4 Unsettling Truths WeddingWire Is Actually Hiding From Every Couple Like You
Last Updated: April 12th, 2023
What Is WeddingWire?
WeddingWire is a popular wedding website and directory. It boasts millions of reviews of vendors, venues, and services. It is one of the most trusted sources of information for people who are looking to get married. However, it’s not perfect. I will talk about some things I think you probably don’t know about WeddingWire and directories in general.
The following article is not meant to scare people away from using or finding vendors through WeddingWire or other wedding vendor directories - it is just meant to highlight some of the things that people may not be aware of.
Full transparency: I have had a premium WeddingWire account in the past and continue to advertise on WeddingWire on and off throughout the years.
1) Wedding Vendors Who Are Listed First On WeddingWire Pay The Most Money.
Much like google ads when you search for a Wedding Planner, Wedding Photographer, Florist, DJ, etc. the first wedding vendors that pop up are simply the ones that have paid WeddingWire the most money (We’re talking thousands of dollars here). They might not have the best rating or be the best fit for your wedding but they will usually have larger pictures, a more detailed profile, and a more dominant presence in your search results overall.
WeddingWire charges vendors a monthly fee that can vary widely depending on vendor-type and location. Having a special listing will give you top placement but the cost of this type of advertising also varies widely.
As you move through the results - the wedding vendors who haven’t paid as much or pay less will have a less detailed or free profile and will appear either in alphabetical order or at the bottom of the search results.
Your perfect wedding vendor could be on page 5 of search results - so doing your research of these wedding vendors becomes even more important if you decide to use WeddingWire.
2) Wedding Vendors See WeddingWire Clients As Bargain Shoppers
For many couples who are planning their wedding, the pressure to spend as little money as possible is very overwhelming. Sometimes this can lead to compromises in quality and may even result in missed opportunities for growth and future happiness. A huge subset of the client base is focused on bottom-line price-conscious weddings, and a lot of them use WeddingWire to do their research.
At Dreamline DJ we try to assume the best of every new client but because WeddingWire has made it so easy for couples to request quotes from local vendors that usually couples are messaging dozens of vendors at once. This service that WeddingWire offers is great because it allows you to compare prices and services before making any big decisions. A bride planning her wedding on a tight budget is getting pricing from dozens or hundreds vendors on WeddingWire so they can find the lowest fee.
While ideal for a budget wedding, this means vendors are spending a lot of time and energy communicating with and learning about couples on WeddingWire who are only interested in the cheapest price and not looking at the level of service offered by these vendors. Therefore, you might not get the attention you need and deserve because you’re being labeled as a bargain shopper - and you can’t really blame a wedding vendor for prioritizing better quality jobs.
Couples can stand out by: not going straight to pricing talk, not starting the conversation using the automated message WeddingWire writes for you, and by responding to the vendors who are taking the time to respond to you - even if you are just telling them you are no longer interested.
Although there is another reason your back and forth with WeddingWire listed vendors could be difficult…
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3) WeddingWire Controls All Contact (Unless A Vendor Has Paid For A Premium WeddingWire Account)
When you try to contact a vendor all they can do is return your message from within WeddingWire. We don’t get your email or phone number - and WeddingWire does not integrate with any CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software which many vendors use to track their incoming clients. This means that our only option is to log in to WeddingWire, send you a message and hope that you get it. I usually redirect people to my website immediately to cut WeddingWire out of the picture.
For the quickest and best experience, I would suggest contacting vendors directly through their website, even if you have found them using WeddingWire. 🙂
4) WeddingWire Is The Reason Why Unique Vendors Are So Expensive
Delivering top-quality service to each and every client gets harder the larger your company becomes so it’s rare that the largest and busiest company can provide the best service.
The larger your company becomes, the more difficult it is to deliver top-quality service to each and every client. The largest and busiest companies rarely equal the best service because of the vast numbers events being planned.
This means that your ideal vendor might be a boutique wedding professional doing 20 amazing weddings a year and is having to pay WeddingWire thousands of dollars for representation. So smaller vendors have to up their price while larger companies, only because they do 500 subpar events a year, can pay hand over fist without much effect on their price.
BONUS: WeddingWire Doesn’t Include Every Vendor
Another important downside of using WeddingWire is that it can be difficult to find the right vendors. WeddingWire is a platform that connects vendors with customers, but it does not include every vendor in the industry.
A couple looking for a vendor who is not listed on WeddingWire's database may need to do some more research in order to find the perfect vendor for their event.
WeddingWire is a fantastic resource for finding vendors, but it shouldn't be the only place you search. A couple may not find the vendor they're looking for on WeddingWire's list because it doesn’t list all vendors.
There ya have it! A couple of things I don’t think everyone knew about WeddingWire.
Did you know these things already? Surprised to hear any of these tidbits? Any WeddingWire horror stories? Do you disagree with anything I’ve said? Let me know in the comments below.