Tuesday, January 10, 2017

What's in your wedding contract

I have still been following conversations taking place in Facebook pages that involves brides naming and shaming vendors that give the wedding industry a bad name. I thought to myself how damaging this is for the industry here in Nairobi. Some accused vendors have been quiet about the issue. Not responding to the accusations online or legally. There was a case that caught my attention. Of bride bitterly complaining that the vendor had not delivered on her promises and changed agreements. The complaints were so many that I felt bad on her behalf for a ruined wedding. Its like her life came to a standstill. You could almost feel her pain and really understand what she was going through until the vendor gave her version of the events. You could easily conclude she was a bridezilla and the changes to the agreement were approved by her assigned signatory. It left me wondering why we had to be treated to the theatrics.



This leads me to think about the necessity of a wedding contract or an agreement of sort that is binding to both parties and addresses how to  handle situations in case disagreements arise. From that account and one that followed it and some more, there is the need for vendors to protect themselves against brides that give the industry a bad name. This problem cuts across both ways. Yes, there are difficult brides to work with who would rush and let the public know what is damaging to the vendors reputation. Once a disagreement arises and expectations aren't met and refunds issued to the client, does it still give them the right to ruin reputations of that business. If this terms are clearly stipulated in the contract, it will  prevent the client of ruining a good business that just had a bad day at work.

Its about time more local wedding vendors stated clear terms and conditions in there contracts, protected themselves in it against biased damages to the company reputation through social media and made every form of communication with the bride and any changes to agreements to be in written form whether its on email, Whattsapp, or any other social media and this written communication evidence kept for sometime even after the wedding ends just in case an accusation arises. For the case that I mentioned today, some brides opted to no longer consider the vendor in question as an option to their event but others weighed the scale well and decided to work with her as she had excellent reputation from many in the past.