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Mrs. Spaniel, Los Angeles Age and Occupation: 28, Law Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Psychologist Wedding Date: March 2010 Venue: Calamigos Ranch About Me: I'm a third-year law student trying to balance graduating with starting my career, keeping up a relationship, and, oh yeah, planning an Old World, multi-cultural, "mountain lodge" wedding for 180 guests! A South Asian Jewish girl getting ready to marry my handsome Catholic Dane, I'm hoping to blend our cultures in our wedding just a bit more gently than by providing samosas as appetizers and offering æbleskiver for dessert. (Although that would also be awesome.)
About Mrs. Spaniel

I can be a bit of a worrier at times, and like Miss Cola, I allay some of my anxiety by making back-up plans. This came in handy when I had to find a new DJ with less than two weeks to go before the wedding, because I had a list of phone numbers ready, our ceremony music all burned to a disc, and most of our other songs already downloaded should an iPod reception become a necessity (though where I would get the speakers, I hadn’t figured out yet). Luckily, I didn’t have to, because we found another DJ within two days who only charged a little more than our original, and who we trusted to show up (at that point, we hoped for little else).

Thanks to the-until-recently-Miss Rainbow, I taught myself how to do somewhat decent wedding makeup—more than I would normally wear, but still not enough to totally save my face from disappearing due to camera flashes—and had most of the necessary tools in my big makeup bag. But for whatever reason, the worrier in me decided to relax—maybe I thought the DJ fiasco would be my only wedding crisis?—and I left the big bag at home—I only packed my everyday makeup, what I would need for the honeymoon (a “kit” that includes only tinted moisturizer, bronzer and mascara). After all, I’d confirmed the location and arrival time the night before with the artist I had found on Craigslist who did my makeup for my bridal shower, and even though I didn’t fall all over myself about the job she did, I felt at ease since she’d been so accessible and I could see my eyelashes in the pictures with the help of the fakies she applied.

What in the world was I thinking?

This Will Be Our Year: Vendor FAIL :  wedding emotional los angeles recap Vader F

(source)

I woke up at 7:45 on Saturday and hopped in the shower while waiting for breakfast to be delivered to the room for me, BM-Noe, and MOH-S (my other bridesmaids planned to meet us later in the morning). When it arrived at 8:30, I decided take a quick look at my cell phone just to make sure there were no last minute questions from my vendors that I needed to refer to my Day-of-Coordinator. What I found instead was a text message from my make-up artist’s “neighbor”:

This is [No-show]’s neighbor. No-show was just taken to the hospital with a fever of 104 and is covered in a rash. She gave me your number so I could contact you and let you know she’s not going to be able to do your wedding. She was literally more concerned about that than herself but she is very sick.

Funny how No-show’s neighbor was able to send me a text message from No-show’s phone, isn’t it? Or how No-show was able to post new ads on Craigslist and continue to post to Facebook and Twitter, but not respond to my phone calls in the following weeks about returning my deposit for a month and a half afterward?

This Will Be Our Year: Vendor FAIL :  wedding emotional los angeles recap Shipmen

(source)

When I finished reading the message, I definitely started to panic. I barely had any makeup with me; what was I going to do? I’ll tell you! I was going to sit back and let my amazing bridesmaids save the day!

MOH-S got right on the phone with her mother, who lived near the hotel where we were staying and had the number of all kinds of salons. She started calling them as soon as they opened, while BM-Noe talked me through our other options, like heading to the drug store to pick up the (many) items I was missing, or calling up the nearest MAC counter at a mall a few minutes away and getting us all in for some emergency wedding make-up. She also called my most stylish bridesmaid, BM-Y, to stop by a little earlier either to help us with our application (seriously, yo, we are clueless), or to make some phone calls herself since she had friends in beauty school (some training > no training!).

Many, many (many) phone calls were placed in the span of a half-hour… but did we find our miracle worker?

Were you stood up by a vendor? Were you able to resolve it?

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29 Responses to “This Will Be Our Year: Vendor FAIL”

1 2 

1.
tea
Member
tea (message)  7,278 posts, Busy Beekeeper

ugh, how frustrating! i hope you were able to find a suitable replacement!

 
2.
alivoo01
Member
alivoo01 (message)  2,625 posts, Sugar bee

My knees are a-knocking for you right now! my wedding is 4 months away, but boy oh boy am I skurrred now! Hurry with the next post and let us know the verdict!!

 
3.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Seashell (message)  1,713 posts, Bumble bee

A very similar thing happened to one of my bridesmaids when she was a bride. SUCH a nightmare! Fortunately, her MUA was slightly more legit and sent out a replacement. Regardless, not cool. Not cool.

 
4.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Perfume (message)  2,254 posts, Buzzing bee

I am so frustrated for you! Of all my “relax, it’s going to be okay,” this would definitely make me panic, and really mad! I know you looked gorgeous at your wedding, so it did indeed turn out fine, but can’t wait to read more about its resolution!

 
5.
Mrs. Pug
Bee
Mrs. Pug (message)  3,754 posts, Honey bee

wow. how unethical and irresponsible. i’m floored. i know everything turned out alright in the end, but i definitely want to hear the end of this story.

 
6.
heather25
Member
heather25 (message)  2,350 posts, Buzzing bee

can’t wait to hear the rest of this one!

 
7.
sunnydebs
Member
sunnydebs (message)  785 posts, Busy bee

This is like my worst nightmare. I hope it worked out for you!

 
8.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Ribbons (message)  2,018 posts, Buzzing bee

That’s so unprofessional and terrible. And obviously a lie since she never returned the calls afterward, ugh.

 
9.
smith207
Member
smith207 (message)  415 posts, Helper bee

For my job, I coordinate more than 300 events per year. Sorry Bees, but something will probably not go according to plan on your big day. Hopefully it is something small and easily fixed.

Carry several copies a contact list with you for day of any emergencies. Every phone number you have ever dialed during your wedding planning should be on it and also the cell numbers of your closest friends and family members that would help during a crisis.

Also bring a list of addresses for every vendor in case someone needs to help on your behalf. You might know how to get to the florist, but if you are sending someone else they’ll need the exact coordinates.

Even with a little hiccup or panicked moment, your guests will likely never know the difference during the wedding.

 
10.
LatteLove
Hostess
LatteLove (message)  5,590 posts, Bee Keeper

my sister was stood up by her DJ. It was a similar situation (do these scammers talk to each other?!)
My sister got a text the day of her wedding (we had reception and she didn’t get this until 10pm)
saying that her DJ who was supposed to show up 2 hours early was stuck in traffic. Ok, granted it was raining.
Then suddenly his car broke down, and he turned around and went home (half way to a venue 45 minutes away?!)

He did answer the phone to the 4 people that called him incessantly for over an hour, and it was a beast to get the deposit back.
But she’ll never get back the moments we were without a DJ, and the stress of the time in between (a friends stepped in last minute. imperfect, but it worked)

 
11.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Trail Mix (message)  6,485 posts, Bee Keeper

Ugh, this story gives me the heeby-jeebies, since I live in the middle of nowhere and if a vendor doesn’t show up on my wedding day, there’s no way I’d be able to replace ‘em…Yikes!

 
12.
RecessionistaBride
Member
RecessionistaBride (message)  5,018 posts, Bee Keeper

Oh my goodness… what a jerk! Thankfully you had Supergirls that came to your rescue :)

 
13.
moderndaisy
Member
moderndaisy (message)  6,803 posts, Busy Beekeeper

Oh my goodness, you poor thing!! Sounds like you have a wonderful support system! :)

 
14.
Member Icon
Member
edb (message)  415 posts, Helper bee

This happened to my sister - her stylist, who she had done a trial with the WEEK BEFORE quit the day before her wedding. AND the salon didn’t call us to tell us to come early because they were short-handed. So we show up and they’re like “we can definitely fit the bride…hopefully the bridesmaids”. It was awful. My sister was supposed to have a roller-set and they did her curls with a curling iron. They fell out in like, an hour. The stylist put my hair in a ponytail and bobby pinned the ends up. It looked horrible - I could have done a better job myself.
The worst part was that the stylist who did my sister’s hair was trying to push her through so she could accommodate her regular appointments - and snapped at my sister, “I’m sorry, I have appointments” and my sister was like “SO DID WE!”
It was actually pretty easy to get our money back - I called the salon the next week and they refunded us $100 (which was about half of what we’d paid).

 
15.
Member Icon
Member
Merry02 (message)  429 posts, Helper bee

Wow! That’s awful. I’m so sorry that happened to you. It sounds like you had a fantastic group of BM’s though! It’s great they sprung into action immediately.

 
16.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Spaniel (message)  6,809 posts, Busy Beekeeper

@smith207: That is great advice! I did all of those things, but if a vendor just doesn’t show up and doesn’t offer a replacement, it can still be pretty tricky to fix!

@Miss Trail Mix: All I can say is… bring a makeup and hair kit *just* in case!

@edb: Your poor sister!! That totally stinks. :( Thank goodness you were able to recover some of the money quickly!

 
17.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Spaniel (message)  6,809 posts, Busy Beekeeper

@LatteLove: That was actually the thing I was *most* afraid of for our wedding. I may be ruining the suspense, but THANK GOD the DJ showed up early. ;) He wasn’t great, but he was punctual, and that was good enough!

 
18.
Miss Cardigan
Bee
Miss Cardigan (message)  8,645 posts, Bumble Beekeeper

:( I’m so sorry you had to deal with all of this!

 
19.
Miss Giraffe
Bee
Miss Giraffe (message)  4,187 posts, Honey bee

What a pain!

 
20.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Frog (message)  505 posts, Busy bee

Oh that’s awful - I sincerely hope you found a replacement!!!

 
1 2 

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Mrs. Spaniel
Mrs. Spaniel

Mrs. Spaniel, Los Angeles Age and Occupation: 28, Law Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Psychologist Wedding Date: March 2010 Venue: Calamigos Ranch About Me: I'm a third-year law student trying to balance graduating with starting my career, keeping up a relationship, and, oh yeah, planning an Old World, multi-cultural, "mountain lodge" wedding for 180 guests! A South Asian Jewish girl getting ready to marry my handsome Catholic Dane, I'm hoping to blend our cultures in our wedding just a bit more gently than by providing samosas as appetizers and offering æbleskiver for dessert. (Although that would also be awesome.)

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