Wedding Blog
I know I know, you want pictures. I need to wait for online reviewing to end first, then the recaps shall begin!
A few weeks ago our DJ, Evan, emailed me asking if I’d be willing to write a review for them, because he’d like it to be their 150th review on WeddingWire. I said, “sure!” Because not only do I love reading reviews, I enjoy writing them too!
It’s important to note however, that Evan didn’t ask me explicitly to write a positive review, because we all know how I feel about that. After checking out Evan’s blog post about WeddingWire/150th review, I learned a bit about the vendor perspective of reviews. The post however, had me start thinking of my own relationship to reviews.
It reached an almost neurotic level when it came to crafting our registry. I would search through hundreds of product reviews on Amazon. I’d go through the 5 star ones and the 1 star reviews, attempting to get an accurate picture. I did this for every single item on our registry. Every single one. I had this entire “you try before I buy” mentality about the whole thing. Anything I wasn’t 100% sure about I put on the BBB registry because of their return policy.
If I’m that way about a blender… imagine how far off the deep end I went with vendor reviews.
I searched Yelp and WeddingWire, I asked individual brides who had used a particular vendor (found via Weddingbee and the Knot), and just Googled the vendor name along with “review” to see what would come up. This process served me very, very well. I felt that any time you ask for references, vendors will give you the names of couples they did a great job for. So I was pretty excited to find unbiased reviews for tons of vendors. I felt I needed to hear from couples who had experiences with the vendors firsthand before I could think of booking them.
The only point in which my review hunt failed us is where I didn’t listen to the reviews, or pick up on red flags. I’ll write about this more when I’m ready, but I was severely disappointed with our caterer. In her reviews there are several red flags, which, while are in the minority, are still there in black and white. Instead of paying attention to those (as I would have with a blender) I ignored them in favor of price. As you can imagine, that turned out to be a huge mistake. If only I had stayed the course, I probably would have chosen a caterer without the red flags and might have had a better experience.
Are you a review junkie too? What sites do you head to for product/vendor reviews?
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Share this post: Confessions of a Review Junkie
I, too, comb Amazon.com for reviews, but I don’t think I took many reviews into account for my wedding (so far).
As a vendor, reviews (especially public ones, like WeddingWire) are great for business, and show that we didn’t just invent these couples or make up their happiness - they took the time to go out of their way to review. That being said, I’ve seen brides who went with well reviewed vendors, and still had disasters.
i am such a review junkie! and i’m apparently very easily swayed by them than i like to admit. i usually check out cnet for my tech stuff and amazon for other things.
I love reviews - but I am mostly a fan of the five star rating so I can give something a quick once over, then delve into the written reviews if I have to. I only wonder how many bad ones have been weeded out sometimes.. I just gave our ex-caterer a not so hot review on weddingwire and wonder how long it will survive there, especially since it’s the only one they have!
I love reading reviews! I’m just always too nervous to write them on ‘official’ sites. I typically head to Yelp or Google. I used to love citysearch, but that went down the pooper (quality wise) a few years ago.
I think there are two sides to the reveiw coin. Think about it this way: if a product or service is really terrible, and you just had an awful experience with it, you would want other people to know, right? And at the same time, if you had a really great experience, or even a really mediocre experience, you may feel compelled to tell others about it. This is why we write honest reviews.
In the same regard though, did it occur to you that your vendor asked you to write a review because they believe you will say great things? Let me put it this way: would you list someone on the “references” page of your resume if you were not very confident they would give you a good review?
@Miss Burgundy: haha, no worries, I’m sure he asked me to do their 150th review so that it would be a positive one. He didn’t ask me for a positive review, but he knew how happy we were with his services - so I think it made sense to ask us since he wanted to write their 150th review.
I noticed my caterer didn’t ask us to do a review - you know what I’m saying? But I don’t mind being asked to do a review, as long as someone doesn’t ask me to make it positive and since I’m such a review lover I had already planned on it doing it anyway. It just made me think about my review obsession. 
I, too, am a review junkie. There were no reviews of my photographer on Yelp or Weddingwire and it stressed me out a bit. Hopefully it works out and I’ll be the one writing that first great review but it does make me nervous when I can’t find reviews on vendors - it feels like I’m taking a gamble.
I’m sorry about the caterer–we all have those moron vendors. I admire you for your tenacity-people like you who consistently review have been real life-savers for me!
YES! My fiance and I have over-reviewed every aspect of our wedding. It is extremely daunting, but it makes me feel much more confident when we hand over that much money!
I too am a review junkie and I’m so very sorry about the situation with your caterer. I have to say, though, I’m not a huge fan when people actually ask me to write a review…it makes me feel pressured like they are saying it should be a positive one.
Oh my gosh. 
Yes…..I research EVERYTHING! Right now it is our honeymoon……gotta love http://www.tripadvisor.com!!!!
I am a yelpaholic. And the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. : )
That being said, almost NONE of our vendors had reviews of any kind on Yelp, save our DJ. Needless to say, I am panickstricken almost daily.
I really should have done a better job on reading vendor reviews, especially the ones we hired early on. If I had I may have not hired a wedding coordinator that disappointed me in the end. Oh well. Now I know better.
I had a terrible experience with our photographer after the wedding; I have cooled it down in order to get through the “order photos, etc” process, but plan to write an unflattering review about them once this is done. It is terrible to have a bad experience because then you associate it forever with the memory of your wedding, but my mother put it into perspective. My grandmother died 6 months before her wedding, and she made me realize that everyone was there to share with us, which is the most important thing. Don’t worry about the caterer, but don’t let it tarnish what was a beautiful day for the two of you!
I’ll be honest - I rarely read reviews … I hate product reviews on amazon - they drive me nuts - I was looking for a puzzle mat for my grandmother and got reviews ranging from “this is the best darn thing I could have gotten for my puzzle-loving grand-niece ever” to “It’s just a stupid overpriced piece of felt and cardboard tube.” So what’s a girl to do at that point?!?!?
However, I will consider reading them when it comes to my wedding vendors … I’m just skeptical, that’s all!
I wish I paid more attention to stuff like this! Honestly, I booked most of my vendors without doing a whole lot of research. Luckily they all worked out, and quite well. I guess I just hate “doing my homework” when it comes to purchases. There have definitely been times when I’ve paid for this in the past.
I never really got into reading reviews, but I like with something as important as our wedding that I might have to start.
I don’t like reading reviews because some people are just completely INSANE when they write them. That being said, I probably should for our wedding vendors.
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Mrs. D'orsay, Baltimore/Lancaster UK
Age and Occupation: 24, Stay at home fiance (formerly in nonprofit communications)
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Web site developer and designer; co-owner of men's skincare shop
Engagement Date: August 10, 2008
Wedding Date: August, 2009
Venue: Oakland Manor
About Me: I'm a Maryland raised environmental policy wonk/activist/organizer and communications aficionado. In the past year I've lived in Baltimore, MD, Tucson, AZ, Miami, FL and Lancaster, England. In my not so spare time I enjoy planning trips with Mr. D' Orsay, visiting friends and family and crafting like a mo-fo. I also enjoy modern dance classes, rugby and soccer but have been banned by my mother, MOHs, and Mr. D' Orsay from playing till after the wedding. I have an unnatural addiction to cheese and shoes, but love Mr. D' Orsay more than either and can't wait to become Mrs. D' Orsay!
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