Today’s blog continues our discussion from the previous day about wedding planners and how they do business. We posed four questions to various planners throughout the area, and here is a summary of their responses.
Second question to our wedding planners:
When you recommend a vendor, what is the basis of that recommendation? Do you expect a kickback from that vendor? If so, do you advise your client of that?
- The general consensus of most wedding planners that I interviewed is that they tend to use the same two or three vendors over and over because of reliability, good service, and dependability. Wedding Planners place their trust on past performance. Yes, there might be others just as good, but you are paying them for their expertise to save you time in the wedding planning.
- When asked if they (the wedding planners) expected a “kick-back” from the vendor, it was a 50/50 shot. Those who did expect a referral fee said that it was not an issue generally brought up the bride. Other planners very clearly stated that they did not charge or expect a referral fee, and that a vendor couldn’t buy their place onto a recommendation list. There are two things you can take from this – most importantly, you will get a vendor who is experienced and good at his job, and secondly, those services might costs a little more for that peace of mind. However, I do feel that wedding planners need to reach out more to new potential vendors that can supply a good service at a good price – thus a fresh look and feel. I’ve seen many weddings taking on that same look as previous weddings because it’s easier and quicker for the wedding planner. There is a lot of great new talent here in our area. And finally I would recommend when choosing a planner, ask upfront what their policy is regarding referral fees for vendors and what is the basis of their recommendation.
Check back as we will address the answers to the next two questions in our next post.