08/16/2026
Vendor friends, please be careful out here because everybody is finding a way to get your money. 😭 I’ve gotten plenty of scam messages over the years doing photography, but this morning was officially our first attempted lemonade scam. Someone reached out wanting a large catering order, we discussed the drinks, flavors, pickup time, price and payment… then suddenly the payment was supposedly on a “compliance hold” and I needed to call some random number they claimed was Zelle to release my money. Absolutely not. If the payment isn’t showing in my account, I’m not calling numbers or clicking links somebody sends me to “release” it. The account has since been blocked and reported. Honestly, the only other time I’d say we’ve been duped doing lemonade was paying around a $500 vendor fee for a four-day carnival that turned out to be complete trash and we didn’t even make our vendor fee back. 😂 So apparently there are multiple versions of getting got in the vendor world… people trying to scam you directly, and events charging vendors a ridiculous amount of money without actually bringing in the crowd to support it. Either way, definitely do your research, protect your money, and trust your gut when something starts feeling off. Running a small business really is a new lesson every damn day.
