bren_uk

Hi, I'm from the UK so perhaps this is common practice, but I wanted to check whether this is standard practice in the US and for all wedding planners. We looked at hiring the White Orchid Beach House in Maui for our ceremony and were trying to keep costs including the photography under $6000, totally doable (or so I thought) as we were having a pretty simple ceremony with less than 20 guests. The coordinator from White Orchid however tried to charge us 20% of the photographer's fee despite us doing all the legwork to find the photographer, contact them, check their availability, book them, and arrange most the photography to be taken off site ie not on White Orchid's property. I find it very inappropriate to be charged a fee for this as no service was provided by the coordinator, and baffled at why we should be penalised ie charged more, the more we decided to spend on the photography. WOW were also charging us $200 for a coordinator to be onsite for an hour or so, and we were happy to pay them 20% for services they were actually going to help us organise. However White Orchid refused to negotiate their fee despite us advising them that most the photography would be done off site (and off their watch) so we cancelled our reservation. Very disappointed and now looking for another venue and coordinator. Is this a major cultural difference between the UK and US or what appeared to us as being a rather unsavoury practice of profiteering? It's really given me a negative impression of wedding planners and of Maui which I'm hoping the next coordinator I encounter will dispel!