I used to get more design boards, wedding descriptions, and couples genuinely excited to tell me about what they were planning…in the pre booking phase. In the last few years, it feels like that’s shifted. More price shopping, shorter inquiries, colder emails. If you’ve noticed it too, what do you think changed?

Planner here. I just sent a bunch of emails and got SO many out of office replies. A lot of people are gone for a week! or more. Which made me wonder, what are you doing with new inquiries while you’re away? Because couples are typically moving on after the delay. Also surprised how many vendors I’m working with didn’t mention they were leaving beforehand. By all means take a vaca, but clear things beforehand! 😅 When OOO for longer than 2-3 days, how to do you manage inquires?

Used to be if an inquiry was serious, you knew pretty quickly. Now I’m seeing more people inquire, take the call, ask questions, say they love everything…and then sit on it for weeks/months. Feels like choice fatigue, the noise is too loud. Sometimes they eventually book. Sometimes they disappear. 

Has your actual decision window gotten longer?

About how long and how much effort things actually take. The design deck, seating chart, editing, replying to an email or text, sending the proposal. Yeah the workload is more than one event. But often times it’s procrastination, bad systems, avoidance, or poor time management. I hear so many conversations where everything gets explained away instead of people taking responsibility and admitting they need to do better or even can. At what point are we just validating EXCUSES??

I’ve been in the industry a long time and obviously knew WIPA existed, but for years it felt like no one really cared or like it didn’t hold much significance. Lately it feels like people see it as professionally important, almost like WIPA is making a bigger push to associate itself with “bigger” names. Maybe I missed the shift, but now it feels like another damn industry thing you’re SUPPOSED to care about lol. Show up and show off 🙄

There’s a planner I used to get referrals from pretty consistently and I just realized it’s been a long time since Nothing happened that I know of. We still vibe online and things seem normal But of course I'm curious what changed Did my pricing stop fitting their clients? Did someone else become their go to? Did I unknowingly do something that turned them off? It’s weird how you can lose a referral relationship without ever actually knowing you officially lost it or what caused the loss

People assume I’m doing well because of my reputation and awards. Meanwhile, I’m fighting to keep momentum, swallowing my pride, reaching back out to people, following up harder and going back to basics. I’m taking work I don’t really want and cutting prices for kinda not my vibe weddings. It’s humbling when your reputation is stronger than the actual health of your business 🫤

This weekend the MOB made me feel shitty because I wasn’t offering to hold the bouquet or the brides dress/veil That’s not my job! And not in a way like I’m not up to serve…but in a way that I need my hands free to do my job…I shouldn’t be standing next to the bride through transitional moments. I like to “teach” my brides how to hold their dresses themselves so I can capture the transitional moments and the other partner carry a bouquet if needed

Across all 7 days of the week! Automated or instant confirmation emails don’t count.

Couples ask for candid, intimate, present (+ that’s what we sell). Then every major moment is surrounded by photographers, videographers, content creators and vendors all trying to capture the same thing. At some point, the documentation starts changing what we’re documenting. But if photo/video steps back too much, someone else fills the space. Are we preserving the experience or producing it??? What can we do about this? 🫤