Fake or Genuine?

As time goes on I unfortunately hear more and more from brides who are organising their weddings about businesses particularly on facebook who set out with one aim alone and that is to make a quick buck! They set up facebook business pages offer you great offers, everything from wedding dresses, stationary and cakes to favours only to ask for either full payment or a large deposit, then the next thing you know "puff" they have dissapeared into thin air as fast as cinderella's fairy godmother! you then cannot get hold of these people and what's more, they have taken your hard earned money with them. As you can imagine this is a crushing blow to a bride who may have parted with a lot of money for her beautiful dress, only to find that it never really existed.

As a wedding planner and just like any genuine business within the wedding industry this makes my blood boil! It not only makes brides very nervous but give us all a bad name.

One of my jobs as a planner is to help guide couples when making choices, give them the options, the facts and figures and then let them make their choices and decide. I take immense pride on the fact that I see it as my job to try and weed these people out.
I spend an awful lot of my time arranging meetings with prospective suppliers and businesses to check out not only their work, testimonials and most of all make sure that they are genuine approachable people who my couples will feel happy and comfortable dealing with. What's more, I arrange discounts with them that are passed directly on, so hopefully my couples end up with helpful people who go that extra mile that they can contact as and when needed.
After all I guess by recommendations that I make to people it puts my reputation on the line.

Unfortunately in this economic climate there are no guarantees, everyone is having a tough time and the reality is small businesses are folding every day.
So what can you do to protect yourself

If you are not using a wedding planner to assist you in sourcing suppliers or businesses for your wedding, then make sure you check them out, recommendations by friends and relatives are always a good way to go.

check out the suppliers, testimonials, have they got a website? contact numbers? can you meet them face to face?

look out for warning signs such as if its an offer that seems too good to be true it usually is. Also never pay in full for anything, always get receipts, and check terms and conditions. All reputable businesses will have terms and conditions.

If all else fails and you can afford to take out wedding insurance.

So if your planning your big day, tread carefully - but most of us are genuine and all we want to do is provide a good service for our brides and grooms.