Red Flags??

I don't know if not responding within 72 hours us totally fair, especially during peak season. I had a great vendor team but during peak season I often didn't get a response for up to a week. And be flexible about them being late. I gave mine a 15 minute window, if they have a meeting prior they may be with a "bridezilla" and go over.

I agree with everything except the 72 hour thing, especially during peak season, ESPECIALLY on weekends. It's very hard to give a new couple the energy and attention they deserve on a Thursday before a busy weakend or a Monday afterwards.

As for weird terms and rules, if you find something unusual, you should ask why it's in the contract. We have a ceremony start time as well as a ceremony end time, which night sound strange, but most of our venues get crazy when a wedding runs overtime (very often they are trying to orchestrate more than one wedding at a time, and being a half hour late just screws everyone up, including you and your entrees....) and very often my officiants need to be elsewhere at a certain time. So it does make sense.....

Missing appointments, being more than a duple minutes late unless there is a major police action? No, no and no again.

For almost any pro, I'd want to know what they wear on site (even your MUA is going to be in photos....), the timeframe for THEIR arrival and departure (I don't want to pick on MUA's, but when they're late, everyone is late and you're stressed out from the beginning of your day.

Ask about insurance; everyone except officiants usually need it.

And of course, look for reviews and testimonials from other couples and other vendors.

Weird terms? A vendor may use jargon related to her/his industry that a first-time bride may not know. Even after officiating 1,400 ceremonies, there are words/terms that professional photographers, videographers, DJs use that I don't understand. If you don't understand something, ask.

Oh, my pet peeve is definitely when they don't get back to you at all after promising to send information. I was in contact with a travel agent (from wedding wire actually), who asked a ton of questions. We emailed several times and she told me she'd respond with a sample itinerary and some info. That was 5 weeks ago.... In general I feel like you should get a response from vendors within a week.

I also spoke to a DJ who criticized me through the whole conversation. "Why are you getting married so far away?" (in the mountains), "Why outside? That will be freezing, no one wants to deal with that." etc. Needless to say i crossed him off my list!

I had a kind of similar experience as Katie. I had an appointment with my venues preferred photographer. He asked me who else I was going to be visiting and he bashed every single one of them. "He's good if you want to spend $10,000 on $2,500 worth of work", "She used to work at so and so company and they are the lowest of companies", "We've had brides that booked their engagement seasons with them and then cancelled and booked right away with us because we are better." I wrote him off instantly. I can only imagine what he would say about me whenever I wasn't around.

I was also looking for venues in 2013 for a 2015 wedding (in my defense, I live across the country where we are having it so I wanted to find it right away and have it be done with). I got a LOT of weird looks and "well, come back next year" dismisses. Any sort of attitude towards me or my wedding, I moved on.

Oh and I usually get really annoyed when I'm emailing a company and I feel like no one listens to what I say. I will email a vendor and tell them the details of my wedding and what I want. I'll then ask them for what they offer or if what I want is doable and tell them I live across the country and can't come in but I'm available at these times to call and always email. They ALWAYS respond back (and not a generic copied and pasted response) and tell me to come in to visit the show room and see the company. Maybe there's a reason for this and I'm sure they're really busy but to me it just feels like there's no attention to detail there or they even listened. So I just move on.

I get annoyed when I call or email a vendor and get no response at all. I called and emailed several people about setting up appointments in the beginning or October, never got a response from them. I guess they didn't want the business.

I also got mad at one vendor who told me that she could airbrush anything & told me to email her my ideas then we could set up an appointment. So I emailed her. Two weeks later get an email saying she doesn't have the proper equipment to airbrush and if I would be open minded to do something else on my cake. So annoying!

But thankfully, I'm finally done booking my vendors so I don't have to deal with any of that anymore.

Great feedback! Some of the "weird" stuff I have come across so far have been: Decibel constraints, having to end the event by 10pm (Sat night), holding the bride responsible for cleanup, and no red wine. Believe you me, I will ask if I don't understand something.

Had one vendor (bridal gowns) literally turn around and walk away from me when I was in mid sentence. You better believe I gave her a negative review on Yelp.

The being late thing BUGS ME. A 15 minute window sounds perfect! Since we all have cell phones, I don't think it is too much to ask for a text/call saying you will be late. Everyone's time is valuable. Just sayin'.

Decibel constraints and events ending by 10 are very often dictated by town laws; I can think of three venues off the top of my head that have those regulations. When someone calls me to officiate there, I know the wedding will start at 3:00......

Most of my historic venues and museums specify a "white bar". And yes, most will hold you responsible for cleanup that is beyond reasonable; sweeping a venue is fine and expected; scraping food products off the ladies room wall isn't.

Lateness makes me insane (as everyone knows...) and calling me to say you're running late unless there is a VERY good reason is not the same as being on time.

The venue we originally considered had noise rules. The dj or band had to end by 10pm. I think most of the big venues here are in residential areas. Several venues I looked at are owned by the town they are in. The grounds are used by residents. Last thing I wanted was someone walking their dog through my ceremony. Apparently it happens. I ended up having everything on family property. We have enough acreage that we could go late and no one is close enough to hear us.

Not being prepared for a meeting is my biggest red flag. FH and I visited one venue that was over an hour away from where we live. The representative and I had gone back and forth over email for weeks and I had given her loads of details. Not only was she super late for the meeting (almost 30 minutes - because she overscheduled herself that day), but it turns out that the two buildings we were interested in (there were several on the property) were seasonal and weren't even available during our time of year! Nothing about this was mentioned in the literature or during any of our conversations, even though I had given her 3 specific dates all within the same time period. The only ones that were available were (surprise, surprise!) nearly twice our allotted budget. She was nice, but the experience just showed me that she was either overwhelmed, disorganized, or both. We ended up going elsewhere.

Mine is "we will discuss that in August at our meeting". That's fine a dandy except my invites will be going out in May and n would like to know if k can use that space for cocktail hour or not. It was a simple question that required a simple answer.

I dunno I had a florist who cancelled our consultation twice because of her kids. Clearly we DID NOT go with her. Any flakiness in regards to kids is a pet peeve. Life happens but you're running a business. How can I trust you to pull through for the actually day if you can't make a meeting.

My macaron lady is kinda hard to reach. I'm really hoping she gets it together cuz the price cannot be beat. If she continues on this grain I might ask my cake lady to do them as well but she won't be able to meet that price and I kinda want her to focus on the cake exclusively.