Common Wedding Planning Scams to Watch Out For

Each section of BridalTips.com reveals the scams and caveats to look out for.  One of the most common scams you'll see that gets the most complaints, is bridal shops who tear the designer's label off the dresses so you can't see who the designer is and go comparison shop.  Only in this industry are they arrogant enough to get away with it, even though it's illegal.  I guess we should tell department stores to scratch the "Nikon" and "Canon" off their cameras, so you can't see who makes them and go comparison shop at other stores!  You don't have to be an expert to know it's a violation of FTC rules to remove labels from the dresses in the store.  Only the consumer is allowed to do that.  This is downright deceitful, yet many shops do it anyway, then perpetuate the lie further by lying to you saying it's not illegal.  If they don't like competition, they should not be in the industry.

You'll see sales people who feed off your wedding euphoria by telling you that you need to buy this or that, or making you feel like a pile of trash for not doing this or buying that. Avoid the temptation to buy all the impulse accessories you see at bridal shops, like flower and ring pillows that are 3 times the cost you would pay anywhere else Always do what YOU want to do, not what other people expect of you, and stay sharp. The only one looking out for you is YOU. The wedding industry can be an expensive, nickel-and-dime-you-to-death industry. There's enough hidden charges and weasel clauses out there to confuse a used car salesman. And boy do we get lots of email from brides complaining about how snooty the salespeople were in the bridal dress shops. Sure there's plenty of excellent shops and salespeople, but there are many with real attitude problems. Those are the ones to steer clear of. I would never talk down to or be snooty to a woman who is about to buy a $1500 dress.

Pay All Your Deposits By Credit Card!
Don't give any money without a contract, and never pay deposits by check! If you paid by credit card, and the deal goes south & they don't provide you with what they agreed in the contract, you can always have the transaction taken off your account. Just retain all contracts and receipts. Make sure they accept credit cards before you sign. DO NOT pay by check, because once they have your check, they have your money, and if you get ripped off, good luck getting your money back. And don't even think about paying cash!

Once they have your cash or check, you'll never get it back.

Other scams include bait and switch on flowers, hidden fees and overtime charges, limo companies lying about their fleets, photographers that overcharge for pictures and don't deliver, DJ's and photographers that send someone other than who they promised to work your wedding, and verbal promises made by vendors that are not kept or "forgotten" in the year between your deposit and your wedding. This is a great time to introduce you to the first of many of our BridalTips.com consumer warnings. This one is the single most important tip on this site, so wake up and read the table below. It's amazing how many couples ignore this during the euphoria of wedding planning. You'll see this point driven home hard to you through out this site:
 

Here is a common complaint we hear from brides during their wedding planning, don't let this happen to you:

"They have not delivered my wedding dress and refuse to refund my money. They are not answering my questions about where the dress is and they keep giving me the run around and my dress is OVER 4 weeks overdue from the time that was agreed upon on the contract. They have LOUSY customer service and they LIE about their prices and tear out the tags from their wedding dresses so that you don't know if the dress you are getting is a genuine dress from the manufacturer. They have had complaints filed against them at the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Affairs office."

What To Do First for Your Wedding Planning

Now that the unpleasantness is behind us, let's focus on what you should do first to get started in planning a wedding. There are 3 tasks you must quickly do first, and pretty much at the same time right away:

1) Choose your church, temple, or other wedding ceremony location, and the date you want
2) Choose your wedding reception location and date
3) Choose your wedding photographer

Be prepared to give up the wedding date you have chosen for your special day unless you are fortunate enough to get the wedding reception location and church available for the same day. Most brides think they can always just choose the day they get married. You are in for a major correction, ladies. You do not decide when you get married, the ceremony and reception sites do. Other brides have the church that day, or the hotel is already booked, so you might narrow it down to 3 possible dates where both venues are available for you. Waste no time doing this as many other brides are doing the same thing, booking appointments first thing on Saturday morning to visit, leave a deposit, and reserve the hotel. There's only 52 weeks in the year, and for some venues, that's only 52 brides to accommodate. You aren't the only one getting married on Saturday. Most churches and reception halls are booked a year in advance and fill up quickly, so don't hem and haw over the date.

Try to negotiate the cost as though it's based on a party, not a wedding, as some vendors charge higher prices for weddings. One of our visitors sent us this great tip that saved her sister $5,000 on her wedding:  "Almost every vendor I spoke to who gave me a quote for a "party" for which I did not provide the reason, quoted a price AT LEAST 15% less (in some cases 50%) than the price for the same service after I said the "W" word. All of them did try to raise the price after I admitted that the party was for a Wedding, but most, after I pointed out that the service would be exactly the same, conceded the point and gave me the first price. This worked particularly well with the caterers, reception venues, florists and DJ's. "

It's also crucial to book your wedding photographer quickly too, because they can only shoot 52 weddings per year, and the top ones are always booked at least a year in advance. So how do you begin to plan? How are you going to stay organized? If you don't have a computer, the first thing you need is a wedding planner notebook to organize everything into one neat place. Forget about papers strewn all over the house, organizers have wedding tips, a full calendar, guest lists, to do lists, names, numbers, addresses, everything imaginable.