I'm just feeling so frustrated over issues with vendors - mostly photography.
Right now I'm a little frustrated with the DJ. We sent in our contract deposit on 06/11. Because it was sent to a PO box, the DJ only stops there once a week. I called on the 18th to see if everything was received as our deposit check hadn't been cashed yet. That's when he told me that he only goes by once a week. He called me on the 19th to tell me that he received it and that he'd be sending me an email in a couple of days with login information for the website (where we can make additional payments and do our song information).
About a week and a half later, we haven't heard anything from him. Though he did just cash the check on the 21st, I figured maybe he was waiting until that cleared. I meant to call this afternoon (but it's been a busy day) to find out when he's going to be getting that information to me (will be calling Monday!). I'm really having doubts about this guy - FI wanted the cheapst, and we're definitely getting the cheapest.
The photographer is a totally different headache.
First photographer took a month to respond to us (initally very responsive, but took a month to send the information by email that he said he was going to send). FI still wants to go with him because he's the cheapest.
We ended up moving onto photographer #2 which is a friend of my mom's friend. I discussed over the phone the details. He said the date was open and that he'd send me a contract via email. A week and a half later, no response. I became hesistant at this point fearing the same as photographer #1. My mom's friend spoke with his wife who nudged him into contacting me. He tells me that he's just been busy and just got his new laptop and still had to draft a contact. He said he'd have it to me by the following week.
He held true to his word and got it to us 06/20 - He didn't send his address so we can return the signed contract & deposit - he wanted us to look it over first and if everything looked okay, he'd send his address. I advised him that we'd have it looked over by the weekend (we had a busy remainder of the week as we were about to start our loan process for the house we're trying to buy).
I made FI sit down with me and look over the contract - very thrown together, but it still had all the important information. I sent a text (one means of communication he suggested) on Saturday 06/23 stating that everything looked good with the contract, that it was filled out and that we just needed his address to send it back. No response. Sunday 06/24 I responded with the same information as the text to make sure that he would get one of the two. A week later, no response from him. And he's been seen BSing around on facebook.
I am *finally* not the only one saying we need to move on from this guy - my instinct was on from the first lack of communication. So now, we still have nothing.
We really liked this other photographer, but she's booked. Others are out of our budget. Not to mention that FI wants to go as cheap as possible (I don't agree - not to say that I want to spend our whole budget on a photographer, but at least put the money in to get something of quality back). We asked FI's SIL as she's starting her own photography business however she opted not to do it and to just be a guest - she did FI's cousin's wedding at the beginning of the month and didn't get as many pictures as she would have liked due to being stopped by so many family members. Figured that was a long shot, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
Right now we're waiting for a response from my mom's friend's neice (who does have a professional website set up - she's still just getting started - and I'm okay with that, everyone starts somewhere - but hopefully the professional looking website will mean prompt responses, even if she's booked).
If this doesn't work out we'll probably have to go back to photographer #1 - but I'm reluctant due to the fact that it took him a month to email us the information. Additionally, I'm worried that he'll end up rejecting us due to our living arrangements. He's a pastor and FI and I aren't having a traditional wedding, living together before marriage, etc. His contract wants to know my address & FI's address and the after wedding address. He has a policy stating that he will not photograph alcoholic receptions (which we decided not to have alcohol for practicality reasons) - which makes me feel that he may have an issue with our non-traditional wedding and living arrangements. FI said we could just lie about our address - which we can, but I don't feel like we should have to lie about who we are just to get a photographer. He has the right to not work with us, but I'm not going to lie just so he will.
Sorry about the long vent, but I'm getting very anxious about the photography - the longer this goes on, I'm worried that we're going to end up losing out. I'm totally heartbroken over the one photographer being booked - I like her a lot. She is still doing our e-pics, and just from the correspondence I've had with her for that so far, I adore her and just really am disappointed that she's booked because I feel like she'd be great to work with (and to be honest, I feel like she's setting the bar of what should be normal for a good vendor). With our date being a holiday weekend, I'm worried that we're going to end up with camera phones and disposables.
Sorry for the tldr; a cookie to anyone who got through all that! It's okay if you lie and say you did
