Venue event co-ordinator is slow at responding

mochi921

We fell in love with a venue in November, and we had a lovely chat with the event co-ordinator in person and she was awesome. We are still in discussion with the venue about the details and we put a soft hold on a date for this coming August, but I have been noticing that she takes much longer than other venues' contacts to respond to emails. Even if we email her a simple question like, "Can we move our hold to this day instead?", it still takes her a few days to email back. Now, I know that she's probably busy with so many other events, and my fiance has even called her a few times to follow up. She always seems really nice on the phone, but I just wish she would respond a little faster. I haven't been able to book anything else (photographer, videographer, DJ, makeup artist, etc) because we've been waiting for her to email back about some questions we had and a request for a more detailed quote. Our wedding is to be in early August, and we're only 7 months away with nothing booked. Has anyone else encountered a venue event co-ordinator like this too?? It worries me because if she already takes this long to respond now, then when our wedding date is closer and I'm even more stressed, I won't want to have to chase after her all the time to get a response.

I'm getting anxious because we haven't even put a deposit and confirmed/signed with this venue, so my wedding just seems like it's floating around. Plus, my relatives who are halfway across the world have been asking multiple times when our wedding date is, and I can't tell them until we have confirmed our venue and date! They need to know to book flights soon, so I'm getting very frustrated.

I think I will have to call her again (for the 3rd time in 1.5 weeks) to follow up. I just feel like we're running very low on time now.

thefanciestbeckler

In my experience, you are treated with priority once you've put money down and have signed papers. If you haven't done this yet, and you are asking her to change your hold date, etc., she may perceive you as uncommitted and therefore lower on her priority list.

The venue that my wedding was at is booked every night of every weekend, so sometimes it took a little time to get a response. However, when it started to get to crunch time, they were right there answering questions quickly.

A venue just isn't going to give you plenty of attention when you aren't "officially" one of their customers. She likely just has brides with set dates to attend to. I don't think this is a sign of how you will be treated once you book it.

Hope this helps!

Eta words

JediElizabeth

I disagree, @thefanciestbeckler. Event planners are supposed to be closing sales with a couple....they're supposed to be showing you WHY they deserve hundreds or thousands of dollars to host your wedding. If they can't even respond to an email now, how will they be two weeks until the event, when you need to meet with them about something? That would really worry me. 

Honestly, unless you're completely in love with the space, I'd shop around, OP, and try to find a place that treats you like you're important. 

thefanciestbeckler

That's totally fair @JediElizabeth. You make some great points that I didn't think about.

MesmrEwe

This is the busy season for corporate events.  Many companies have their "Holiday party" in January instead of December just because it works out easier for everyone on top of Weddings, etc..  Also, if you email on Thursday or Friday afternoon and they're busy with events until Sunday, then everyone gets two days off a week, that puts you at Wednesday at the earliest for a response.  Not everyone is tech savvy nor are they sitting at their computer waiting for people to email them.  If you call up and say "I need a preliminary price on a Filet Mignon dinner with minced potatoes and green beans for 200 guests, and is X date available so we can get the date firmly in the books" you're likely going to get a quicker response.  Not everyone communicates fastest through email!!  You aren't their only customer as they've also got communications with people whose events are coming up in the next few weeks to do too.  Granted, a lot of this is very dependent upon how they do their staffing.  Places that have a dedicated staff for booking events then hand you off to the other person there is a lot different for expectations than if this person is doing the bookings, handling all the details for every event coming through the door, and answering all correspondence. 

At the end of the day though, you want a venue willing to do more hand-holding than what you're getting.  It's not a bad thing to want that type of communication, however if you aren't comfortable with how they do business it's probably not the right venue for you. 

mochi921

Thanks @thefanciestbeckler and @JediElizabeth! I do see both sides, and that's why I came here to see if what I'm feeling is just me worrying too much or if I have a good reason to be worried. @MesmrEwe, we have called her and like I said, I know that she's busy with other events. I'm not saying that I should be put first before those other clients who have events sooner because that's just being totally unreasonable, but with a wedding, some vendors are booked a year in advance or even more, so I just want to know if we can finally confirm the date and venue by the end of January so I can start booking other vendors. By the rate it's going, it's not looking that good so I'll probably give her a call if another week goes by.

Thanks for the replies so far! It's nice to be able to express my concerns and see what people think.

VarunaTT

As someone who has to plan lots of events, TBH, you're coming across as flaky with a "soft hold", then asking what sounds like multiple questions with a still "soft hold", then requesting to change a "soft hold."  That's pretty high maintenance for someone who hasn't put down any monies.

You need to pick your date, ask if it's available, and put some money down.  She's got paying customers right now to deal with and her time is money as well.  I'd do an e-mail with, "This is the date we want and need to deposit X funds.  Please respond by X date with contract and payment info."  You are also quite some time away from the end of January, so I do think you're overworrying a bit.

*Barbie*

VarunaTT said:

As someone who has to plan lots of events, TBH, you're coming across as flaky with a "soft hold", then asking what sounds like multiple questions with a still "soft hold", then requesting to change a "soft hold."  That's pretty high maintenance for someone who hasn't put down any monies.

i2i with all of this. 
if you want this venue, pick a date and book it. 
Honestly, if I was the planner, I'd be pretty annoyed with you at this point, which would probably impact the speed of replies. A couple of days doesn't sound unreasonable if she's busy and you're not a paying client with an emergency. 

What else do you still need to know at this point? Why not set a second appointment or send one e-mail and ask all of your questions at once? Stop wasting her time with one-off e-mails and calls. From that, make a decision. 

You say that you initially saw the venue in November and still have questions 2 months later. I don't know what a "soft hold" is, but without a deposit and a contract, I wouldn't be holding anything for you. 

mrsconn23

*Barbie* said:

VarunaTT said:

As someone who has to plan lots of events, TBH, you're coming across as flaky with a "soft hold", then asking what sounds like multiple questions with a still "soft hold", then requesting to change a "soft hold."  That's pretty high maintenance for someone who hasn't put down any monies.

i2i with all of this. 
if you want this venue, pick a date and book it. 
Honestly, if I was the planner, I'd be pretty annoyed with you at this point, which would probably impact the speed of replies. A couple of days doesn't sound unreasonable if she's busy and you're not a paying client with an emergency. 

What else do you still need to know at this point? Why not set a second appointment or send one e-mail and ask all of your questions at once? Stop wasting her time with one-off e-mails and calls. From that, make a decision. 

You say that you initially saw the venue in November and still have questions 2 months later. I don't know what a "soft hold" is, but without a deposit and a contract, I wouldn't be holding anything for you. 

YES!  Also, weddings are just that...weddings.  Nothing is super you-neek from one wedding to the next.  Yes, it's 'your (and your FI's) day', but I would bet that 90% of your questions could be answered in the contract.   So read the contract, decide on a date, put your money down, and wallah...plan a wedding.  Hemming and hawing around will make you not only lose the location, but other vendors you may want as well.  

Andplusalso, other vendors will not put up with a frillion questions or a 'soft hold' from a non-paying customer.  From here on out, you need to get yourself organized.  Ask all your questions up front and then decide what you want to do.  

MesmrEwe

At the end of the day, you will have a venue, those places are booked up a year in advance for a reason.  My Dad plans multiple community/organization events each year, he finishes up each year's event and gets the next year's event in the books right away.  The venue can now say "booked a year in advance" but that doesn't mean that someone coming in and booking a funeral on such'n'such date within a week is SOL for a venue. 

I also agree with @VarunaTT and something for your other vendors as well.  Before you even think to make a phone call to any vendor, be firm about what you want, when, and your real-world budget.  The squishiness will turn vendors off to you in a hurry (Business interactions aren't just about you choosing who to work with, they also have a choice in who they work for as well).  It'll also cost you more because the time you're taking is money and has to be made up somewhere. 

mochi921

Yup, I understand all your points! We did send an email with all our questions at once and we're waiting on that. I like the tip about specifying when we want to put down a deposit, so I will do that. Now I feel bad for coming across as possibly annoying, so I'll keep that in mind. Thanks everyone!

MaggieF1990

I kind of had issues with our venue coordinator as well, but nothing like waiting more than a week to hear back. Having said that, I had issues getting a hold of or hearing back from several venue coordinators, and had to call multiple times for the ones I really wanted to talk to. I think they're just extraordinarily busy and don't necessarily work the 8-5 schedule. With the venue we ended up choosing, we did end up setting up a meeting to ask all our questions before we booked. It was much easier than emailing or calling. I actually think we held our date, set up a meeting, then booked it and paid, so our hold was not for more than a week or so.

Also, I would agree that it *might* improve once you put a deposit down, because since we've booked our date and paid, it seems a bit easier to get a hold of her. I see both sides of attending to prospective clients and/or paid clients, but I do think we saw a difference in responsiveness once we'd paid.

mochi921

Thanks @MaggieF1990! It's always nice to hear what other people went through when dealing with venue coordinators. We met up with her twice before we soft held our date, and we called her a few times to follow up and asked all our questions in one email. We've been waiting for 2 weeks now, so I think it's safe to say that we can contact her again next week to book an in-person meeting instead because it should get our answers faster. Thanks for the reassurance! I can't wait to put a deposit and sign something! Haha!

VarunaTT

mochi921 said:

Thanks @MaggieF1990! It's always nice to hear what other people went through when dealing with venue coordinators. We met up with her twice before we soft held our date, and we called her a few times to follow up and asked all our questions in one email. We've been waiting for 2 weeks now, so I think it's safe to say that we can contact her again next week to book an in-person meeting instead because it should get our answers faster. Thanks for the reassurance! I can't wait to put a deposit and sign something! Haha!

*blink blink*

Yeah, you need to either become a paying customer or stop (which I'm not busting your balls now; it sounds like you're going to do so).  The venues don't just randomly decide how much to charge, it's an estimation of time, labor, utilities, plus some profit.  I'd bet you've starting chipping past  "billable time allowed for potentials" at this point.  Keep things like this in mind moving forward.  Yes, you're paying them, but business relationships are a 2 way street.

charlotte989875

Sounds like you're taking PPs advice here and this comment is mainly for lurkers, but you've already met with her twice, have sent multiple follow-up emails, are scheduling another, and you haven't even decided on this venue?! This seems excessive to me. If you love the venue, call her, tell her you're ready to pay the deposit and sign the contract for x date. If you don't love it, just move on.

Are the questions you need answers to things that will that change whether you book this as your venue? If not, put the deposit down and follow up later. For what it's worth you've already had far more interaction with the venue than I did in the course of planning my wedding and actually getting married.