Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Hater comment from Battle of the Wedding Planners post

Peeps I got my first hater comment!!! & guess who it's by??? yup you guessed it, the infamous Anonymous!!! I'm sure you've read their stuff before, Anonymous is pretty prolific around the web, their specialty is making snide comments on people's blog and hiding behind anonymity.
I want to respond to Anonymous comments because I feel they must have only read my post title "The Battle of the Wedding Planners are big fat liars" and not the entire post. I stand behind what I said!
So here is what Anonymous said...

During the show the wedding planner actually said he was calling in a ton of favors from vendors and that he was promising them jobs for weddings coming up. this was not budget deception especially since they actually showed scenes of the planner promising vendors future jobs if they would help him on this one. Don't be bitter because a couple got a good deal for their wedding, and if you are sign up for a tv show and im sure you wouldn't be complaining then.

Well Anonymous, apparently you did not read when I clearly stated that the planner was calling in favors -"The London is Gordon Ramsay's restaurant. The meals per person are around $100 so that alone (with tax & gratuity) is almost 15k not including decorations, favors, drinks, photography, space rental etc. They tried making it seem like the planner called in a lot of favors but it still wouldn't be a 15k wedding."

This IS budget deception because it doesn't matter how many favors were called in, unless Ramsay was footing the bill for the food, the food alone (no alcohol) would cost $19,755.
Let me give you the breakdown: 150 guests, $100 {range $80-$96 I rounded up} per plate (15,000) + 3,000 (20% service fee) + 1,755 (9.75% CA state tax) = $19,755. That's right honey bunches, Cali allows venues to add the state tax to the total that includes the 20% service charge. Ya this was a shocker to us too. This total doesn't even include the rental fees that range $500-$15,000, nor does it include all the other items that go into having a wedding. Also, I did give one of the planners credit stating that "The only one that could have been 15k is the Griffith Park option." and I even provided a link to a wedding that supported that statement, cause that's how I roll! I roll with evidence!

It's too bad you missed my point, but luckily my wedding blogger friends who commented did not. To make it clear my point was " I really hope that people who are actually planning a wedding in L.A don't watch this show for ideas because it is bull caca! They are show big fat liars for saying that the three options shown are $15k. The only one that could have been 15k is the Griffith Park option."

You say if I had been on the show I would not be complaining, well I was not complaining nor was I jealous or bitter, I was merely looking out for people planning their own wedding & looking for ideas from this show. Like many other brides out there planning their own wedding, I look to the internet, tv, books, magazine & friends for wedding ideas, so it's really nice that there are places you can find REAL info on items but we also have to be careful with that same information & make sure we are not deceived. I got a reality check when I started researching what things actually cost. I don't doubt that the couple only paid 15K, I am sure someone else paid the rest of the bill (hello TLC!) so hi high five to them for scoring a wedding that really cost more than they had to pay. My problem with the show is only with the part that talks about the budget & places you can get married at for these budgets. The show would be better if it did not mention budgets at all, which would be best even for the planners so the competition could be fair & you would not have planners that actually listen to the 15K budgets (Griffith Park option) vs those that don't (Marimon & The London). I actually like the planners, they had great ideas & their competitive behavior was quite entertaining. My fav was the spunky one :-)

Anonymous, you are the one that sounds bitter apparently you took the post very personal, perhaps you are some how connected to the show itself? hmmm?!?!? You mention I should sign up for the show so I wouldn't complain, but I don't know how that has to do anything with my point of budget deception, but to answer you, I do not want to be on tv, heck I have a hard enough time posing for family photos let alone television cameras. I think weddings are all beautiful in their own way whether they are 100K or 1K because it's an event of 2 people committing themselves to each other in front of all their close family & friends & they are paying what ever price they are comfortable paying for & should not be judged for it. Love rocks.

Now two quotes dedicated to Anonymous:
Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Harry Emerson Fosdick
The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves. William Penn

15 comments:

  1. Half of ANY wedding budget is the reception, including venue rental and you can barely walk in the door at any of those place for under $6500. And in your breakdown, you didn't even include the bar, which would easily be another 3k, because I doubt they would let you bring your own alcohol in, and of course it would be open bar. AND it would be taxed. Game over.

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  2. @Liz Thank you for your comment!
    & peeps Liz is a wedding professional from Los Angeles so she knows what she is talking about!

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  3. Oh dear. Dont pay attention to the haters. I always wonder why people feel the need to leave negative comments on posts. Dont like what we write? Dont read it, much less take the time to write a friggin comment.

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  4. Thankfully I've only been doing this a month or two and have not received any hater comments. And there have been a few blogs I've read where I've disagreed with the opinions that were written. But even for those blogs, if I did in fact decide to leave a comment, I tried my darndest to respect their opinion and what they wrote without coming across with name calling or words that will make someone feel attacked or judged. The beauty in humanity is that we are all individual and created with uniqueness. To think that we don't have differing life experiences and opinions would be to view our race as a bunch of robots! Good for you for standing up and reclarifying.

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  5. Ok, this is totally unrelated, but when I 'verified' that comment above my word verification was 'beato'. Why am I pointing this out? I was engaged about 10 years ago and called off the wedding at the last minute and my then-fiance's last name was Beato. Scary!

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  6. haters keep hating. your blog post was good and i definitely agree with your opinion about the show.

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  7. I think you make a very interesting conclusion! Connected to the show? The couple in the show?.... We will never know I guess, unless Anon comes back for more. I hope they do, cause your response kicked butt! Way to go Westside Wedding!

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  8. It's all about the LOVE! :) Don't worry about the haters. There will always be a few people trying to stir the pot.
    It would be difficult to do a wedding in L.A. for 15K anywhere, let alone at those venues. People who know nothing about L.A. and/or wedding planning would definitely get the wrong idea from watching a show like that. Good for you!

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  9. I loved your original post on this. I have never seen the show, but 15K in ANY city is going to be tight if you're over 100 guests and not getting a space for free (or cheap, like the park). Good for you for calling it out!

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  10. Power to the real brides who don't have the backing of a television network or a well-known wedding planner who can call in a bunch of favors! This was clearly budget deception and I am so glad you wrote about it.
    I really had sticker shock with the service fee and taxes too. It adds on so much money that I had never even thought about when we first started looking at venues. This is the kind of information that is helpful to us!

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  11. YOU GO GIRL! TELL IT LIKE IT IS!

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  12. To me your original post made the point perfectly. It is almost cruel to pretend that it is feasible to have such a lavish wedding for such a price. Although I shall def be trying to have a super lavish wedding for not very much!

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  13. Way to go Westside! Like Anna, you original post made sense to me as well. You weren't being a hater/complainer....you were just pointing out what is misleading. Being a Los Angeleno, your opinion has merit!

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  14. Lady,it's all about the well-informed posts with objective information. People can disagree and offer objective criticism but I turned on comment moderation when I got nasty comments from people who didn't even know a situation. Haters will hate and judge, but we will love. :)

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Thank you for your comment,they make my day :-)