So I get a groom-to-be call me up on June 23rd and say he was referred by a friend of his that was the photographer for a 10th wedding anniversary I DJ'd at. He mentions he's interested in my availability and hiring me for 5/18/20. Awesome, right? Nice to nail something down for next year. This kid is wrapping up education at Drake University, has his own business with investment real estate etc...Sounds like he has a lot going on. On top of this, he tells me he's the one in charge of taking care of the DJ and venue (which is a winery) etc. We spend about an hour on the phone and I walk him through all of the options. He's excited. Let's me know he'd like to move forward. I have a form on my website that I have folks fill out so I can input those details into the contract. He mentions he'll fill that out and get the first payment to me. Two days later I get the info he filled out on the form. He wanted monogram and live performance options in addition to DJing so I scoot out the contract to him and his fiance. I usually make the contract expire within a week. The expiration would have been July 5th. Kind of tough since admittedly that's around the holidays but I figured it was fine. He was wanting to move forward. After sending out the contract, I hear crickets.......
So around July 7, I reach back out to him via text and then Messenger (where we originally communicated) to ensure he got the contract or to help answer any questions he or his fiance had......More crickets....I did one last effort to reach out about a week after....Still hearing nothing but crickets since the last time I spoke to him on 6/23.. I figure okay, oh well. Ya never know what is going on. They could be discussing a date change, or decided not to move forward...Lots of variables. I move on with life...
July 23rd , I get a message asking if I'm still available for 5/18/20. Then about 20 minutes later, he corrects his message and says "March 18, 2020. My initial thought was that the delay was because they were changing dates. Then I noticed that 3/18 is a Monday. So I write and confirm that this is the date he's now looking at and that he's getting married on a Monday. He replies "It's May 18,2020" .....Hmmmm so this kid has no idea when he's getting married (???). Pretty big difference between a Saturday wedding in May at a winery and a March wedding on a Monday at a winery! He says that they can sign the contract that night. Okay, so I revise the contract and send it and let him know it's emailed....Crickets....It's now more than a week later and I'm still hearing crickets. LOL
What would you do? If he reaches out in a month asking for availability again and starts the bs routine all over, would you just say you're booked? I mean, he's not followed through with one single thing so far and what's worse is that he's not given even a shred of explanation. Most folks would be like, "Oh sorry, we were thinking about changing dates and that's been the hold up" or ...." My fiance was getting her moustache waxed last night and it took forever so we couldn't sign the contract" ...Something!
My thought? Is it gonna be a pain to collect $$ prior to the event? Will follow through be a disaster from here on out from everything regarding music preferences to order of the evening details to simply getting paid and having to say "no pay - no play"? And all of this after it being a referral and him being "sold" on moving forward. Weird.
So around July 7, I reach back out to him via text and then Messenger (where we originally communicated) to ensure he got the contract or to help answer any questions he or his fiance had......More crickets....I did one last effort to reach out about a week after....Still hearing nothing but crickets since the last time I spoke to him on 6/23.. I figure okay, oh well. Ya never know what is going on. They could be discussing a date change, or decided not to move forward...Lots of variables. I move on with life...
July 23rd , I get a message asking if I'm still available for 5/18/20. Then about 20 minutes later, he corrects his message and says "March 18, 2020. My initial thought was that the delay was because they were changing dates. Then I noticed that 3/18 is a Monday. So I write and confirm that this is the date he's now looking at and that he's getting married on a Monday. He replies "It's May 18,2020" .....Hmmmm so this kid has no idea when he's getting married (???). Pretty big difference between a Saturday wedding in May at a winery and a March wedding on a Monday at a winery! He says that they can sign the contract that night. Okay, so I revise the contract and send it and let him know it's emailed....Crickets....It's now more than a week later and I'm still hearing crickets. LOL
What would you do? If he reaches out in a month asking for availability again and starts the bs routine all over, would you just say you're booked? I mean, he's not followed through with one single thing so far and what's worse is that he's not given even a shred of explanation. Most folks would be like, "Oh sorry, we were thinking about changing dates and that's been the hold up" or ...." My fiance was getting her moustache waxed last night and it took forever so we couldn't sign the contract" ...Something!
My thought? Is it gonna be a pain to collect $$ prior to the event? Will follow through be a disaster from here on out from everything regarding music preferences to order of the evening details to simply getting paid and having to say "no pay - no play"? And all of this after it being a referral and him being "sold" on moving forward. Weird.