In a world where we all carry cell phones and you can check your email from just about anywhere it’s sometimes hard to understand why you don’t always hear back from your vendors right away. It’s sometimes frustrating for you but it’s important to know what happens in the operations of a wedding industry business. This way you’ll understand why it make take your wedding professionals a little longer to respond than you’d often like.

Hang in there with me as I help you understand a day in the life of a wedding professional. We’re opening the curtain for you to peek inside and see what’s happening behind the scenes.

Come along and you’ll learn 5 reasons why your wedding vendor isn’t responding right away!

 

We’re Outnumbered

Many times when you work with companies you expect that there’s lots and lots of people doing lots and lots of things to keep the company structure going but that’s not always the case in the wedding industry. Because weddings require a creative mind, often times it means your vendors are the single creative behind their company. They may have an assistant, or a social media manager, or some help for your wedding day but the majority of your vendors will be working with you from the moment you inquire to the day of your wedding. There’s only one of them but there’s hundreds of couples! Depending on the size of their business wedding professionals have multiple weddings in the same month and some even on the same day.

 

This means that as a wedding draws nearer the wedding professional will likely put priority on pressing questions from clients whose weddings are the closest. While this may feel slightly frustrating at 8 months out from your wedding it also means that at 1 month away from your wedding you will be the pressing question they answer! Your vendors are doing what they can to create a custom experience for each of you. Which means that it could take time to answer the hundreds of emails we receive in a week.

 

Here’s how to help: Please by all means email pressing questions. They are important and we’ll know that. But if you have more than one question or know that you’ll have more questions in the very near future, email us all of the questions at once. This will help us to respond in full to any concerns or questions you may have. And you’ll get the most complete answers in the most efficient way.

 

It’s Wedding Season

When the wedding season begins so does the crazy schedule of a wedding professional. Late weekend nights, early mornings, hours of editing, hours of ordering products, constructing your vision, and making sure the team is in place to carry out your contract. When times are slow you may find that responses are much more timely and then, right about when you start to feel the pinch, your wedding pros stop responding as quickly! It’s enough to make you a little nervous!

 

Most wedding professionals have a very specific flow of work that they follow in order to answer any questions you have and keep you going after you’ve booked with them. It’s very normal to have gaps of time where you won’t need to talk to your florist, venue, or DJ for example. But when it’s time, you’ll be hearing from your vendor to set up all of the final meetings and get all of the last minute details.

 

So if you don’t hear from them right away during wedding season, they’re coming! It just might take them a little longer.

 

Here’s how to help: Help us help you by asking questions early and as soon as the problem arises. Don’t wait until you’ve exhausted all of your options and email in a panic. We’re always here to help you get the best answers and if you’re not already in a time crunch you’ll be ok to wait that extra 24 hours it might take to hear from your vendor partners.

 

It’s the Weekend

Even J. Lo had to work on the weekends when she played my part. It’s a cruel joke. When you’re off of work and planning away, your wedding professionals are working hard at another client’s wedding. This means that your typical days off aren’t the same as your wedding professionals’. Many will take Monday and Friday or Monday and Tuesday in exchange for their weekend days.

 

This means that while you were really hoping to have an answer on Monday, your vendor partner is trying to take a day to do the laundry and get to the grocery store. We’re real people and we have to squeeze in life stuff somewhere too.

 

How to help: Ask us about our communication policies when you sign the contract. Many wedding professionals will inform you of their days off and weekends away. You’ll also want to ask about production times too. For example you’ll likely not hear back from a florist on Friday while they are designing and building the items you ordered. Their hands and buckets are full of flowers! This is true for the bakery, the dj, and any other active creator. If you know a little about the back end operations it’ll help you understand why they can’t always respond during production days or on their odd day weekends.

 

They Don’t Know Yet

Because your wedding requires a collaborative effort amongst all of your vendor partners often times it takes an answer from one person before a final and complete answer can be given. This means that it might take an email to another vendor, wait time, and time to formulate a response in order to answer your question.

 

Sometimes in order to keep all of the inboxes nice and clean your wedding professional will get the information they need in full before responding to your original email. Because no two weddings are alike your answer will often be totally unique to your situation and will take that custom touch. As a result, it sometimes takes a little longer to get the proper responses and an answer back to you.

 

It Didn’t Come Through

We’ve come a long way in email communication but it still happens. Sometimes your wedding professional has computer troubles, server issues, or their email isn’t working the way it should. We are real life small businesses and sometimes things just happen.

 

While your vendors will absolutely work like crazy to fix any issues if you feel it’s been too long or that potentially your email hasn’t been received try again! It’s ok to ask if your email was received. If it wasn’t you’ll likely receive a very apologetic response.

 

Here’s how you can help: Just ask. A little grace goes a long way. Email us to be sure we haven’t had any issues or your email isn’t hidden in spam land. We want you to know we care about you so a quick check-in is never a bad idea!

 

Now that you’ve seen behind the scenes of a wedding business you know that at the core of every single wedding industry business is the desire to give you the best service possible. We really do care about how you feel and that you get the answers to your questions.

 

Many times we’re a small team working endless hours to be sure that your experience with us is as amazing as we know your wedding weekend will be. Give us the time we need to provide the best possible answers to your needs. We’re here for you and we care about you!

 

Most importantly we want you to feel like you’re having the custom experience you deserve. And custom just takes a little extra time!

 

If you’re having trouble reaching your vendors after a gentle nudge and some patience it might be time to work with your planner as an advocate. Often times we know the answers you need or have alternate ways to contact your vendors. It’s one of the job perks!

Let us know if you need help! CLICK here to chat with us!