The stories you are about to read are in reference to "wedding professionals" who are not members of the Loveland Wedding Professionals.

One of our members recently participated at a wedding in another town at a country club.  She was surprised at the attire worn by the country club wedding coordinator.  The coordinator was wearing a tank top with bra straps showing and very short shorts.  This was at a very elegant wedding with fine linens and chair covers with bows.  The coordinator's attire did not fit the formality of the occasion or location.

A venue in a town West of Loveland scheduled two weddings with only one hour between the end of one and the beginning of another.  At the first wedding the guests were very jovial and flower petals were everywhere on the floor along with cake crumbs and other items that needed to be vacuumed.  The DJ for the second wedding was not allowed into the hall to set up until the vacumming had been done.  The cake could not be set up until the floor had been vacuumed and the table linens changed.  And of course the entire room needed to have linens either changed or at the very least brushed off and new table settings placed.  The guests of the second wedding were not allowed into the room until about 45 minutes after the bride and groom had booked the room because cleaning from the first room took so long.

A DJ at a wedding on the West coast made a very inappropriate comment during the removal of the garter. He had been drinking alcohol while working and apparently no longer felt the need to be respectul of the occasion.

At another wedding the florist arrived ten minutes before the wedding was scheduled to begin.  You can imagine how stressed the bride was that her flowers had not yet arrived.  It was a mad scramble to get the right corsage on the correct people and of course non of the pre-wedding photos included flowers.

At a venue in Denver the staff decided that the cake table was in the wrong place so they picked it up to move it.  Halfway to the new location one of the staff tripped; the cake slid to the floor.  Fortunately the hotel had a frozen cake in the kitchen so they were able to replace the cake.  But the bride's cake had been round.  The new cake was square and still semi-frozen when it came time to cut and eat it.  Imagine if this had been your cake.

So how do you avoid these issues?  You can start by hiring a wedding coordinator or planner that is not tied to or compensated by any facility or other wedding business.  They will be honest with you about which vendors are good to work with and which they would avoid.

The second thing to do is ask questions.  Lots of questions.  And this goes for any type of business.  What is their dress code?  Will you be the only wedding that day on their premises?  Do they guarantee that?  What is their alcohol policy?  What compensation will the vendor provide you if they are late?  Getting referrals is helpful but talk to other vendors.  What do they know about the vendor you are thinking of hiring?  If they are excited to be working with that company that is good news.  If they become quiet or suddenly change their demeanor that is a big red flag.  Most important what is your "gut" feeling?  Do you trust the vendor you are thinking of hiring? This is definitely a case where you want to trust your feelings and not be swayed by price.