Unfiltered Story #195017

I play violin at various events, most often weddings. I get most of my clients by responding to requests posted online. This email conversation is just one of several similar responses I receive when replying to ads in the gigs section of a popular classifieds site.

Me: [Typical opening pitch].

Response: [My name], thanks so much for the response. We did get the gig filled, but I have referred your name to my daughter’s wedding planner.

Here’s what I don’t understand: why are you paying a wedding planner and also posting ads for musicians and who knows what else for a wedding that is only two weeks away? Has your wedding planner failed to find someone in the time you have been working with them and so you are now having to plan the wedding yourself? Isn’t the point of hiring a wedding planner to let them plan the wedding so you don’t have to? Either the wedding planner is scamming you, or you are not allowing them to do the job you hired them to do.