Calling All NYC Wedding Planners: Have You Been Scammed Recently?

August 16th, 2011 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

We’ve learned that there is a woman going around to local high end wedding planners and consulting with them about her dream wedding.  The catch is, after spending quite a bit of time with the planners and receiving detailed proposals from them, she writes bad checks for the deposits and isn’t heard from again.  Clearly she was never intending to go through with the signed contract.
This has happened to at least two planners I work with, and we all feel there must be more planners who have been scammed by this woman.
The part we haven’t been able to figure out is, if this woman is trying to learn how wedding planners do their sales and how they present their contracts, why the need to write a bad check?
Here are some of the consistent specifics she’s presented to the planners:
•    Getting married New Years Eve
•    Two separate venues were mentioned as locations.  In both cases, the “bride” said she was friends with the owner of the venue.
•    Guest list of 250 to 300 people
•    For a meeting with one planner the pseudo-bride brought a “groom” and with another planner she brought her “mom”
One of the planners is considering small claims court for the time invested.  If you have a similar case, please let me know so we can add you to the proceedings.  We want to stop this woman from wasting any more planners’ time!
Thanks to you all for any further information you may have.

How We Keep Our Photography Rates So Reasonable

August 16th, 2010 by Beth Baynum | Share Blog

I was speaking recently with Zak Kunish, an event planner we’ve long wanted to work with (because he’s also a cool and fabulous person), about our first job together.    We were reviewing our rates, and he said, “Is that all?  How do you guys make any money?”  It’s a fair question and it got me wondering how many other people we work with think the same thing.

Some people may interpret – wrongly – that a reasonable rate, or a rate they perceive as low, as a reflection of the quality of our photographers talent, or of our service.  Concerned that this may be Zak’s impression, I took the opportunity to explain how we’re able to keep our rates so reasonable.  His interest in my response prompts me to share this with our blog readers.
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Making a Mitzvah Stand Out – From Cake to Photography

March 1st, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

Everyone wants their child’s B’nai Mitzvah be uniquely special, from the service to the cake,to the  photography.  Conversely, thirteen year-olds are all about fitting in.  They want their celebrations to be different and fun – but not too different, and mostly fun!

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