Bright Eyes Dove Release

My fiancé and I inquired about releasing doves on our wedding day, more than 6 months in advance of the date. After affirming our wedding day was available with Jadia Ward (the owner,) and having her confirm our day and time was scheduled, she had sent us 5 questions to answer so she could send us our official contract. These questions were straight forward like “name of bride and groom,” “wedding colors,” “address,” etc. Jadia also informed us of the need to spend 15 minutes being trained in-person on holding the birds and releasing them before the wedding, otherwise a basket release was all we could do. Because we knew holding the birds was what we wanted, we had immediately sent the questions to our wedding planner and considered the date set in stone, knowing we just needed to fill in logistics. The next few days we starting working with our wedding planner and vendors to solidify in-person meetings ASAP as flying to Portland was a must, to not only get trained on bird handling but finish other needed meetings. The moment we had confirmation from our wedding planner that our in-person meetings were confirmed for our trip from California to Portland, we immediately wrote back to Jadia to nail down 2 days for training with the birds! Instead of a happy email replying with times to meet, she informed us rudely “After emailing you a week ago Wednesday with no reply to our questions to finish your contract up by last weekend . . .  sadly, we had to move on.” I was stunned. There was never a timeline or request to hurry up with the 5 questions, nor was there a warning of moving on without us if we couldn’t give her an immediate reply. Had there been communication about a 48 hour hold or something along those lines, we certainly would have replied to those 5 questions in order to apparently further “solidify” our date and ASAP! This was extremely unprofessional and the lack of communication and expectation of deadlines was non-existent. We went from having doves and being penciled in and confirmed to completely thrown away over someone else giving her a $100 deposit quicker and with no responsibility to warn us first and give us the opportunity to answer the questions she apparently needed so urgently. If she had considered clients feelings over her need for quick bookings and urgent deposits for a wedding 6 months in advance, this never would have happened. A quick email keeping us in the loop or giving us a deadline expectation or even just a follow up would have sufficed but instead, she choose to pick her needs above others and financial wants above clients therefore ruining plans of not only a bride but multiple other people. This is a business that puts money and impatience ahead of clients with absolutely no consideration to others. The communication is horrible. Emails take days for response and if you in turn do the same, regardless of the reason, you will be thrown away like your wedding day doesn’t matter and you’re just another inquiry. DO NOT HIRE THEM. They are not customer service driven, have zero communication skills with clear deadlines and do not put the needs of their clientele first. You are just another number on a list.