Wedding Planner Mia?

I'm sorry what do you need her for if you canceled would you get your money back that's slot to loose I would wait til next week, maybe she is on vacation before the wedding season begins

I was going to tell you to relax and give her a few more days to get back to you since she may be sick or dealing with a personal emergency. Then I saw how much you are paying and that she has two assistants, for that money I'd expect more too.

What does your contract with her say? Does it outline what her response times will be (and is she in violation of that)? Does it stipulate what will happen if you cancel your contract?

Honestly, that kind of money is crazy to me. My whole wedding will cost less then you are paying her. Depending on your contract it may be worth it to cut your losses (and pay your cancellation fees) and find someone else.

WOW! That's a lot of money for a wedding planner. She better have a lot of perks. For that money, I would agree with the expectation of promptness. Is there an office number you can call and speak with someone? I also agree with that you never know what she might have going on...

Is she posting on social media or is there an office you could stop by? I totally understand, I’m paying even more than you for my wedding planner and I would be freaking out if she stopped responding. My wedding planner can sometimes take a while to get back to me if she has a wedding that week she’s busy dealing with vendors and running errands for the bride.

Yikes. I would be freaking out too. Most likely she had a personally emergency come up - but if she didnt - I would try and get out of that contract if possible.

At first I thought she had a personal/family emergency (for her sake I hope she is okay) or was just busy with another bride. I follow her on IG and see she has been posting/reposting stuff from her previous events (some of her most recent posts are within the last two days). I called her again about 45 minutes ago, it rang a few times and went to voice mail (I did not leave a message). I typed up a short letter asking her to please contact me via certified mail.
Physically going to her office would be difficult as she is an hour and half away from me.

The type of plan I have with her is "Full Planning and Design" which include "Unliminted communication with the XXX team via telephone and e-mail." Even if she was on a vacation, there should at least be an auto response e-mail stating when she would be available again.

Send your letter, but make sure you give her a date to reply by in the letter.

Do you you have any friends that are lawyers? If so, see what they think your next step should be and if maybe they would write her a letter on their letterhead if she doesn’t respond to you.

Have you paid her in full or just a deposit? If it was only a deposit you might weigh walking away and finding someone else if you have time. I would’ve left mine but I had already paid $12k and her contract was pretty tight.

My wedding planner went MIA a week after I hired her... she had a baby. She never mentioned it in the interview and never told me she was going on maternity leave... I got an email bounce back saying she was out of the office on maternity leave through the summer (it was February). She had two associates that were under the age of 25 who were basically worthless. Most of my initial vendors I had to go out and find myself because they were just sending me the same old tired stuff they’ve done before and weren’t looking for vendors with my aesthetic. In their defense, they were too young to be left alone with no supervision and mentoring for such a long period of time and when handling such expensive accounts (her weddings average $**** per head). Then they went on a big wedding planner conference trip to the Caymans... and the one of them that I had delt with the most quit with no notice at the end of the trip. Eventually the principal planner/owner came back and things got back on track (only after my mother freaked out on her) but I had about 11 months from the time I hired them to my wedding date, so there was time to get it on track.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for your reply and advice.

I sent her a letter via certified mail last week and she received it on Friday. She did call me Monday morning with bad news. She had to shut down her business due to a medical emergency and gave a an option of either getting a full refund (which we are) or transfer to an associate wedding planner who has several years in the business and is highly regarded.

My Fiancé and I opted for the full refund and will continue planning on our own until we're comfortable with the idea of getting another wedding planner.

We truely hope everything turns out well with our former wedding planner.

Hey Jennifer,

I'm having the same issue with my wedding planner and freaking out. I havent heard from her in a week and half. I've already paid most of the fee of $6,500. If you don't mind sharing, what did the certified letter to her entail? Thanks a bunch

@ Penelope
It was a basic letter which stated the last time (mm/dd/yy) we spoke, how I've tried to contact her via phone/email/IG/FB etc with no reply from her or her staff (include dates and times you contacted her). I asked her to kindly contact me asap regarding wedding planning. Keep the letter polite yet short. Make sure to review your contract and see if there are any stipulations on how many days/weeks for contact. Please ensure you keep copies of all forms of communication with her and the receipt of the certified mail -- so you can track it.

We highly suspect she just didn't want to be our wedding planner anymore since her wedding was the same month as ours. I did more research on her and found that her mother owned the location she worked out of and that she still lived with her parents (which is fine). Ultimately, I figured wedding planning was more of a pet project for her than an actual business/passion.

Is your planner in the same city as you? Does she have an actual office she works out of?

We had a mini destination wedding so we weren't able to go to our former planner's office (2.5 hours away). Perhaps stopping by would help?

@Jennifer

Good news she finally responded and sincerely apologized for not communicating about being out of the country. We are actually meeting up this week. Thanks for hearing my worries!