Remember to PAY your vendors.

megan8290

I know this is a board for brides only, but I happen to be a soon to be bride and working in the wedding industry so I just thought to give some advice.

I am a wedding musician. Today I played at two different weddings. 

The first wedding started out with the ring bearer(9) taking me to the wrong chapel (he opened the door to the bride's dressing room and all the women screamed). Later, the ceremony started 25 minutes late. For no reason, and no one told me what was going on and I just had to keep playing the prelude music wondering if it's ever going to end. I'm guessing people at this wedding are not the most punctual guests so they were probably waiting on guests. I am contracted by the hour and the ceremony ended up going over time. There's an over time fee on the contract but I guess no one reads the contract. I decided to just get out of there asap since I have another wedding to get to.

The second wedding went just fine. The only thing that wasn't fine is that after the cocktail hour, no one came over to pay us. On the contract, it said the groom was in charge of the payment so I guess I have to go hunt down the happy couple. I was told that they are still taking pictures outside some where. A very nice staff helped me located the wedding planner who agreed to go ask the couple for me. We ended up waiting for an extra 30 minutes just to get paid. Now, that is just plain rude. 

With the situation like this, I would recommend tipping your vendor if you forgot to pay them in the first place which this couple didn't.  
Now, I'm not blaming the groom for forgetting. I'm asking everyone to please have a designated person that will be in charge of payments. You ARE going to get too exicted and forget everything. Have someone be in charge of the timeline of the wedding. Keeping everything on schedule and making sure the payments are taken care of. Moral of the story, please don't make you vendor's hunt you down for payments that you owe. It makes them feel awkward and makes you look bad.

mica178

Yeah, okay, vendor.

RebeccaB88

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_remember-to-pay-your-vendors?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:2f693119-3c1c-49dc-bf36-49356250d759Post:562fb5d7-efb2-4824-9328-d56082fb25e5">Remember to PAY your vendors.</a>:
[QUOTE]I know this is a board for brides only, but I happen to be a soon to be bride and working in the wedding industry so I just thought to give some advice. I am a wedding musician. Today I played at two different weddings.  The first wedding started out with the ring bearer(9) taking me to the wrong chapel (he opened the door to the bride's dressing room and all the women screamed). Later, the ceremony started 25 minutes late. For no reason, and no one told me what was going on and I just had to keep playing the prelude music wondering if it's ever going to end. I'm guessing people at this wedding are not the most punctual guests so they were probably waiting on guests. I am contracted by the hour and the ceremony ended up going over time. There's an over time fee on the contract but I guess no one reads the contract. I decided to just get out of there asap since I have another wedding to get to. The second wedding went just fine. The only thing that wasn't fine is that after the cocktail hour, no one came over to pay us. On the contract, it said the groom was in charge of the payment so I guess I have to go hunt down the happy couple. I was told that they are still taking pictures outside some where. A very nice staff helped me located the wedding planner who agreed to go ask the couple for me. We ended up waiting for an extra 30 minutes just to get paid. Now, that is just plain rude.  With the situation like this, I would recommend tipping your vendor if you forgot to pay them in the first place which this couple didn't.   Now, I'm not blaming the groom for forgetting. I'm asking everyone to please have a designated person that will be in charge of payments. You ARE going to get too exicted and forget everything. Have someone be in charge of the timeline of the wedding. Keeping everything on schedule and making sure the payments are taken care of. Moral of the story, please don't make you vendor's hunt you down for payments that you owe. It makes them feel awkward and makes you look bad.
Posted by megan8290[/QUOTE]

JIC

MyUserName1

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_remember-to-pay-your-vendors?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:2f693119-3c1c-49dc-bf36-49356250d759Post:aa277564-a07b-496c-9125-86a96ba59062">Re: Remember to PAY your vendors.</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Remember to PAY your vendors. : JIC
Posted by RebeccaB88[/QUOTE]

<div>Why did you JIC?  Vendor's aren't allowed to post on the boards, so if this is deleted, we don't need a record of them advertising their services...</div>

Avion22

If people habitually forget to pay you, then why don't you demand payment in advance along with a credit card number for overtime payments?  I paid pretty much all of my vendors by credit card -- it made it way easier to just say, "Hey, can you please run our final payment on the credit card number that we gave you for the deposit?" than worry about carrying around cash and "tracking down our vendors" on wedding day.

My dad was in a wedding band for YEARS and as far as I know, they used this method, and never once were they waiting around after a gig to be paid....

Edit:  I thought vendors just weren't allowed to promote their business?  The OP didn't even mention the name of her business, she's just giving a different perspective (albeit a whiney-sounding one).   

Avion22

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_remember-to-pay-your-vendors?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:2f693119-3c1c-49dc-bf36-49356250d759Post:3ec8dea2-228a-417c-8ed8-389ef89d1a5a">Re: Remember to PAY your vendors.</a>:
[QUOTE]That was my question Avion, whether proclaiming oneself to be a vendor could be construed as advertising, as clearly if someone wants her services they could PM her presumably.  You don't need the name of her business now to know she's a vendor and how to contact her.
Posted by 1covejack[/QUOTE]

<div>Yeah, but she was in no way "promoting her busines."   She didn't even really say what her business WAS except that she's a "musician" which could mean lots of things.  Sure, you could PM her....but you would only do that if you were actually interested in her services.  She's not getting free advertising by saying "pay your vendors."</div>

mkrupar

Wait I have to pay people for services? My wedding was free. You're all doing it wrong.

OP put in your contract that payment is due prior to the event. makes it much easier, and this is pretty standard for a lot of vendors in the wedding industry. 

Mrs.B6302007

Even if she wasn't soliciting her own business, she still can't announce that she is currently in the wedding industry. Ask Frankie.

crash2729

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_remember-to-pay-your-vendors?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:2f693119-3c1c-49dc-bf36-49356250d759Post:116192f1-0a71-4aec-891b-f912db85b254">Re: Remember to PAY your vendors.</a>:
[QUOTE]Edit:  I thought vendors just weren't allowed to promote their business?  The OP didn't even mention the name of her business, she's just giving a different perspective (albeit a whiney-sounding one).   
Posted by Avion22[/QUOTE]
I think people have been banned for saying they were planners and such(and always talking about it), but I'm not 100% sure.<div>But it almost sounds like she knows she shouldn't be posting here ("I know this is a board for brides only....BUT") </div><div>
</div><div>Special Snowflake. </div>

Mirahbelle4

Shite, I knew there was something I was forgetting.

RamonaFlowers

I really want to know where this this universe is where people don't have to pay their vendors until the day of the wedding. I see it all the time on the reality shows that brides are scrambling last minute to pay people the day of the wedding. Every single vendor I talked to during the planning process (Whether I used their services, or was just pricing them out) made it clear from the get-go that they had to be paid in full at least 2 weeks before the wedding.

amorg334

The only time i saw someone pay the day of was for there bar bill but everything else was paid in advance

saranandy

[QUOTE]In Response to Re:Remember to PAY your vendors.: This. I was once threatened with bannination for giving lighting advice which consisted of "can we hook these into this power supply? Nope, not unless you want to burn the church down" because I said I was an LD. Nevermind that I only work PERFORMANCES and have never lit weddings for money, that was close enough to a vendor for KA to send me a very nasty email. So, yeah, if that qualifies, I think this does too.
Posted by StageManager14[/QUOTE]

Okay, that is really way too over the top IMHO. I mean, if I had a question about food prep, let's say, and there happened to be a bride on the boards that was also a professional chef, I wouldn't be pissed if she responded, I'd be thrilled because she, ya know, has more info on this than the average bear. Just sayin'. As long as it's not from an actual vendor, I don't see a problem.