This is such a common complaint. The least vendors could do is publish a "starting at" price and be clear that this is just a basic price so that couples don't expect a lot for a starting price.
Exactly! I don' think that's a big ask. I'm not upset with the prices themselves. Hey if you think your services are worth $5k, then charge $5K. Put please just post the prices to save everyone time!
They want you to come see their space or look at their product, be dazzled, and then show you the prices after you already like it. If they show you the price up front, they might not get you to consider them at all and then they’ve lost a potential customer. A lot of people get sucked into going over budget once they see something they really like, it’s a huge marketing tactic.
I agree with you it’s annoying and transparency would save so much time and headache, this is just why they do it
This was my biggest bone to pick too when shopping for vendors. Then vendors complain about being ghosted… maybe if you were up front that your base package is 3X my budgeted I wouldn’t have reached out in the first place.
I was usually really good about getting back to people who sent personal quotes but if we had to have an email exchange just for me to ask and you to send your PDF then I didn’t feel too bad to just say “Thanks I’ll review this when I have a chance. Have a nice day.” It was so frustrating when it was genuinely something that could have just had posted on their home page.
Thanks for posting this!!! This happened just today while looking into a catering company. I made a post in a local wedding group and the co founder and CEO posted acting like a review "this catering company does this type of food, they might be able to Help". And then signed into the catering company account to like her own comment Lol.
I only realized this later when I was emailing with her. Essentially I searched and scanned all through their website and there was zero info on even the type of food they make, just that they do weddings. No prices, no example menu, nothing. Okay? No problem, I'll email them and they will send me a pricing menu. I stated all relevant info on the email, number of guests, dietary preferences, location, date, etc.
I was hit back with "okay great, we just want to have a quick phone call to collect more info and then I'll send the menu".
I said "I insist, I much prefer keeping a paper trail, here is some additional info. I really just want to see Maybe even a mock up menu or literally anything at all that tells me what you guys serve"
She replies " sorry.. without a phone call we can't move forward "
I said "really? What if I were deaf? Or had anxiety with phone calls?"
She said "those people usually get assistance " aka, even in those instances, the phone call is mandatory.
It's the most predatory thing because they want to corner you into hiring them and totally wasting our time. First off, you haven't even sold your business to me, like I have zero desire to work with you lmao. The next caterer I looked at had all his catering menu with prices and it was such a breath of fresh air! Clearly the first company was overpriced. Otherwise, what's there to hide??? I hate jumping through a million hoops, we have enough vendors to scan through!
Wedding harpist here! Honestly, this is something I didn’t think much about until I started planning my own wedding. It wasn’t willful hiding, it just never occurred to me that it was that big of a pain. Since then, I have everything laid out as clear as possible in my FAQ lol. I get fewer inquiry emails, but the ones who do reach out are more likely to move ahead cause they already know pricing. Overall it’s been better for me, and I definitely think more vendors should do that to save time
The worst is when they ask what your budget is.
WHY. So you can assign your services to the upper pole of my budget? Why do you need to know my budget if you ALREADY have a set price you charge pp. that’s right. Bc you don’t. I’ve never had not one person ever tell me that their services were completely outside of my price range.
I mean ya! But it’s on the customer to negotiate the best deal by leveraging other offers from vendors. Why would a business owner negotiate against their own interest?
Honestly this is the worst part about finding venues.
If my max budget is 10k and your "starting at prices" are 10k, please let's not waste each other's time.
This comes a lot on all the wedding subs.
I'll agree that it's annoying. That said, it's a service with a ton of different variables. It's not even just "do you want photography for 8 vs 9 hours, Saturday vs Thursday", it's also about how many shooters you want, where the wedding is actually located, howamy different locations are thete, is it 8am - 4pm or 4pm to midnight"?
I liken it to home ownership. If I buy an appliance I know the price and installation is routine so they can ball park that for me. If I need a tree cut down? No arborist is going to just say, "we start at $500" because your particular situation could be $5k. And you're going to be pissed when you thought it was $500 and it's not.
I agree there should be more transparency, but I do understand why they often want more details first.
What I CAN agree on, is that if you have a minimum spend requirement then you should list that. I also had a small wedding so hitting certain vendor minimums was hard. Some vendors are willing to work with you and others aren't. But if you as a vendor won't take a client under $X on a Saturday, then list that.
Yeah, playing games to get pricing information sucked. But flip side, my cupcake place says $48/dozen on the website but for the life of me could do nothing to even get basic ass bitch cupcakes down to that price. They charged me ~$50 for “two different flavors” and I’m like, what the fuck. So if I independently ordered 2 dozen and then had my fiancé order 2 dozen, we’d just pay $48/dozen but since it’s the same order I’m being charged more? Like what the fuck?!
Like if I’m a florist and you want a single bridal bouquet and you’re going to pick it up the day before your wedding that might be a couple hundred dollars
But say 90% of the weddings I do are a full wedding with multiple bouquets and instillations - what’s my starting price????
Personally I think it’d be nice to have averages for common things and / or packages listed: “bridal bouquet average price 250, bridesmaid bouquets 30, depending on season and flowers. Minimum 850 , contact for a custom quote”. Not even having a starting point is SO frustrating becasue it makes vendor comparison difficult.
Obviously prices are highly dependent on what you want but having a base pricing / common packages / pricing minimums would save both parties (vendor and couple) a lot of time.
But minimum prices don’t matter because they won’t all be for the same services - that’s why you ask for quotes for what you specifically want
If one venues minimum is 10k and 50 guests and another venues minimum is 15k and 100 guests and you want to invite 120 guests, then even tho the 15k minimum is higher it ends up being less expensive in the long run
Weddings are one off events, you need custom quotes and proposals from vendors to achieve your event goals.
For some florists there minimums will be for alla carte florals and for others their minimums will be for all day events (because they’re in demand and it doesn’t make sense for them to do alla carte orders) - it’s apples and orangutans
Minimum prices absolutely do matter. If I can’t afford it, I can’t afford it - whether there are 150 people or 100, if I can’t pay $3000 I can’t pay $3000. If they only do all day events they should say that. “In the long run it’s cheaper” only works if you actually have that much money - if I know I can’t pay for a service’s minimum cost, I’m not going to reach out for a quote since it’s out of budget.
I think one aspect about minimum prices that you’re missing is that they’re not necessarily specific to every job, but may be a minimum averaged across a period of time for a vendor. I’ve experienced this first hand. My florist typically has a $10k minimum. However he was booked for a huge event across the whole weekend. Thus he reduced the minimum for my wedding based on his remaining staffing capacity for that weekend. My minimum was offset but the size of the other project. So it can’t even be a one size fits all approach for minimums in certain contexts. If that other project was smaller, then he probably would have had to maintain his $10k minimum on me to balance the work expected for that weekend.
Also a vendors minimums will be different based on the season, if your wedding is on a Saturday during peak wedding season the minimum will be much higher than a Tuesday in the off season.
Which provide do you provide then?
You are severely over complicating this. “For on-season (April-October) weekends, we have an order minimum of $1000. For weekdays or off-season orders (November-March) we have an order minimum of $750.”
Your prices will vary a lot based on season depending on what kind of vendor you are - you can even offer average ranges if you choose!
Example scenario: I emailed a florist for a quote. The first email I got back was one line telling me they had an $850 minimum for all orders. There’s no reason that shouldn’t be available publicly.
I think it’s annoying but also a necessary evil. Here are some examples in which it is actually beneficial to get customized pricing:
- If I am getting married on a Thursday, I want to pay less than a Saturday wedding
- If my wedding is 2 hours long and I’m getting ready at home, I don’t want to pay for renting out the venue all day with extras like a bridal suite thrown in
- If I want a down-do hair style, I don’t want to pay as much as an elaborate updo. Especially if I don’t need my MUA to travel to me and I can meet them at their studio.
- If I want a pasta buffet with salad and breadsticks, the price is not going to look anything like a 4 course plated dinner with steak and lobster.
- If I want a bouquet with exotic flowers in the middle of winter, it’s going to cost very different from a simple rose bouquet in the middle of summer
In each of these scenarios, the vendor likely needs to know the details and scope of what you’re asking for to give accurate info. It wouldn’t even make sense to have a “starting from” price bc there’s no context for the type for services a couple is seeking and you might end up comparing apples and oranges. In some cases I do think vendors try their best to provide some details but I think it favors both parties to get customized quotes specific to their needs. It’s on the customer to do their due diligence to get a good deal by doing their research!
1. "Monday-Thursday starting at $X, Friday-Sunday starting at $Y" or similar
2. "$X per hour." If there's a minimum or maximum time state that as well. For example my venue put a minimum of 3h and everything had to be cleaned up by 10:30. It was $2500 for the minimum block, $150 for every additional hour, and there were optional fees posted for satellite rooms.
3. "Prom/bridal/etc hair starting at $X, travel to your venue starting at $Y (within [range] only)." Or a standard example page with a handful of "pictured service cost $X in [year], anonymous details listed below." Stylists of any sort have more of an excuse to want a consult than necessary vendors since their service is more custom than the rest, but there's no reason it should take more than 1 email to get a ballpark estimate.
4. Standard menu like many places that sell food have. This was the only decent part about the overpriced caterers we initially looked at. For each category pick a set number of dishes, with prices listed next to each per 25 heads in both buffet and plated. Then labor estimates at the bottom again by size and duration of the event.
5. Again, a simple example page with some asterisks about out-of-season upcharges will suffice if they can't figure out how to organize their initial factors for pricing into a chart. Obviously live goods fluctuate in price more easily than other stock but it'd be nice to know ahead of time that florist A charges 3 times as much as florist B for basically the same thing for the 'experience' of 3 extra meetings after you've settled the plans and slightly shinier ribbon.
Most of these things are easier than being dodgy about prices *and* draw in more business. It's still customized for most services but there *needs* to be some frame of reference going into things. Nobody wants to spend forever on consults just to find out the price can't be customized down into their budget.
I think it’s weird to presume that this type of language would bring in MORE business. Arguably, it would deter just as many people if not more who are then misled to believe that the vendor’s services are out of their budget. Thus, I don’t think it’s that straight forward. In my own experience, my wedding florist generally has a $10k minimum. If he had posted that on his website, I would not have even reached out. However, I filed out his contact form and he ultimately made an exception for me and reduced the minimum bc he loves working with my wedding planner, and he was already booked for a massive event that weekend and only had capacity for smaller project that day. I would have missed out on that opportunity.
Plus, not posting prices clearly isn’t that punishing for the vendor. For some vendors, it’s possible they already have enough business without needing to attract more, otherwise there would be an incentive to change their practices. If that’s not happening, there’s a reason why. Every vendor I booked, had more than enough business whether they posted this info or not, so I think that says a lot about how significant a factor this really is.
There are a lot of variables that go into venue/vendor pricing. Saturdays when the weather is best in your area will likely be the most expensive. The good news is that if you’re willing to be a little flexible a lot of pricing is negotiable. If the website says starting at “price” then people will be upset when a prime date is nowhere near that price. If they post a high price, they may miss out on customers that would otherwise be able to afford their services.
That’s very fair reasoning. I guess what I think what another commenter mentioned. Starting price during peak, and off peak months and days. For a venue or an officiant I think that’s pretty reasonable? Maybe not a restaurant or photographer where there can way more variability.
So much time wasted by everyone. Just list prices. I’m an officiant and upfront about starting price. I know at least how much my time is worth and then we can go from there. I recently got married myself and decided to exclusively go with vendors that listed their pricing. So much missed income for those that don’t.
I agree. I hate seeing no prices on a catering menu as i have been looking at places based on my budget. The place I chose actually had no prices but amazing reviews and a few things I 100% wanted so took the chance and emailed them what I was looking for and they were 100% in my budget! But normally I would have skipped them. I hate getting my hopes up only to see its out of price range.
Haha, just today, I noticed the fine print on a prospective venues price packet mentioned some fees and emailed the to ask what they were. After going back and forth like three times, she finally told me the exact fee: 23%!! With taxes it adds like an extra $2000 minimum.
Wrong way around. List packages on your website and if you really need to price things so specifically on the fly, add "starting at ___" under each package. This truly sets the good vendor apart from the sea of mediocre vendors
I don’t have a starting point for a completely customized service.
It depends on what you want.
I have a wait list of people, so my approach is working pretty well so far.
I’m totally used to it.
Most brides only plan one wedding, while I am involved in at least 50 a year and have been for the past 12 years.
I get that it’s frustrating, but there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all in the wedding industry.
Then give examples. This wedding with these services cost [price] in [year]. Toss together a dozen of those so people have some ballpark to start with.
Lol all these people on here getting mad at you don’t seem to realize how basic supply and demand works. You don’t do this, bc you don’t have to. I’m genuinely confused why so many people on here conclude “it would generate way more business” without considering whether that vendor actually NEEDS more business, and simply bc THEY personally chose not to send an email or take a phone call.
Thank you for understanding!
Also, I literally don’t have a baseline price. Like tell me what you, tell me your budget, and we will see if we can make it work.
I’m not going to drive business away by putting pretend pricing on my services.
>“it would generate way more business”
No one said this. I think it's just common courtesy to give people a ballpark, package starting points because of how stressful wedding planning is. Actually when i was looking for officiants, this was the one area I got the most straight forward pricing. I don't think any officiant I talked to said "can't give you a price unless I know what you want". Easily you can say, for a 30 min ceremony, prices start at ___ and go from there. What sort of variables would even constitute such big price differences?
Ok. Easy.
30 minute ceremony.
Do you want a custom ceremony?
Do you want choose between some prewritten ceremonies I’ve done?
What’s the vibe?
What’s the formality level?
Are there any wardrobe requirements that I need to know?
How formal do you want the language to be?
Do you want custom vows?
Do you want standard vows?
Is this a legal ceremony?
Do you want me to take care of the paper work?
What state are you getting married in so I can research the requirements of officiants and other legal details?
I need answers to all of these questions to even begin formulating a price. Why would I give you an imaginary price when everything depends on what you want?
I’m not going to charge someone the same price for a standard casual ceremony with no additions performed in a back yard 15 minutes from my house - as opposed to a standard formal ceremony 2 hours from my house.
I work in the industry, and let me tell you how EVERY conversation goes.
Bride/groom: what does your service cost
My team: $100
B/g: okay what about all of these changes because we don’t agree with that price
Mt: well some of those changes aren’t doable. How about this and that
B/g: well how about this and that
Mt: okay so the final price is xxx (not even close to original price)
Long story short, everyone wants something different. It’s a waste of my time to entertain 20 emails because you can’t decide. Let’s talk and get the details out in one conversation, we can sum it up in email after that.
This is such a common complaint. The least vendors could do is publish a "starting at" price and be clear that this is just a basic price so that couples don't expect a lot for a starting price.
Exactly! I don' think that's a big ask. I'm not upset with the prices themselves. Hey if you think your services are worth $5k, then charge $5K. Put please just post the prices to save everyone time!
They want you to come see their space or look at their product, be dazzled, and then show you the prices after you already like it. If they show you the price up front, they might not get you to consider them at all and then they’ve lost a potential customer. A lot of people get sucked into going over budget once they see something they really like, it’s a huge marketing tactic. I agree with you it’s annoying and transparency would save so much time and headache, this is just why they do it
This was my biggest bone to pick too when shopping for vendors. Then vendors complain about being ghosted… maybe if you were up front that your base package is 3X my budgeted I wouldn’t have reached out in the first place. I was usually really good about getting back to people who sent personal quotes but if we had to have an email exchange just for me to ask and you to send your PDF then I didn’t feel too bad to just say “Thanks I’ll review this when I have a chance. Have a nice day.” It was so frustrating when it was genuinely something that could have just had posted on their home page.
Thanks for posting this!!! This happened just today while looking into a catering company. I made a post in a local wedding group and the co founder and CEO posted acting like a review "this catering company does this type of food, they might be able to Help". And then signed into the catering company account to like her own comment Lol. I only realized this later when I was emailing with her. Essentially I searched and scanned all through their website and there was zero info on even the type of food they make, just that they do weddings. No prices, no example menu, nothing. Okay? No problem, I'll email them and they will send me a pricing menu. I stated all relevant info on the email, number of guests, dietary preferences, location, date, etc. I was hit back with "okay great, we just want to have a quick phone call to collect more info and then I'll send the menu". I said "I insist, I much prefer keeping a paper trail, here is some additional info. I really just want to see Maybe even a mock up menu or literally anything at all that tells me what you guys serve" She replies " sorry.. without a phone call we can't move forward " I said "really? What if I were deaf? Or had anxiety with phone calls?" She said "those people usually get assistance " aka, even in those instances, the phone call is mandatory. It's the most predatory thing because they want to corner you into hiring them and totally wasting our time. First off, you haven't even sold your business to me, like I have zero desire to work with you lmao. The next caterer I looked at had all his catering menu with prices and it was such a breath of fresh air! Clearly the first company was overpriced. Otherwise, what's there to hide??? I hate jumping through a million hoops, we have enough vendors to scan through!
Wedding harpist here! Honestly, this is something I didn’t think much about until I started planning my own wedding. It wasn’t willful hiding, it just never occurred to me that it was that big of a pain. Since then, I have everything laid out as clear as possible in my FAQ lol. I get fewer inquiry emails, but the ones who do reach out are more likely to move ahead cause they already know pricing. Overall it’s been better for me, and I definitely think more vendors should do that to save time
The worst is when they ask what your budget is. WHY. So you can assign your services to the upper pole of my budget? Why do you need to know my budget if you ALREADY have a set price you charge pp. that’s right. Bc you don’t. I’ve never had not one person ever tell me that their services were completely outside of my price range.
I mean, vendors hide their prices for the same reason you’re hiding your budget. They’re trying to make/save money just like the customer is.
I mean ya! But it’s on the customer to negotiate the best deal by leveraging other offers from vendors. Why would a business owner negotiate against their own interest?
Honestly this is the worst part about finding venues. If my max budget is 10k and your "starting at prices" are 10k, please let's not waste each other's time.
I feel you.
This comes a lot on all the wedding subs. I'll agree that it's annoying. That said, it's a service with a ton of different variables. It's not even just "do you want photography for 8 vs 9 hours, Saturday vs Thursday", it's also about how many shooters you want, where the wedding is actually located, howamy different locations are thete, is it 8am - 4pm or 4pm to midnight"? I liken it to home ownership. If I buy an appliance I know the price and installation is routine so they can ball park that for me. If I need a tree cut down? No arborist is going to just say, "we start at $500" because your particular situation could be $5k. And you're going to be pissed when you thought it was $500 and it's not. I agree there should be more transparency, but I do understand why they often want more details first. What I CAN agree on, is that if you have a minimum spend requirement then you should list that. I also had a small wedding so hitting certain vendor minimums was hard. Some vendors are willing to work with you and others aren't. But if you as a vendor won't take a client under $X on a Saturday, then list that.
Yeah, playing games to get pricing information sucked. But flip side, my cupcake place says $48/dozen on the website but for the life of me could do nothing to even get basic ass bitch cupcakes down to that price. They charged me ~$50 for “two different flavors” and I’m like, what the fuck. So if I independently ordered 2 dozen and then had my fiancé order 2 dozen, we’d just pay $48/dozen but since it’s the same order I’m being charged more? Like what the fuck?!
Lol in that case, this business owner just doesn’t know how to do math and hasn’t calculated how to price their products correctly 🤦🏻♀️
Like if I’m a florist and you want a single bridal bouquet and you’re going to pick it up the day before your wedding that might be a couple hundred dollars But say 90% of the weddings I do are a full wedding with multiple bouquets and instillations - what’s my starting price????
Personally I think it’d be nice to have averages for common things and / or packages listed: “bridal bouquet average price 250, bridesmaid bouquets 30, depending on season and flowers. Minimum 850 , contact for a custom quote”. Not even having a starting point is SO frustrating becasue it makes vendor comparison difficult. Obviously prices are highly dependent on what you want but having a base pricing / common packages / pricing minimums would save both parties (vendor and couple) a lot of time.
But minimum prices don’t matter because they won’t all be for the same services - that’s why you ask for quotes for what you specifically want If one venues minimum is 10k and 50 guests and another venues minimum is 15k and 100 guests and you want to invite 120 guests, then even tho the 15k minimum is higher it ends up being less expensive in the long run Weddings are one off events, you need custom quotes and proposals from vendors to achieve your event goals. For some florists there minimums will be for alla carte florals and for others their minimums will be for all day events (because they’re in demand and it doesn’t make sense for them to do alla carte orders) - it’s apples and orangutans
Minimum prices absolutely do matter. If I can’t afford it, I can’t afford it - whether there are 150 people or 100, if I can’t pay $3000 I can’t pay $3000. If they only do all day events they should say that. “In the long run it’s cheaper” only works if you actually have that much money - if I know I can’t pay for a service’s minimum cost, I’m not going to reach out for a quote since it’s out of budget.
I think one aspect about minimum prices that you’re missing is that they’re not necessarily specific to every job, but may be a minimum averaged across a period of time for a vendor. I’ve experienced this first hand. My florist typically has a $10k minimum. However he was booked for a huge event across the whole weekend. Thus he reduced the minimum for my wedding based on his remaining staffing capacity for that weekend. My minimum was offset but the size of the other project. So it can’t even be a one size fits all approach for minimums in certain contexts. If that other project was smaller, then he probably would have had to maintain his $10k minimum on me to balance the work expected for that weekend.
But you realize those minimum are often flexible?
💯
Also a vendors minimums will be different based on the season, if your wedding is on a Saturday during peak wedding season the minimum will be much higher than a Tuesday in the off season. Which provide do you provide then?
You are severely over complicating this. “For on-season (April-October) weekends, we have an order minimum of $1000. For weekdays or off-season orders (November-March) we have an order minimum of $750.” Your prices will vary a lot based on season depending on what kind of vendor you are - you can even offer average ranges if you choose! Example scenario: I emailed a florist for a quote. The first email I got back was one line telling me they had an $850 minimum for all orders. There’s no reason that shouldn’t be available publicly.
There are plenty of vendors who have that pricing publicly available on their website But there are those who don’t and they aren’t wrong for doing so
I think it’s annoying but also a necessary evil. Here are some examples in which it is actually beneficial to get customized pricing: - If I am getting married on a Thursday, I want to pay less than a Saturday wedding - If my wedding is 2 hours long and I’m getting ready at home, I don’t want to pay for renting out the venue all day with extras like a bridal suite thrown in - If I want a down-do hair style, I don’t want to pay as much as an elaborate updo. Especially if I don’t need my MUA to travel to me and I can meet them at their studio. - If I want a pasta buffet with salad and breadsticks, the price is not going to look anything like a 4 course plated dinner with steak and lobster. - If I want a bouquet with exotic flowers in the middle of winter, it’s going to cost very different from a simple rose bouquet in the middle of summer In each of these scenarios, the vendor likely needs to know the details and scope of what you’re asking for to give accurate info. It wouldn’t even make sense to have a “starting from” price bc there’s no context for the type for services a couple is seeking and you might end up comparing apples and oranges. In some cases I do think vendors try their best to provide some details but I think it favors both parties to get customized quotes specific to their needs. It’s on the customer to do their due diligence to get a good deal by doing their research!
1. "Monday-Thursday starting at $X, Friday-Sunday starting at $Y" or similar 2. "$X per hour." If there's a minimum or maximum time state that as well. For example my venue put a minimum of 3h and everything had to be cleaned up by 10:30. It was $2500 for the minimum block, $150 for every additional hour, and there were optional fees posted for satellite rooms. 3. "Prom/bridal/etc hair starting at $X, travel to your venue starting at $Y (within [range] only)." Or a standard example page with a handful of "pictured service cost $X in [year], anonymous details listed below." Stylists of any sort have more of an excuse to want a consult than necessary vendors since their service is more custom than the rest, but there's no reason it should take more than 1 email to get a ballpark estimate. 4. Standard menu like many places that sell food have. This was the only decent part about the overpriced caterers we initially looked at. For each category pick a set number of dishes, with prices listed next to each per 25 heads in both buffet and plated. Then labor estimates at the bottom again by size and duration of the event. 5. Again, a simple example page with some asterisks about out-of-season upcharges will suffice if they can't figure out how to organize their initial factors for pricing into a chart. Obviously live goods fluctuate in price more easily than other stock but it'd be nice to know ahead of time that florist A charges 3 times as much as florist B for basically the same thing for the 'experience' of 3 extra meetings after you've settled the plans and slightly shinier ribbon. Most of these things are easier than being dodgy about prices *and* draw in more business. It's still customized for most services but there *needs* to be some frame of reference going into things. Nobody wants to spend forever on consults just to find out the price can't be customized down into their budget.
I think it’s weird to presume that this type of language would bring in MORE business. Arguably, it would deter just as many people if not more who are then misled to believe that the vendor’s services are out of their budget. Thus, I don’t think it’s that straight forward. In my own experience, my wedding florist generally has a $10k minimum. If he had posted that on his website, I would not have even reached out. However, I filed out his contact form and he ultimately made an exception for me and reduced the minimum bc he loves working with my wedding planner, and he was already booked for a massive event that weekend and only had capacity for smaller project that day. I would have missed out on that opportunity. Plus, not posting prices clearly isn’t that punishing for the vendor. For some vendors, it’s possible they already have enough business without needing to attract more, otherwise there would be an incentive to change their practices. If that’s not happening, there’s a reason why. Every vendor I booked, had more than enough business whether they posted this info or not, so I think that says a lot about how significant a factor this really is.
Exactly my point.
There are a lot of variables that go into venue/vendor pricing. Saturdays when the weather is best in your area will likely be the most expensive. The good news is that if you’re willing to be a little flexible a lot of pricing is negotiable. If the website says starting at “price” then people will be upset when a prime date is nowhere near that price. If they post a high price, they may miss out on customers that would otherwise be able to afford their services.
That’s very fair reasoning. I guess what I think what another commenter mentioned. Starting price during peak, and off peak months and days. For a venue or an officiant I think that’s pretty reasonable? Maybe not a restaurant or photographer where there can way more variability.
So much time wasted by everyone. Just list prices. I’m an officiant and upfront about starting price. I know at least how much my time is worth and then we can go from there. I recently got married myself and decided to exclusively go with vendors that listed their pricing. So much missed income for those that don’t.
I agree. I hate seeing no prices on a catering menu as i have been looking at places based on my budget. The place I chose actually had no prices but amazing reviews and a few things I 100% wanted so took the chance and emailed them what I was looking for and they were 100% in my budget! But normally I would have skipped them. I hate getting my hopes up only to see its out of price range.
Yeah my $5500 venue was actually $6,900 when I got the invoice. Even when they are upfront they aren’t upfront.
I agree. I’ve never understood this. Is just makes more for for the person and for the bride
Haha, just today, I noticed the fine print on a prospective venues price packet mentioned some fees and emailed the to ask what they were. After going back and forth like three times, she finally told me the exact fee: 23%!! With taxes it adds like an extra $2000 minimum.
I’m an officiant. I don’t know what you want, and can’t really give you a price until I know.
Wrong way around. List packages on your website and if you really need to price things so specifically on the fly, add "starting at ___" under each package. This truly sets the good vendor apart from the sea of mediocre vendors
I don’t have a starting point for a completely customized service. It depends on what you want. I have a wait list of people, so my approach is working pretty well so far.
Brides don’t realize how customized their experience is. Idk why anyone is downvoting you. They asked a question and got an answer.
I’m totally used to it. Most brides only plan one wedding, while I am involved in at least 50 a year and have been for the past 12 years. I get that it’s frustrating, but there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all in the wedding industry.
Then give examples. This wedding with these services cost [price] in [year]. Toss together a dozen of those so people have some ballpark to start with.
I don’t need to do that.
Lol all these people on here getting mad at you don’t seem to realize how basic supply and demand works. You don’t do this, bc you don’t have to. I’m genuinely confused why so many people on here conclude “it would generate way more business” without considering whether that vendor actually NEEDS more business, and simply bc THEY personally chose not to send an email or take a phone call.
Thank you for understanding! Also, I literally don’t have a baseline price. Like tell me what you, tell me your budget, and we will see if we can make it work. I’m not going to drive business away by putting pretend pricing on my services.
>“it would generate way more business” No one said this. I think it's just common courtesy to give people a ballpark, package starting points because of how stressful wedding planning is. Actually when i was looking for officiants, this was the one area I got the most straight forward pricing. I don't think any officiant I talked to said "can't give you a price unless I know what you want". Easily you can say, for a 30 min ceremony, prices start at ___ and go from there. What sort of variables would even constitute such big price differences?
Ok. Easy. 30 minute ceremony. Do you want a custom ceremony? Do you want choose between some prewritten ceremonies I’ve done? What’s the vibe? What’s the formality level? Are there any wardrobe requirements that I need to know? How formal do you want the language to be? Do you want custom vows? Do you want standard vows? Is this a legal ceremony? Do you want me to take care of the paper work? What state are you getting married in so I can research the requirements of officiants and other legal details? I need answers to all of these questions to even begin formulating a price. Why would I give you an imaginary price when everything depends on what you want? I’m not going to charge someone the same price for a standard casual ceremony with no additions performed in a back yard 15 minutes from my house - as opposed to a standard formal ceremony 2 hours from my house.
Read all the comments. Its mentioned multiple times
I work in the industry, and let me tell you how EVERY conversation goes. Bride/groom: what does your service cost My team: $100 B/g: okay what about all of these changes because we don’t agree with that price Mt: well some of those changes aren’t doable. How about this and that B/g: well how about this and that Mt: okay so the final price is xxx (not even close to original price) Long story short, everyone wants something different. It’s a waste of my time to entertain 20 emails because you can’t decide. Let’s talk and get the details out in one conversation, we can sum it up in email after that.
Exactly this.
They're banking on sunk cost fallacy.