You are NOT an orange!

I hate having to write about this but it comes up time and time again….

I keep hearing from wedding professionals that they have been approached by venues and other planners for a ‘commission”, a ‘referral fee’ or the less polite…kickback…

What exactly does that mean? To us as wedding professionals it means that these people are trying to make additional money on your wedding by squeezing more money out of the people they refer you to…

A venue or planner might get 10% or more from the florist, band, photographer and other wedding professionals to give out their name…

In the end you pay more – they’re not able to take the 10% out of their package after paying their expenses, staff and materials costs to they have to raise your price…

WE DON’T PLAY LIKE THAT! {as a matter of fact most of Philly – thankfully doesn’t}, you’ll actually find that in those rare cases where someone offers us a referral fee- we ask that they pass it on to the bride and groom as a discount to the normal package…

I find that most wedding professionals don’t like having to pay these fees in order to get a referral… they stand by the quality of their work, the relationships they have built with other professionals and being referred to clients because they will do the best job for them on their budget- NOT because they are the person who pays us the biggest referral fee.

So, if you are checking out planners ask if they accept referral fees {and why- ’cause you’re paying them good money!}, and also ask your venue of they charge the people they recommend a referral fee…because if they do you might be paying 10% or more higher than if you were working with them in another venue.

The Queen of Hearts Wedding Consultants runs a wedding planning business where we refer couples to the best wedding professionals based on the quality of their work, their personalities, the product they offer and thier  competitive pricing – NOT a juice bar!

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