So I posted yesterday about bartering for services, and I am starting to feel very strange about this whole situation. Sorry this is going to be long, but bear with me please. So you may or may not have heard of this woman, Kerry Coryell from Orange County. She is basically bartering, no begging, her way to her dream wedding. This is the think to an article about her and her craigslist post:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/kerry-says-wedding-2500769-mom-agohttp://orangecounty.craigslist.org/bar/1270732487.htmlWell, I definitely have mixed feelings about this, mainly because I thoroughly believe that people should only plan the wedding that they can afford. I would never beg for people to pay or help me have a dream wedding, especially since there are so many women out there who understand that they can't afford it and just do JOP or something. With that being said, I have also seen a few articles in magazines and such which say it's becoming common (or at least not so unheard of) to barter legitimate services for wedding services. Here is an article from Brides.com:
http://www.brides.com/planning/budget/feature/article/193480Now, I read this article a few months ago and thought it would be cool to do something like that if I had a special skill that I could barter for. And yesterday it hit me: I've been trying to start up my own home and office organization business. Why can't I barter my legit services for some wedding services. I could at least get a discount on those services. So fast forward to last night. I had four emails in response to an ad that I placed on craigslist for this. One was a photographer who said that if I can't find anyone, to keep him in mind. I wouldn't get a discount, but I guess it's nice that he reached out to me. The second was from another photographer (you may have heard of him, Brett Szemple?) who is doing a wedding book and charging $1,500 for a package that was originally $4,500. That is a pretty sweet deal, and I might just take that. But it's the other two that I really don't know what to do with. Both the DJ and the DOC who are doing this craigslist brides wedding offered to do my wedding. For free. They said that they are enjoying working with this woman, and would like to do it again. And I honestly don't know how to feel about that. At first it sounds like a pretty awesome deal. I would get two major vendors for free (they don't even want my services). But I thought about it and I'm nervous that they expect me to be another bride like this beg, barter, or bride. I don't want to be on the news, and I don't want to put ads on my veil (like another woman I read about). I just want a normal wedding. Now, I don't want to seem ungrateful, but how do I handle this? Do I require them to sign the same contract that I would normally sign (since, of course, I really do need these vendors and I wouldn't want them to flake on me just because I'm getting it for free)? Please help me out here, because I'm honestly at a loss as to what to do.And please don't think that I'm just another bride trying to get a wedding for free. That honestly wasn't my intention. I just saw the article saying that it's okay to barter services and I figured I could do that too. I am fully prepared to only have the wedding I can afford, this just happened to drop into my lap. TIA for the advice, and sorry for the long post.