makeup and hair artists that have a huge Insta following but are not experienced enough to do five bridesmaids and a bride in a particular amount of time etc.
What do you recommend we do if our dinner is at a golf course that has changed rates from 15% to 18% for an additional processing cost? We have it in contract at 15%. We got an email that said "just letting you know our committee changed the costs". That sounds wrong to me. We are locked in with a non refundable deposit and I love the venue
Pretty sure they can’t do that. Your contract locked in your rates and that goes both ways - you can’t try to pay less and they can’t make you pay more. They can absolutely up their rates but this would only come into effect with new clients on their new contract. I’d stand firm and say no as per your contracted agreement. The contract locks them into the agreement as well as yourself so they shouldn’t have a leg to stand on. If they keep trying to fight on this and effectively break the contract they signed then you could ask for your deposit back as they are in violation of the contract, and then go find another venue. Obviously the last thing you want is to have to start fighting this legally, but hopefully even just the threat of that would wake them up. If they still don’t budge I would start asking myself if I really want to work with these people who are being sneaky with their fees.
@@largebrownie5861 Thank you :) the cost increase isn’t a huge impact in our overall budget but my worry was if we let it slide than what happens if they add additional fees on top of everything 🙈 We will stay strong with that one you are right
ANOTHER bad vendor is a vendor that DOESNT respect your voice!...at my cuz wedding , she preached about using her archway backdrop that guests could use, the photographer not only DIDNT utilize it, the 1 pic that me n her DOD take, he CUT OFF the BEAUTIFUL arrangement dangling down from the top!...AND she stressed about NOT having 1 cousin in every photograph just cuz she was the only kid there when our cousin STRESSED ADULT ONLY event that my aunt obviously didn't respect , his excuse " she was Soo cute" ya ok but, A LOT of the guests Didn't get the one on one pics with the bride and groom or guest tables cuz that 1 little cousin was in EVERY stupid photo! She ended up paying for WAY less printed photos BECAUSE of that and purposely made him LOSE $$ cuz of the photos she didn't buy tho she also paid him an hourly and now she's got a small photo album for it that she kinda hates
Something to add as a red flag when talking to cheap vendors: The ones who say, "I can do just as good or better than the ones at a higher price than me, but I'm cheaper."
Yes it's very interesting because I had NO idea that non-wedding focussed vendors don't have contracts. Of course I asked but they said "We don't do that because we don't just do weddings but I do have proof of your deposit and you'll get an email" etc! At the very least you'll have a receipt or email or something that signifies you hiring that vendor or those services for your wedding. For example my venue is a restaurant. They have the space for ceremonies and wedding receptions but they are way more focussed on the restaurant side of their business. Also my florist. They don't do just weddings, they do flowers for all events. So while I did not sign a contract, I was encouraged by my florist to take photos of the quote she wrote up for us as well as the receipt from my deposit and she gave me her business card so I can call/email anytime. So yes be cautious, don't hold them to a contract if they're not a wedding vendor BUT get it in writing somehow, save your receipts in a budget binder etc.
My videographer is only charging $950 but all of the other videographers were offering WAY more than we wanted. We just wanted someone to capture the event but we didn't want a "movie" or drone footage so it didn't make sense to pay $3000 for stuff we didn't want. It was also a lower priority vendor for us -- photographer and DJ were where we spent our money!
Same, we're hiring a less expensive videographer because we don't need the drone or any of that jazz. We're paying around $1100 (it'd be under $1000 except for the travel fees) and we get a 30-90 min video with our vows and a 3-4 min highlight video. The videography was important enough to have but I didn't need a lot.
Another red flag - when the venue coordinator (we have an actual coordinator too, thank God) emails your partner and calls you Anna. My name is Catherine 🤔
We switched our food vendor 12 freaking days before the wedding because of so many of these red flags!! We were originally going with a taco truck whose owner NEVER got back to us, couldn't produce a contract (eventually we just made our own and he STILL wouldn't sign) and just clearly didn't prioritize our wedding. I feel so happy about switching, and watching this helps reaffirm that decision!!
My red flag story 🚩 was that we booked our photographer and although I thought I liked her work at the time, I imagine looking back that I was swayed by her £750 price tag. Every time she would post something new on Instagram, I would be filled with this dread and worry that I’d be disappointed with our own photos. It was heartbreaking to let her go, but we couldn’t go ahead wondering if we’d regret sticking with her to be kind. We now have someone booked whose work makes me feel excited when she posts something new! And sure, she’s £1,200 instead, but worth every penny. Plus she’s super lovely and we talk regularly, which I didn’t feel like we had with our previous photographer.
I like how you said to look at our priorities. I want to look beautiful in pictures. I want the perfect dress. I want an outdoor wedding. I want to go down the aisle to a specific song and dance with my father to a specific song. I don’t really care about flowers and table settings and aisle decor. I like how you said guests don’t care about decor and programs and invitations and favors. I can save my time and money and brain space.
Has JW done a video about parents of the wedding couple? How to avoid conflicts (brides & moms ?!) & how to address who’s paying for what? What wedding coordinators want moms & dads of brides to know?
Would you ever be willing to go into detail about your issues with the vendor/vendors that you didn’t like? I would love to hear a story time type of video about that.
Unfortunately our red flag vendor is the wedding planner, who didn't help us at all with postponing our destination wedding twice in two years, due to Covid. She was moaning because she had to do it for the rest of her clients (but us)...
Another great video from Jamie! 💛 Could you make a video about wedding date change? Challenges, expenses, what to expect etc... I, unfortunately, had to postpone my wedding to summer 2022... 😒😭 Love you xx
I know what you’re going through, we canceled our postponement which was supposed to be 2021 since we had a micro wedding last June on our original date
I also had to postpone my wedding to June 2022. Hubby and I got married June 2019. Wedding was suppose to be June 2021. Booked our vendors in March 2020. Then the pandemic hit and we both lost our jobs. We told our vendors and they were understanding and let us postpone without hassle or fees. 🙏 Haven't been wedding planning since then. Will get back to it in May.
Jamie, you helped me dodge a bullet with a venue! Things were good until I was trying to book, and then I lost all communication/contact with the coordinator. I kept hearing what you said in your firing a vendor video and I hadn't even paid them money yet! I actually posted in the Facebook group to confirm what I was telling myself already. Well, I found a new venue, and we love it!
I wish I’d watched this before booking one of my vendors, our venue requires us to book someone to come and bring chairs and it’s been like pulling teeth trying to get in contact with her, I sent over 20 emails to let her know we postponed last year and I still haven’t received a contract for our new date. I’ve been having nightmares that she doesn’t turn up on the day and we have no chairs. Some things wouldn’t be so detrimental to our day if the vendor flaked like the cake or decorative lighting, upsetting and annoying yes but all our family not having chairs?! Nightmare 😭 x
I found a venue in December 2020 and emailed them before Christmas, they never responded. I sent then 2 Facebook messages and then finally responded VERY late almost a month late (apologised and blammed it on Christmas busy period). Asked for my email and never sent me the email. My partner also sent an email, no response. I sent a follow up email asking AGAIN. And they finally responded today and now I'm torn because I LOVE THIS venue but big red flag with their response time!!!
Hi Jamie! I've been enjoying your videos for over a year. They've been so helpful. I hope you can answer my question. I booked the reception venue which provides full wedding service such as floral, food, music, etc and they are highly reviewed. The wedding venue contact person is not so great with communication from my initial inquiries to rescheduling. The venue owner is great at communication. But things get lost in translation with my contact person. The reviews have been raving about other people who work there and few reviews mention my contact person. My sister said that I have high standards and should let it go because they are of another country and that's their culture. But I feel that I want to ask the owner to assign me a new person to work with. So what should I do?
The owner wants your business and wants you to have a good experience. You can share your concerns politely and ask to have either your current contact be more responsive or a new contact.
Yeah I agree, planning your wedding is stressful enough without someone’s lack of communication adding to that. You are absolutely within your right to ask for another contact person!
Thank you so much for this video!! I just signed a contract with a photographer for summer of 2022 and in the contract they including a 20% rescheduling fee for postponing the date to any June, July, or august weekend day. Is this normal? I had tried to negotiate and suggested a clause pertaining to gathering restrictions (less than 50) as per the government, but they denied and said it was for their protection of lost profit. But what about our protection? I feel like this is just monopolizing off COVID. Has anyone else experienced this with vendors after COVID? I understand a fee being associated with rescheduling the day for a random reason, but If I legally cannot have more than 10 people at my wedding I feel like that is unfair.
Jamie, you're a livesaver. Deep in planning mode and one hair/makeup person fit 2 of these categories. (and probably more if I had continued with her). Luckily, I went with my gut. Seriously, the most valuable wedding planning video I've seen; will keep this list close!
Hey Jamie, loved this video! I watched it mostly from a vendor perspective almost like a self audit 😂 (I'm a caker), my response time is woeful - I know it, I front foot it with my couples - it suuuucks for both parties. I loved your reminder to ask for reviews, I also never ask, feels kinda weird to ask for a review, but if I view this as a bride-to-be, it wouldn't be weird being asked for a review of their services post wedding day! Thanks for doing what you do ☺️
I had the last experience with Terry at the Adolphus in Dallas. She spent most of our meeting talking down to me especially when I asked her about ways to reduce the catering costs. It was such an ugly experience that only amplified the ugly relationship I was in at that time.
The last one is so important! We entered a free wedding contest, but to enter, we had to tour the venue last weekend. We told them we wanted something small, with about 65 people. This place actually has multiple venue options throughout their facility, and even though there were smaller options, the rep kept trying to push their ballroom. The ballroom can fit 400 people! I told her we didn't want the ballroom, but she was relentless.
Hi, Ive been watching a few of your videos in prep for my wedding later this year. Youre very professional and feel like you mean well, however in this video around 11:36 you use a slur I'm very uncomfortable with. Instead of saying G*pped- try swindled or scammed. Hope this helps!
It's 2 years ago but I'd want someone to mention this to me. You might want to use a different term than 'gypped'. It's derived from 'Gypsy' which a lot of Roma people consider a slur.
I seem to really struggle with responses from videographers. Our initial videographer was great and then immediately went MIA just as I asked for the invoice to pay the deposit. Big red flag for me, so looking for someone else now, but so many I've contacted do not respond 🙄
are there any cases you would recommend a client hire a first time vendor? I recently just photographed my first wedding in august for a couple of friends (last-minute pandemic situation), but I have booked 4 more weddings since then... I'm definitely not charging "industry standard" because I have such little experience and photography is just a hobby of mine, but I would actually consider my current rate a steal for a couple looking for high-quality work at an affordable price. I am definitely not the best photographer someone could hire, but for the couple not looking to spend 2000-6000 on a photographer there could be a lot of positives for hiring a newbie. I love you by the way, your videos are wonderful and informative and have helped so many of my friends with the planning process
Our justice of the peace is requiring cash only. She has good reviews and has multiple weddings she has done. Since we're paying day of, should we have her give us a receipt that day?
The two main vendors I regret booking is our venue and partial planner. The venue is Iiterally the worst business people ever. We have since changed venues and are now out of $5000 but it was unfortunately what was best. Our partial planner is just okay. I don’t feel like I got my money’s worth and it wasn’t the right service for me. But won’t fire her. Just wouldn’t hire her again for our vow renewal. She’s cool just not helpful for me.
I actually hired a really cheap wedding coordinator. Mostly because I didn't want myself or family running around keeping things on track for the day of (I could handle everything else if I needed to), but she also had 16 great reviews on Weddingwire, and awesome response time. Almost no one on my side of the family have ever needed a coordinator, because it's either small, or managed by capable family members... But none of them have met my fiance's family. Half of them are crazy. The other half married in. 😅
I read reviews for a wedding venue, most of the bad reviews were the same, and the response from the owners was had me like “wow”. I still went to see it and asked questions and they pretty much gave me the the same answers that people said they received, but on the actual day of….it was the complete opposite
Other than looking at bad reviews from WW, Yelp, and The Knot, another red flag that I've encountered is if they don't have ANY reviews other than the reviews on their website. And NEVER EVER hire someone just because they "seem nice". My FH and I were screwed over by our ex-wedding planner because of this reason. Thankfully we were able to get all of our deposit back but it was such a stressful process for us.
Currently booking my vendors for December 2021.. Jamie HOW CAN YOU READ MY MIND !?! I just got our engagement photos back in 2 days and they’re amazing! He’s done a friends wedding and he’s doing our wedding for $1700. I told my future MIL the price and I thought she was gonna pass out. “That’s way too much!!”. Says the woman that constantly complains about her horrible cheap wedding photographer. You get what you pay for and If I’m spending money it better be good!
Lol. $1700 isn't a lot. Its average to be honest. Depending where you live or the location of the venue. My photographer is wonderful. Love her. I booked her for $2400 for 8 hours. She gave us a free extra hour as a military discount. We are having our wedding in Hawaii. Photography and videography is very important to me. You can cherish and relive your wedding through photos and video.
Do you have a video on how you got started as a wedding planner or like the first wedding you planned or coordinated (other than your own)? I looked and couldn’t find one but would LOVE to watch something like that! Also I love your videos and watch at least one every day while doing cardio! You make the gym so much more enjoyable! Thank you for doing these 🥰
We met with a florist who told us that she was going to find another vibe to blend with our wedding and TOLD us that she uses Hydrangeas in EVERY arrangement and then she ghosted us
WOW. My last job was a florist assistant. We made a small mock up for bridal. (Unless the chosen flower eas vert seasonal/special order). But her choiced and style not ours
I fired the bakery that my friend recommended, the lady was so uninterested and kept saying she didn't understand what I wanted. I was like cupcakes. CUPCAKES. C U P C A K E S!!!!!!!!! and she still didn't get it. So I just left her and didn't talk to her again, leaving it to my friend who recommended her to tell her that I went elsewhere 🙈🤣
I have done toooonnnns of research and I still feel like I need to research more. I laughed when you said old or non-existent socials I have seen some janky websites that look ancient 😂. Love you Jamie!
Omg, there's only a handful of vendors here in each category that have functioning websites or social media accounts. Only 3 or so DJs have updated websites/Instagram/FB accounts, but they're all booked for our date in October already. So we're gonna have to risk it with a sketchier one 😅
Love to hear the details on the venue. My venues been great to work with but I’m stressed out about the florist. I’m starting to realizing how crappy the floral contract is.
I had to fire my original florist since she just fell off the face of the earth when we were working on postponing our wedding due to Covid, and now that I think about it, her original quote to me was a screenshot of a google sheet...that should've been a red flag for sure.
These are awesome tips! Thank you ! I had a vendor say rude things about my venue and spoke to me in a very patronizing way. totally got a bad vibe from him and it was very disappointing because I really wanted to hire him. Oh well dodged a bullet !
Hi , im new to your channel & have a question. I am the mom to the groom & they would like for me to plan the wedding & make sure everything is going as needed but how could I do this without missing this special moment in my sons life. I feel honored to help out but I also don't want to miss out aswell.. Any advice (on top of this my soon to be daughter inlaw would like for her mother & I wed them) I need your guidance/ advice 🙏 ❤ thank you or anyone 😊 for yoyr input
Ok, so my wedding is supposed to be on august 14th 2020, I recently wrote to my venue to ask if they new someone who could help me with the day wedding coordination and got no answer. Then I wrote asking when I could go there to do a walk trough to help me determine some aspects of the decor for the day and again, no answer at all. I know is still a while to my wedding day, but they should get back to me, right? It’s been more than a month, and right now they aren’t doing any weddings because of the pandemic.
I wish I saw this before I organised my flowers with my late florist.... found out she didn't issue invoices or receipts to most of the brides she worked with, I had to ask for one.... no contract of sale... payment in full for 50% off total price... now everyone is waiting on her family to organise refunds (however some have been told that there is no money for refunds)
Hi Jamie! Could you please make a video giving some ideas or advice for those planning a bachelorette party during the pandemic? My friend's bachelorette party is supposed to take place in a month and a half and we are having a hard time finding places for drinks and dancing and so on. Any guidance you can give is really appreciated!
I had a horrible experience with my photographer so bad we let her go and didn't get any money back. I wish I knew better when I was looking for photographer. But luckily we found someone else to take our pictures and hoping for a much better experience.
@@jjowah well she was cheap thats why we went with her as well especially for the amount of hours we wanted her for. She wasn't professional, I always had to reach out to her, She kept rescheduling, I missed getting my fall engagement pictures so I didn't get the background I wanted. Plus she almost lost our engagement pictures which was the final straw. It just wasn't great and I wish I could go back and not book her save me a lot of headache.
Hey Jamie! I know you would never want to hurt anyone so I just wanted to let you know that the word “gyped” is considered a slur by many people and can be pretty hurtful. It was something I didn’t know for many years and was grateful when someone let me know, so I thought I would pass that info along. I love your videos!
Hey Jamie -- Just so you know "g*pped" is an insensitive word connected to the slur for romani people. (g*psy). Just want you to know in case it's a phrase you use often.
Hey! Just letting you know, you used the word "gypped"/'jipped" to mean swindled/stolen from. It comes from 'gypsy' (which many people who are part of that group consider a slur) and feeds negative stereotypes about Roma people.
I was looking for this explanation because I honestly didn’t know that word was a slur until I noticed another comment. Thank you for sharing the origins of it.