mauibound

This is my first post and wow I'm so happy someone else noticed this stuff too!! Yes you are 100% correct. Here what happened with me. A VERY popular highly spoken of coordinator on Maui was inflating the costs of services and rentals. If it wasn't for me actually calling the rental company I would have never known. This coordinator was not one that charged a 20% coordination fee so I thought I was safe....I wasn't. You may tell your coordinator that you have $10,000 budget and she will spend your $10,000 and get you everything you wanted BUT what she won't tell you is that you could have done the same thing for $7,000. As a bride on a budget this can mean the differnce between no honeymoon and a fantastic one. I was given some inside scoop on how things run and the best advice from this vendor on Maui was the following. 1. Beware of coordinators that do not tell you who your vendors are. 2. Always ask if they are charging a fee to book a vendor for you 3. Try and make direct contact with your vendors, don't get left in the dark. I was told that coordinators do come in handy when booking ministers and musicians as they often get highly discounted rates not available to the bride. My hair stylist actually told me he would not book through the coordinator without uping the fee a lot. Try thinking about hiring a "day-of" coordinator so that you get the best prices from booking directly with vendors, but you have someone that day to make sure things fall into place. You can save tones of money that way. Hope this helps!!