Vendor Stress

So that miracle that occured when I found an officiant for $100...apparently it was short lived. After getting her contact information I've called twice and emailed twice with no response. Obviously, we're not going to go with someone who can't be bothered to return our calls. For all I know she would forget to show up to the wedding.

I found 3 other officiants in our price range, but I'm hesitant about them too. One only sends emails in all caps. Maybe I'm just being too picky because I spend a lot of time on the internet, but something about that just seems weird to me. The other one gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him between 12-3PM. I called at 1:30 and left a voicemail with my phone number. There hasn't been a return call. The 3rd one, emailed me back right away and said "I'm available now if you can call me on my cell." I didn't get the message until 9:30 PM and felt kind of weird about calling that late, so I emailed him and said "I didn't get your message until late, I'm available all day, my cell number is xxx, call me when you get a chance." Would you believe there was no call back from him either?

I'm starting to get worried that we're going to have to cut something big out of our budget to afford one of these $400-$800 officiants. And the closer it gets to the wedding, the more worried I'm getting about this.

I don't know what to do about a photographer either. There are tons of them I like, but none that I am really in love with. Or if I really like them, something in their email just made me feel put off. Or they don't respond to emails. I'm meeting with two more photographers on Saturday. Both are at the maximum that we can spend. I have three more that I'm emailing back and forth with and one of them is giving me a price quote on Friday.

As for the ones on Saturday, one I found off craigslist and I'm kind of leery about her because she has multiple posts on craigslist (for different days) and they all say "Great Wedding Photographer" but they all have a different price. So does that mean I could sign a contract for $800 but if she's posting on craigslist for $1200 at the time, she's going to think I'm paying $1200? The other one was a knottie recommendation. Her photos are great but I'm not feeling too much of a connection.

As for the ones I'm emailing, they were also recs. One is a guy who doesn't respond to emails very quickly, is in the process of setting up a website and has only done a few weddings. I'm not in love with his photos either. But he has a great price. The 2nd one, I like. Its easy to communicate with her via email and she responds quickly. But I don't love her photos either. And the 3rd one is the one giving me a price quote on Friday.

I found her on http://www.ppa.com/ which a bridal book I have recommended. I instantly liked her website and the fact that she only does small weddings. Her site says shes in the process of making the wedding portion of it and she links the pictures of 3 weddings she's done. They are all gorgeous. You can just tell she knows what shes doing. She has that photojournalist look to her pictures without being too artsy. We've emailed back and forth a ton and I feel really comfortable talking to her. I can't even begin to explain how antsy I am about the price quote. I'm so tired of finding someone that I like only to find out that we can't have what we want because its out of our budget.

That is definitely the most fustrating thing about being a budget bride. I'm sorry Mr. Photographer, I don't have $3,500 to spend on pictures. If I did that our guests wouldn't eat. Grrr.

So I guess we'll see how things go this weekend!