Wedding Planner Disaster (Cautionary Tale)
I got married last fall. Overall my wedding was wonderful. But it wasn't because of my planner. So my planner was recommend to me by a friend. I do my research and I like what I see. We eventually set up a call. The vibe is fantastic and we agree to meet at my venue. So she tours the venue. Because she has never been there before.
Fast forward we make our deposit to the venue. Shortly my spouse and I agree to her contract. Some of things that initially made me like her was that she said she would be available at any time. So once the contract was signed. She was still doing well, but then things kind of fell off.
When she sent me my decor budget, for which I specifically said I wouldn't go over a certain number, she went over it by a lot. I asked for her help to trim the budget but she offered no even though that was something she offered in her contract. I figured it out on my own and sent back my revisions and asked for a revised decor budget. For weeks since she had my revisions there was radio silence, and then she emails me. I agreed to the budget. Well I ended up speaking with the person who is in charge of my decor and it was good I did because she had no idea what my vision really was. My planner didn't even give her my correct colors. After speaking with her we were on the same page.
My biggest issue was that my spouse and I had given her our work schedules but she seemed to ignore them. I had been adamant about the times we could speak and it fell on deaf ears. It was frustrating to say the least.
As it got closer to the wedding she was frequently out of town. And she didn't bring her work phone on these trips. So whatever we had to talk about would have to wait. Another thing was our venue would need draping. We discussed that months ago. I needed a budget for it but she didn't get one to us until two weeks before the wedding. We haven't done a walk through of the venue.
We haven't gotten a timeline locked down. We got a date to work on the timeline from her, but the date comes and goes and she misses the call, we reach out and got no response. When she reaches out two weeks later she lets me know her phone was stolen. I'm over it at this point. She then says I need work on my timeline.
It was supposed be a collaborative effort. Second she knew I needed assistance in finding other vendors such as MUA, Videographer and Hairstylist. She sent me recommendations but they were over my budget. I was able to find my own.
She asks for my vendors contact information and says that she will be having a zoom meeting with them. My other vendors confirmed this never happened. We had the final walk through the week before my wedding. We thought about booking a limo or party bus for day-of transportation, but she did that she would drive us to and from the venue.
Wedding week is here. She is running rehearsal and this is where she informs me that she wouldn't be at my wedding. I later find out she had a previous event that she wanted to attend. We no longer have the planned transportation on the day-off. My wedding day was run by someone on her team who had never run a wedding on their own. She did a good job. But it wasn't who I signed a contract with. Overall my wedding was fun!! It was just disappointing that my planner didn't live up to expectations!!!