WHEN WEDDING PLANNERS DO THIS: SMART OR SHADY?
I have designed websites for DOZENS (and dozens) of wedding and event planners … and when we have our calls, they dish … most recently I learned about a very interesting thing that some wedding planners do …
TELL THEIR CLIENTS THEY ARE CHARGING THEM $10,000 FOR THE PLANNING PACKAGE — THEN TAKING ANOTHER $10,000-$15,000+ FROM THE POOL OF MONEY THAT IS SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE VENDORS.
You might be saying … wait, what??????? Yeah. This isn’t a joke.
Here’s how it works:
Janice hires local wedding planner … local wedding planners tells Janice: “My fee to plan your entire wedding is $10,000” … Janice is happy, and feels like she just got a great deal … local wedding planner says: “I will handle all your invoices for you … once a bill comes in from a vendor, I will bill you, you pay me, and then I will send the payment to the vendors as needed to save you any trouble” … Janice is happy, she feels like all the stress has just been wiped away. Janice is then told that the DJ costs $8,000 … the DJ actually bills $5,000 … and local wedding planner takes $3,000 from the difference … and then continues to do this with ALL the vendors …
To note: sometimes the wedding vendor is told to ‘pad their bill’ knowing the wedding planner is taking a cut … sometimes the wedding vendor has ZERO clue that this is happening
SMART or SHADY AF????
Honestly, I was LIVID when I learned about this … and here’s why: dear, sweet Janice has a very uneducated view of what a great wedding planner / designer costs … she believes that ‘local wedding planner’ costs $10,000 to plan her ENTIRE wedding … when in actuality it cost her most like $25,000 … so when she is shopping around and other incredible planners are upfront and say: my fees are $20,000 to plan your wedding, Janice goes: well, I have someone quoting $10,000 over here … so I’m going to save on my budget and hire them … meanwhile … there are some serious shenanigans happening unbeknownst to Janice.
Want to know something even worse than this??? Sometimes the vendors aren’t even aware this is happening!! Actually, I don’t know what’s worse … vendors who do know it’s happening and play along OR vendors who have no idea it’s happening … but here is my REAL question:
HOW DO THESE PLANNERS GET AWAY WITH THIS SH*T?
Or, is this actually living in the grey area of: it’s sort of ok to do … if I were a wedding or event planner who was upfront with my pricing, worked my ass off for YEARS to earn the right to charge a fair fee to plan and execute a flawless event … had a reputation that was respected and then was losing gigs to other planners who HID THEIR ‘stolen’ fees from the client I would be going scorched earth … but is this just a thing that happens and everyone just sorta tiptoes around it?
I’m big on education … and feel that industries can only thrive in a market where education is correct. Seems to me that players who pull this sh*t are lowering the standards of the wedding and event industry … and making it hard for wedding planners to ever have true pricing that reflects their hard work … if wedding planner A has earned the right to charge $20,000 to execute a lavish wedding and planner B doesn’t feel comfortable charging $20,000 yet, so to get the job she quotes $10,000 but then just takes an extra $10,000 anyway, the client walks away thinking: Man, one of these planners is SERIOUSLY over quoting me … and believes a high end and brilliantly planned wedding only costs $10,000 >>> which isn’t the case.
I don’t know what the answer is here … but if other vendors are aware this is happening and are staying silent about it, they are contributing to the issue … someone needs to call these planners out … perhaps this blog post can be the start of a movement ;)
Now, I am aware that there are pricing tiers and different ways of pricing when it comes to being a wedding planner … all on the UP and UP with full disclosure to the client … I will be saving that topic for a different blog post :)
XO~ Heather
