Frustrating: why don’t more vendors list prices online?

YES! I feel like I have turned down a lot of opportunities to book a great vendor because I would rather see it in black and white on their site...making call after call feels like a waste of time (though I know it's really not)

Yes aha it is kind of annoying. I guess the idea of it is to entice you to want to come in or call them so they can try to sell or make a sell to you more

I don't trust venues that won't blatantly tell me their price.
I ended up just drafting a generic email asking about pricing, what was included in the reservation, any additional fees, and catering options, and sending it to multiple venues.

The venue I booked had their prices outlined on their website, had zero extra fees, and were extremely friendly and laid-back (they're a vineyard, so weddings isn't their main form of income).

I recommend asking for a blank contract before committing to a venue, as that's where there'll reveal (in incredibly small print), all of the things you're not allowed to do and whatever minimum catering charges they may have.

Yeah, that always drove me crazy. Apparently, they do it because they don't want to scare people off, and think maybe a person who sees their work before their prices will call, and end up agreeing to a price that is more than they had originally planned to spend. But for example we did not want to put a lot of money into photography, and ended up paying $400 for just a DVD of pictures of the ceremony. I did not want to spend endless amounts of time chasing down photographers, only to find out their lowest priced package was thousands of dollars.

I skipped over a lot of vendors because they didn't list prices anywhere. I get that some things are variable on exactly what you want but at least give me some base prices. Anytime they don't list a price I assume they just want to get you on the phone because it's harder to say no to a person in voice vs through email.

I agree that it's annoying! Whenever vendors don't list their prices it makes me think they're way overpriced. They miss out on lots of potential clients, in my opinion

YES YES YES!! One of the most frustrating parts of planning has been the relentless calls and emails requesting prices, then having to wade through them all. There is such a huge price difference between vendors! Some of them are so ridiculously skyhigh, it could have saved both myself and the vendor a lot of wasted time if they had just listed their prices on their websites. And then even after you have finally spent the hours of going through all the vendors, what they offer, and their prices, and have finally selected the one you want... you will then have tons of follow up emails from the vendors you didn’t choose 🤦🏼‍♀️

I got so frustrated with vendors who wouldn't just tell me their prices. I had several respond with "We would love for you to come check out our whatever and we'll go over pricing then..." and those immediately went in the "no thank you" pile. I have very limited time off and I did not want to be running all over creation to these places only to find out they are out of our price range or they have too many rules or are not what we were looking for or whatever. Luckily after being persistent I was able to find vendors who did not hide their pricing and contract rules.

My photographer did this.

He wouldn't send us a contract or price list until we came to his studio in person to see his work. I emailed many other photographers and their prices were insane for 8 hours, one shooter, photography only. After meeting with my photographer in person, seeing his work and albums, seeing a few photos that were so amazing the couple had them printed on a 3 foot by 5 foot canvas, we decided to go with him. His price was about half of the other photographers I talked to and it included 2 shooters, videography (2 shooters), 12+ hours, multiple locations, free engagement shoot (2 hours), (11x14 or 12x12)photo album, 2 (10x10 or 8x10)parent albums, 20x30 print, 2 (16x20) print. all images on hard drive, highlight video, full length edited footage, 3 DVDs. Best decision of my life!

Absolutely! Its so frustrating to look into vendors and get ideas and find things I liked just to turn around and get a price back from them that was out of my budget. I get that they don't want to scare people away, but vendors should at least have a general idea or range of pricing posted so people know if that's even an option to get more details.

I've honestly never understood a vendor not wanting to list their prices. You'd get SO many messages from couples about pricing, only for them to learn that you're out of their budget. Why not save some time, post your pricing, and only hear from couples in that price range?

I also don't understand why WeddingWire doesn't make it mandatory for vendors to include their pricing, it seems like a pretty reasonable thing to ask them to provide lol

It is SUPER frustrating . but to be honest they want you to come in, see the place, talk through all the amenities and then hope you wont fall over at the prices lol

if they post them online then less people would go in to look at the venue.

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I picked my venue for the same reasons!!!

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YES! esp with things like djs that vary so much.

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Oh that's awesome you saved so much tho

Omg! Yes! I get anxiety and feel.like I sound stupid on the phone. Within some vendors I'd i.didnt see a price I skipped it all together! I didnt see a price I skipped it

Certain vendors need to know more about the specifics of what couples have in mind before they can even quote a price (because weddings aren’t one size fits all). But there are vendors who list a “starts at” price which might be helpful.

Venues seem to be particularly secretive. I clicked on price range on site like WW and then went to their sites. I figure if I have to ask, it’s probably too much. What affordable for some is not for others. I would like some starting at pricing, something.

I made a fake email address, pseudonym and generic email template. Once I found things in my range and received information on ones that worked, I redid the same thing on my actual email and made those calls and connected with those people. It’s annoying but you have to do what works for you.