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Just Said Yes July 2020

Anyone who postponed have issues with vendors?

Molly, on May 1, 2020 at 1:46 PM Posted in Community Conversations 0 7

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July 17, 2020 bride, Virginia, ~ 150 guests. I’m leaning toward postponing and spoke with all of my vendors this week just in case - thankfully they are available to do a July friday wedding in 2021. This was such a relief to me and mitigated sooo much stress....until i heard back from my photog., who said while she’s *available*, if I move my date she will *not* transfer my deposit ($1k) that I’ve already paid her, and will instead require a new contract, with new add’l deposit, plus an additional $550 travel fee (bc she’s moving - so ok I understand that). The only way she’d transfer the deposit I’ve already paid is if my wedding was rescheduled within 6 mos or on a Monday-Thursday. that policy makes no sense but it is what it is. There’s no way I’d postpone within 6 mos bc I don’t want to be in this situation again; my fiancé and I are not in a rush and not gonna let one vendor dictate our plans.
So if we postpone, we lose the deposit on her and have to find a new photog unless we agree to re contract (😑) - in the grand scheme of things $1000 is a lot of money, but I can get over it, esp given how understanding everyone else has been. I’m just personally shocked at the inflexibility and insensitivity, esp since I offered to pay her the full contract price on the original timeline if we postponed (cause I get she’s a small business etc etc etc). There’s no force majeure clause either (I’m a lawyer I checked). All my other gfs who postponed didn’t have any vendor probs.
Anyone else run into issues like this??? How did you deal? Letting my emotions get in the way of thinking thru this and needed some objective feedback

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7 Comments

Latest activity by Ava, on May 14, 2020 at 6:31 PM

Master May 2020
Kari · on May 1, 2020 at 1:52 PM
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Honestly, I wouldn't want to work with someone making it so difficult to reschedule during these times. Do you LOVE your photographer? How much is your photo package in total?
Every single one of our vendors has been willing to apply our deposit to a new date in 2020 or 2021 and honor our same rate. Our vendors would also apply our deposit to dates in 2022 as well, although some of them said they couldn't guarantee the same rates in two years (which is totally understandable).
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Just Said Yes July 2020
Molly · on May 1, 2020 at 2:01 PM
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Package total is $3500. I do love her work but I sure as heck don’t love her right now lol. And no I don’t want to work with her anymore even tho I do love her photos. If we don’t postpone I kind of have to work w her, and if we do postpone I guess I just cut my losses and move on. I totally get paying more to a vendor if rates increase in a different CY too.
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Master May 2020
Kari · on May 1, 2020 at 2:18 PM
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Yea you'd essentially be paying $5050 for $3500 worth of photography. Our photography package was $3000 and required a 50% deposit, but our photographer has been super accommodating. She will apply our deposit towards a future date, and I'm confident if we switched to an elopement or even just wanted engagement style family portraits for the next few years she'd do that for us too. If any of our vendors were trying to charge us extra for having to switch dates due to the pandemic I would absolutely cut them immediately, however our date is May 30th so we almost don't have a choice. I can understand vendors being a little more hesitant to shift dates that are farther out just yet.

I personally feel like transferring the deposit, charging a travel fee, and possibly charging 2021 rates would all be reasonable, but just saying the money you've already paid her doesn't count for anything totally stinks. I would not want to continue a relationship with that vendor, especially a photographer. Your photographer is going to be spending the whole day with you and capturing your private and personal moments, so they need to be someone who puts you at ease and allows you to enjoy your wedding. I'd probably hold some resentment towards someone who double charged me and it would be hard for me to relax around them or take direction from them for my photos.
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October 2020
Fleur · on May 1, 2020 at 2:33 PM
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I would be frustrated too, and can I just take a moment to say.... you are totally allowed to have strong emotions on these things - brides are really going through it, ugh. We all get it for sure. Anyway, I've read stories on here from other brides with problem vendors and it just makes a difficult situation suck so much worse. I'd tell the photog, sorry no. We had a reschedule issue with our venue, which caused us to lose $2k and left us no choice to switch venues. Thankfully the other vendors have been so great. Good luck love, so glad your other vendors worked out.
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Super March 2020
Jennifer · on May 1, 2020 at 4:40 PM
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I wouldn't want to work with her if those were her new stipulations. This virus is no fault of yours and therefore precontracted couples shouldn't be paying the price. They should increase costs for future couples with a contract signed post-virus. Also, if you REALLY want to work with her, then I encourage that. Just make sure you will be able to put aside any poor feelings on your big day. I refuse to hire back any of our previous vendors who made this time even more difficult.
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WeddingWire Administrator October 2016
Lynnie · on May 4, 2020 at 12:24 PM
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Hi Molly! Did your original contract say about postponing or changing your date and what that would entail?
Also that $1,000 deposit should not have to be a complete loss! I would ask your photographer what other services they provide that your 1k would fully or partially cover, like engagement pictures, bridal portraits, large photo prints or wedding albums!
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Just Said Yes June 2021
Ava · on May 14, 2020 at 6:31 PM
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The same thing is happening with me and my venue. My original wedding was for July 25 2020. Every vendor of ours is fine with us rescheduling as long as it's one year from the original date. They are transferring our deposits over. However the venue demands 50% of the site fee which amounts to an extra $4k.They only allow rescheduling with no additional fee if we reschedule before March 2021, because according to their logic, quarantine happened in March so that's their cut off date (but quarantine didn't END in March so that doesn't quite make sense...?). It's ridiculous that they would be so unkind during this time. I definitely don't feel comfortable working with them right now, knowing that they honestly would rather take this chance to profit extra off of us rather than supporting us.
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