Strangest thing to happen when 'vendor shopping'?

Trying to help the effort of getting the Newlywed board hoppin...

When you were vendor hunting did you encounter any strange ones? any good stories?

I had emailed a bunch of photogs in Feb of 06 asking for quotes for my March 07 wedding. This one guy called me immediately all frantic sounding with an outRAGEOUSLY good deal. I think it was like a $3000 package for like $1200? I was in . Then he was asking what happened, did my other photog cancel? I said: . When we connected our dots, he realized I was getting married in 13 not 1 month. And said 'Oh, since thats the case its $3000'. Funny how the same service had such a different price!

Then there was the photog that sent me his work samples on DVD and not only was the DVD case all dirty with boot marks, but the proofs on it had all these shots with people's eyes closed and other unflattering things that he probably didn't even pass on to the bride.

Ahhh those were good times!

The only thing we looked at a lot of was RHs...

We went to one and they had a huge wedding going on. We couldn't find the BM who would be giving us a tour but, I found a guy I work with who was on a tour and his BM got someone for us.

We took the tour and there were people everywhere. We got to the point where we were looking into the room for the reception and the MOH, bride's sister, comes over to my mom, the BM and I and starts talking to us like we were guests (she had had a few cocktails). She was hugging us and trying to get us to go dance until the BM told her that she works there and we weren't guests.

I went to look at Florists with my mom. We met with 1 guy who within 2 minutes of sitting with him told us his daughter ran away and that his brother had a drug and alcohol problem. We sat with him for over two hours. He just kept going off topic and we didn't want to be rude. We made a appt to come back the next week to see a sample. My mom thought he was one of those crazy artsy people.
When went back he didn't have a sample and we were stuck talking to him again. He said he had a 'vision' and to come back on Friday to see his sample. Based on his 'vision' he must be blind because it was the worst cp we had ever seen.
Needless to say we booked with a florist who was not as crazy and who didn't make us sit with him for a total of 6 hours.

Ok I have two funny one's

1. When we were looking at RH's one particular place quoted us some outrageous amount per head and stated that they are not flexible and charge the same amount for February weddings as they do for June. Never heard of that The kicker was when I told this BM that an RH we just went to quoted us $50 per head less she said well since they are our competition we will match their price provided you show me the quote. Ummm ok you can miraculously come down that much in price. Needless to say we didn't book.

2. The band we hired is very popular in the 'Italian American' community. DH called them and asked them if we could see a show case or maybe a DVD/tape of a recent event. The band leader said we don't audition for anyone, if you saw us in the past (which we did but years ago) you don't need an audition. I was thinking who are these guys U2 for cryin' out loud. DH insisted on seeing them (rightfully so) so the band leader said we are playing at Russo's on the Bay this Saturday, dress up and go to the wedding for a little while. WHAT! Crash someone's wedding! Anyway they ended up inviting us to a rehearsal. They were so good we booked them BUT we did tell our DOC to watch for any people that didn't look like they belonged at our wedding. Who knows if the band leader told some other couple to do the same at our wedding!

RH shopping had to be the best. I had my heart set on one place...when we went in we walked around with the BM of a wedding that was going on at the time. After we had walked around he asked us if we wanted something to drink, we all said no and he continued on to say that if we wanted something harder we could go over to the bar and drink on someone elses tab Needless to say we did NOT book there

Our only strange thing was with Photographer shopping.....we went for an appointment and the guy just irked me from the beginning. I forget what he was referring to now but he says 'oh that's included' I said 'oh really' and he says 'no...what am i just giving stuff away?'.......I didn't know what to say
Then he sits there looking at us while we're going through his albums and he starts telling us about the brides...'she was so annoying....kept complaining' and about how these two were fighting and this one just didn't get it, etc.

He actually called us to follow up and I said we went with someone else....he just hung up in a huff

We walked into a florist based on a recommedation from a friend who had GORGEOUS flowers for a ridiculously low price. We walked in there and the guys says, 'So what's the date' I say, February 17th. He goes: 'No way, absolutely not. I won't even consider it.... it's too close to Valentine's Day.' I'm like, I don't want red roses or centerpieces, just church flowers and BP flowers. He was like, 'Absolutely not. I am not doing a wedding the week of Valentine's day.'

I just thought it was SOOO weird. NO other florist even brought that up as an issue and he wouldn't even sit down with us to talk about what we needed. AND my wedding was 3 days afterwards.... WEIRD. Who says NO to potential business??

Or how about that a-hole BM at Jericho Terrace. He was like a used carsalesman, 'Hey, I didn't get this fat from nothing---the food here is really good!' i Swear he said that... and then he was like, 'I'll throw this in for you and that in for you..' Dude... what you're 'throwing in' should already be included for the ridiculous price you're quoting me...we're not stupid.

we wanted a local wedding, so we were considering 2 local halls. we showed up, introduced ourselves as potential clients, and the 20-something receptionists just blew us off! she rolled her eyes when we asked to speak to the catering manager, and said 'absolutely not... not without an appointment'. I asked when we could have an appointment, and she told us to wait. 20 min later (we stood the whole time like @sses in the lobby), she FINALLY spoke to us about getting an appointment. She was insisting that we both take off from work, and show up on a weekday at about 11am we continually pressed for a weekend appointment, and she finally offered a very inconvenient timeslot over a month away... basically a take it or leave it attitude, like we should feel bleesed they would bother to meet with us.

The place has a very good rep, but the people were so arrogant and rude we cancelled that appointment.

The owner of a very reputable DJ company kept calling me after our appt. He would call me while I was at work, when I told him I was at work, he proceed to have a conversation with me and ask how I was doing, how DH was doing and if he was at work. Like we were friends! Everytime he would call I could never get him off the phone. I had to program the number into my cell phone so I knew not to answer it. I finally called and left a message that we booked someone else - and he called me AGAIN after that. I just didn't pick up

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Posted by brittny817

2. The band we hired is very popular in the 'Italian American' community. DH called them and asked them if we could see a show case or maybe a DVD/tape of a recent event. The band leader said we don't audition for anyone, if you saw us in the past (which we did but years ago) you don't need an audition. I was thinking who are these guys U2 for cryin' out loud. DH insisted on seeing them (rightfully so) so the band leader said we are playing at Russo's on the Bay this Saturday, dress up and go to the wedding for a little while. WHAT! Crash someone's wedding! Anyway they ended up inviting us to a rehearsal. They were so good we booked them BUT we did tell our DOC to watch for any people that didn't look like they belonged at our wedding. Who knows if the band leader told some other couple to do the same at our wedding!

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I never heard this story Brit!! Thats hilarious!! I could have been a bouncer at your wedding... Dwight-Shrute style.. to look for crashers!