Anyone else see this article about the Knot?

You could also post the experience you had with a vendor (good and bad) in the forums, and just title it, "Hey Austin Brides-My Experience with X Vendor" that way future Brides could read a first hand account of your experience with them. I think the words that you all use to recount your experiences is what helps the ones that come after you decide whether or not to reach out to a vendor, more so than the star rating. (Unless this is against WW forum rules, but I've seen it done on other wedding resource sites)

One would only hope that the future Brides & Grooms do their homework as well as you all seem to do!

There is a vendor i would def review if i could. We didn't go with him for a good reason, and it's not fair that I can't warn other brides. I wish someone would have warned me, I would have saved myself the time of the meeting and the 3 months AFTER when he called or e-mailed almost daily after repeatedly being told we found someone else. He's preferred vendor of our venue, so I'm sure they do great work, but he left such a bitter taste in my mouth after basically telling us al lour choices were crap (photographer, officiant, photobooth-he sells all these services or gets kickback from the vendors her refers) he didn't care about our vision only his.

Stacy? let your venue know about your experience with this vendor. Seriously. And when you do, ask if he's really 'preferred' or if he pay s to be on their list. That is really, really unprofessional behaviour on his part and the venue that is 'preferring' him should know.

Vendors themselves can be bullies. I reviewed a vendor anonymously on WW about some really racist comments she made to me during a makeup trial. She disputed it and I showed WW emails and the receipt of the trial. When she found out the review was going to stay up she sent me a long email threatening to sue me over what she claimed was a misunderstanding. I should have called her instead of writing a review. In the end she said that if I don't request WW to take down the review she have her lawyer contact me. I was like great I can't afford this, and I sent WW her email they pretty much took MY side saying they didn't give my info out but she probably figured out it was me by the contents of the review--- the racist comments she made to me. So I decided to take it down. The vendor got the message and hopefully, she rethinks how she speaks to people. She has a business to protect. I just wanted people who don't like giving their money to racists know who she is. In end she only has five star reviews on her page. So be skeptical of vendors with only amazing reviews!

@Celia I did tell the venue I really really wasn't happy with him. It was only after that he stopped calling. Frankly the person we spoke to was the owner of the company, I'm betting his DJ and such is probably fantastic and that's why they're preferred-most of the weddings there use them.

They're a dj company and do lighting, and he is also an officiant. They also have contacts for AT LEAST photobooths, florist, photographer, invitation printer and something else. My FH god-mother is a printer she's doing all our stuff (tacky), my brother is marrying us (he's married our brother and our sister, it's kinda of a sibling tradition, but he'll do a horrible job because h'es not a professional), my photographer is horrible (he'd never heard of her before so that's his opinion). Our lighting would suck (Best man works in lighting, in fact all of this guy's lights comes from our best man-not a joke, he pulled the sales contracts for fun). It was such a waste.

I don't recommend any multi service companies beyond my fave music company who has a DJ division. I've worked with every one of their DJ's so I feel good about them.

And I love Dj's who officiate.

Not.

I received a bad review on The Knot and I could not get it removed. It was from a bride who over-spent and over-drank on her wedding day. It was her last resort to punish us from not returning a portion of her payment as disputed with the Better Business Bureau. The BBB, by the way, dismissed her claim after we supplied them with factual responses and documentation. We retain a A+ rating with them.

I have more of an issue with Wedding Wire because they allow brides to review BEFORE services are rendered. This is totally unfair. I ended up giving a client's full deposit back because of the hard feelings a pre-wedding review created between the two of us. The bride had given us a 4.4 review a month after just booking our catering services . . . she said lots of nice things about us, but claimed she couldn't give us a five star review until AFTER we actually did the wedding.

She admitted she was encouraged by WW to do this review. I expressed my disappointment with her pre-judging our services especially because changing reviews later on is difficult (this review would have remained the first one because of the date in the future).

I had no choice but to return her money and send her on her way.

This is a continuing saga of how Wedding Wire lacks common sense in making vendors happy. Their advice to brides and grooms is ill-advised; their inability to address the real needs of vendors continues.

Cheers,

Susan