Anne D.

This site is ridiculous and is set up completely in favor of vendors. I just received a notice that one of my reviews was being disputed. I couldn't understand why (it was a positive review!) and then I realized ALL of this vendor's reviews were being disputed. Before my review can be reinstated, Weddingwire is requesting a copy of my contract and/or receipt. This seems reasonable to weed out fake reviews, except that my wedding was FIVE YEARS AGO. Now seriously, who has time for this nonsense? I am not going to track down documentation that I don't have anymore (seriously, you'd have to be a hoarder or have OCD to keep track of that stuff for that length of time) just to keep up a review on this website. I am now irritated that I even wasted my time with them, and am only wasting it further with this review to warn future brides: stay clear of Weddingwire if you are in search of honest reviews. Any vendor could open a dispute for whatever reason and most people are not going to jump through these insane hoops to be heard, especially if a significant length of time has elapsed. I guarantee bad vendors will take advantage of this policy. Brides will just go to Yelp or some other review service, with less crazy written into their policies.

EDIT:

So here's an update: their policies are even crazier than the aforementioned. I emailed WeddingWire to ask what the deal was, and they responded that sometimes a vendor will dispute all reviews due to change in ownership. This didn't make any sense to me. After all, even if the owner changed, why would they dispute positive reviews? As it happened, my husband had to drop by the vendor in question to have a piece of my jewelry repaired this week, and asked them about their reviews on WeddingWire. The manager's account was extremely interesting. Apparently they used to purchase advertising on WeddingWire. When they started scaling back on advertising, they noticed reviews starting to be deleted. They asked WeddingWire about it, and the latter assured them that it was not their policy to remove reviews as a function of advertising buy-in. The vendor continued to scale back and eventually stopped purchasing advertising. Now ALL of their reviews are "in dispute." They haven't disputed anything--WeddingWire is using the deletion of reviews as an incentive/threat to maintain advertising revenue.

All that to say, it boils down to this for brides (and vendors):
1. Brides cannot trust WeddingWire, because shady vendors will just wait to dispute negative reviews after sufficient time has elapsed.
2. Brides must consider that vendors with the most feedback are most likely the ones paying WeddingWire for sufficient advertising. Technically, a good vendor should be able to get by on word-of-mouth, and shouldn't need to rely on a second-rate site like this to get hits.
3. Vendors must take into account advertising on WeddingWire, and whether it's worth it to them to keep paying to keep their reviews onsite.

What a scam! WeddingWire management should be ashamed of themselves. (But let's face it... I bet they aren't.)