Capitalism and the wedding industry

Are you a capitalist? I am

CAPITALISM AND HOW IT'S NOT FOUND
IN THE WEDDING INDUSTRY
My two cents on Capitalism, the wedding industry,
and how it mirrors the rest of the world.

I was raised a capitalist. My father was an entrepreneur who had a successful computer business. My mother, well she was a real estate investor. I was taught from an early age that hard work and determination would always yield great results. My dad reminded me, "The greatest trash collector on earth found a lotto ticket and laughed his way to the bank."

But as years went by, I realized that capitalism had nothing to do about HAVING money, or a great life, but everything to do with the freedom to PURSUE money or a great life. Now neither money, nor a great life was guaranteed in the world of capitalism. And as with great success, also came great losses. What many who don't understand about capitalism, is that it is a PROFIT and LOSS system. Sometimes you bet big and win, sometimes you break even, and sometimes you lose.

Losing is essential to making capitalism work

But the most important element to making capitalism work, is the loss factor. For example, businesses fear losing loyal customers, so they create better products, better services, and offer competitive prices. If something detrimental does happen to the business, that same business will do everything in their power to make sure they do not jeopardize the relationship they have with their customer. That fear of losing....turns companies and people into winners. Hey just like the game of football.

But when the threat of losing a customer from bad service or a bad product disappears, capitalism vanishes and socialism sets in. Because now winners are not determined by the market, but dictated by higher powers.

Now, you're going to be surprised when I say this, but in the wedding industry, a socialist environment actually exists. A wedding company, or wedding vendor, truly is never under the threat of losing customers. The truth is, it doesn't matter if we perform good or bad service for a couple, they are not coming back to us anyway! Right? As long as a wedding company advertises well, they will always have a steady influx of couples. Yes, we may benefit from referrals, but the number of new customers we receive is a 20 to every 1 referral. The threat of losses, to us, is null. There is none.

Still not convinced the wedding industry is socialist in nature? Okay, how about this. Take our wedding industry press. Magazines, books, websites...have you cracked open any of them and found that any editor, author, or writer, openly criticizing the industry? No. Isn't it funny that the individual elements of a wedding: photo, religion, video, culinary arts, are openly critiqued, but in the wedding industry, they're not. The magazines, books, and websites, are not on the side the customer, but on the side of the vendor. Articles are sometimes written by the vendor, they call it "advetorials." "Preferred Vendors" you see on websites such as the KNOT.COM, are paid advertising spots. KNOT.COM doesn't care if that vendor is great or not, all they care is that they get paid. The HVCB, of Hawaii Visitors Convention Bureau, operate the same way. Some of the companies that are endorsed are horrible wedding companies. Some are fake, but they still are allowed to be HVCB "approved" businesses because they paid their dues.

Hmm...an editorial industry, that doesn't really doesn't criticize its own, winners that are predetermined through how much money they spend, sounds pretty socialistic to me right?

Booking a wedding company online feel like a gamble? There's good reason.

Lets just make this worse. As a bride, you probably qualify possibly as the worse type of shopper, and best type of customer. Meaning, you're a first time buyer, uneducated in the wedding industry, emotional, and looking to spend tons of money in one day. I would call you sucker, but hopefully you're not that one yet :) Keep on reading so you won't become one.

But think about it. Brides can easily be suckered into paying too much for services because they don't have much to turn to when it comes to finding honest advice.

I'm really sorry if I'm being blunt here, but hey...this is just me. I'm just telling you the way it is.

Tourists traps are not much different than wedding traps

So what is the result of all this socialism in the wedding industry? To start, lets talk about sky rocketing prices. Yes, it is true that competition helps keep prices down. But because customers are rather uneducated on how much they should pay vendors, vendors pretty much have set their ceilings rather high. Wedding industry prices are pretty much like tourist prices...they're traps. They take advantage of an unknowing customer, because they can. For example, wedding photographers on average charge $2000 for ceremony only coverage (I don't), which works out to two hours of work. That's $1000 per hour that they are charging for shots taken on a digital camera, a lower quality than film. So not only are you paying more for photos, but getting less quality for it too! Even an anesthesiologist doesn't get paid that much. Photographers with more skill who work in the movie, fashion, and commercial industry don't get paid that much.

How about wedding cakes. Do you know there are bakers out there who charge more because your cake, is a wedding cake? The same cake, as a birthday cake, may cost $100's cheaper.

How about reception halls who charge $5.00 to refill your guests soda?

SO HOW DO YOU STOP FROM BEING RIPPED OFF
IN THE WEDDING INDUSTRY?

There's a few "tell" signs when it comes to spotting "the good" and "the bad" wedding vendor. The following "tells" are not listed from most important to least. All are equal!

First tell, education. While you are confused as a bride, your wedding planner or vendor should try to calm your nerves by not only answering your questions, but also educating you. If they are educating you...they truly care. If they answer your questions with short quiz show answers, then, there's a red flag.

Also, while you're on the subject of education. Wedding magazines and books will not truly help you in answering your questions. They don't expose the truth about vendors, but specific industry periodicals will. Lets use photography again for example. Scared that your photographer may not be a great one? Look in a photography magazine for critical analysis on the art of photography. Learn what makes a great photographer and a bad one. You won't find the same criticisms in a wedding magazine, that's for sure. Do this for every element of your wedding if you wish.

Second tell, promptness and professionalism. From the 1st day, your wedding vendor should be prompt in responses to emails and phone calls. There is no true excuse for not returning emails or phone calls quickly Especially if they are getting paid for it! To me, personally a wedding planner should always be on call for their couples, just like a doctor. A wedding vendor who takes awhile to answer emails or to return phone calls, is lazy, which is a precursor to bad business.

Thirdly, consistency. Good service does not come in tides. It's always there from start to finish. Work should always look good, phone calls always returned.

Fourth, transparency. Am I sounding like Obama? Hahaha. I always believed that secrets are never a good thing unless you're planning a surprise. A wedding vendor should always tell you how they do...anything. I have a blog to say what's on my mind. I'm really the exception to the rule on this.

Fifth, and final, brutal and blunt honesty. Hey even I have a hard time figuring out whose honest and whose not. But I like to use vendors who wear their honesty on their sleeves so I can really tell what's ticking in that brain of theirs. They don't give me political answers. They tell me, the way it is.

Obama, not a fan of capitalism.

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH OBAMA?
Not much really...but..wait, it does!

Many couples think I'm a republican, and a flat out "Obama-hater." I'm actually neither. I'm a guy who believes in free-market capitalism, and conservative values. They way I see it, America's success as a nation was a result of capitalism. But over time, and through corruption and politics, a new form of capitalism was created....CRONY CAPITALISM. "Crony Capitalism" is what happens very often between the private industry, and the government. Companies can no longer fail, but are TOO BIG TO FAIL. Hmm...what have we learned when we take the loss factor out of capitalism in the wedding industry? Socialism sneaks in. Same applies here.

Under George Bush and Obama, crony capitalism prevailed. Companies gained the edge over their competition, not by competing, but by making it harder for their competition to succeed by having the government intervene on their behalf. From Fortune 500 companies to banks, to home owners who borrowed too much, they were bailed out for making the wrong decisions. Companies, investors, and home owners that made the right decision, didn't place big bets, and cared for their money, suddenly didn't profit from their competitors making the wrong decision, but ended up paying to keep the others alive. If you paid your mortgage on time, through taxes, you basically had to pay for those who didn't pay their mortgage! Cronyism!

Here's something you didn't hear too much from the mainstream media. This housing bubble, internet bubble, all created not by the free market, but by the government. The federal reserve, kept interest rates too low, and people borrowed too much. Wealth was then determined by credit, not by actual savings. People borrowed too much, inflation exploded, then the bubble...burst. But in a true free market system, where interest rates were controlled by the market, not the federal chairman... The interest rates would have naturally gone higher as people saved less.

Next bubble to burst by the way...is the government. They are making the same mistake the private industry and the home owners made by borrowing too much.

To make things worse, now we have a press that is very much like the wedding industry's press. They are in lock-step with the President and not criticizing him with the same vigor as they did with Sarah Palin, George Bush, or even, Joe the Plumber. I still find it funny that the press concluded that Joe the Plumber didn't have the official qualifications to be a plumber, yet they did not question whether or not Obama had the official qualifications (natural born citizenship) to be president. The press said, Obama's birth announcement was in the newspaper's classifieds and that should give us enough evidence to show that he is qualified to be president. But Joe's plumbing advertisements in the classifieds were not enough evidence for him to be a plumber.... Something is funny here.

In a strange and sick way, I see Obama wanting America's Industry to become more like the Wedding Industry, and I find that pretty scary.... Does that mean socialism is right around the corner? Geez.....I truly hope not.


Till next time.


Steve Young
The Hawaii Wedding Report
http://www.dreamweddingshawaii.com/