Devoted to You

oint through the planning process did you express discontent with my services. A lot of the things you mention here are presented in a way that doesn't accurately describe the process and our interactions and the way you described the wedding day is almost 100% false. I debated on whether to refute this review because of all of the inaccuracies, but in the end I decided that I would be remiss to not submit a response to this. I responded number by number, so excuse the long response. 1. Working with Melissa was extremely stressful, and she really proved that she wasn't "devoted to us" at any step of the process. - If there were things that made the planning process stressful throughout the time we worked together, I wish that would have been expressed to me. There was no indication that working with me was stressful at all. You said more than once after a call that you felt better after speaking with me and on the day of the rehearsal, your mother told me what great things the you had to say about me. 2. She presented a budget that didn't include her own services; she made us feel cheap for trying to stretch our limited budget. - On our initial call, I explained that my services would have to be excluded from the overall budget in order to keep you within the budget you wanted to be in and you said you understood. This is not uncommon for me to discuss with a client because I believe in being up front and honest especially when it comes to budget and money. I even discounted my full planning package 2K for you given that your guest count was smaller so that I could help with the budget a bit. I work with budgets from 10K to 100K+ and never discriminate based on budget. Some of the most fabulous weddings that I’ve done have been on the lower end. Money doesn’t matter and priorities are different for everyone. What I do as a planner is try to match the money with the priorities and expectations. 3. Her attitude throughout the entire year we worked with her was condescending and patronizing - she made us feel stupid for not knowing certain things about planning a wedding, and made us feel bad for wanting to stretch our limited budget. - Again, it was never expressed to me that this was how you felt. Had this been expressed, perhaps I could have adjusted my process with you or even assigned you another planner from my team if you truly weren't happy with how things were going. I’ve never been called condensing or patronizing and pride myself and my team for working with people with all different visions and all different budgets. I offered solutions to match your budget, which is what part of my duties are as the wedding planner. If you interpreted that as being condescending and patronizing, I unfortunately have no control over that. 4. She sometimes took weeks to respond, only answered the last question of many, and never apologized for late replies. - I don’t have a record of every single response time, but I do know that if there was ever a time it took "weeks" to respond, it was because I was away and taking personal time and not answering any client emails or I was dealing with other events and working on planning and keeping things on track for yours on the backend. There are times throughout the planning process where I am just doing my job and working on things and then once I have things to present to a client, I email. I explained that was my process. 5. She cancelled, rescheduled, and even no-showed several of our Zoom meetings. I don’t know what to say other than I’m human. - This is a false representation of what happened. This makes it seem like I was flaky and cancelled, rescheduled and no-showed all the time. If I canceled a meeting, it was likely something having to do with one of my children that I couldn’t reschedule. I never flat out canceled a meeting with no reschedule. And when I no- showed to 2 zoom meetings it was because of Covid. I explained that I was very ill and severe brain fog happened to be one of the side effects of Covid when I had it. I apologized profusely for that because there has only been one other time in my 13 year career that I no showed an appointment and even though the brain fog was the culprit, I felt terrible for doing that to you and expressed that. 6. She provided few options for venues and made us feel pressured to choose one right away. - Again this is false. I can't speak for how you felt, but to say I provided few options is not true. You had very specific venue wants, needs and priorities plus a specific budget that we were working within. I presented 7 options that I thought fit all the specifications. That is more than I typically present to a client because by the time we get to the part where I'm presenting them, I know they are a good fit but it's up to the client to decide based on preferences. 7. Setup was not even near finished by the time we arrived at our venue, 30 minutes before the ceremony was to begin. - You arrived 1 hour prior to the ceremony and it is completely normal to still have to put finishing touches on things. Even then though, the only things that needed finished setting up were things I needed a second set of hands for (which was the garland for the photo booth) and things I couldn’t set up due to the wind outside. (Table numbers, thank you notes, candles lit) But I should mention that all of those things were on the tables in a compact pile with a candle on top of it so they didn’t blow away before it was time for guests to come into the tent. Everything else was set up. 8. Guests weren't being directed where to go, and walked into the inside space where all vendors were still unpacking and setting up. This was embarrassing. I asked Melissa to direct guests to the ceremony space and she did, but this isn't something we should have had to consider at all. - Guests arrived 30 minutes prior and it was a balmy sunny 82 degrees. We directed them to the ceremony and they came inside anyway to come in from the heat. You are correct in saying that isn’t something that you should have directed. In hindsight, myself or Ellen should have stood outside and been more diligent about keeping all guests out there. 9. She was hard to find all day, and her attitude was quite rude to whomever talked with her. - I was around all day out in the open. There was no place to even hide at this venue. No back room for vendors or anything so there was no place for me to be but there. And even if there was a back room, you wouldn’t have found me in it. It is my job to be present and attentive on a wedding day and again, this is something my team and myself pride myself on. 10. We had a welcome mirror that was heavy and only waist-height. I told her that we want the mirror to be placed higher up - she reassured us that she'd put it on a bench and it would be fine. When we arrived on the day of, it was propped on the ground and tied to a pole. When I asked what happened, she nonchalantly mentioned "oh, it wasn't going to stay on the bench." She really didn't care. - That isn’t true. I did care and that wasn’t my response. I cared so much that when I put it on a bench and it was very unstable, I didn’t want it to be knocked over by the wind, so I propped it up against the pole and tied the sign to it with a very pretty ribbon in a space where all guests were entering so they could see it. That is what I said to you when you asked why it wasn’t on the bench. 11. Most guests told us later that they never knew the cake was available. We don't know what happened to it after the event and we never got to try any besides our small piece at the cake cutting. - The cake was out on 3 different tables in 3 different areas of the reception space. The caterer even walked around with some passing it out to guests. I’m honestly not sure how people could have not known it was there. 12. When the event ended, I was baffled by how rude she was to my parents and our guests, ordering people to tear things down and clean up. She told our friend/officiant, who was a special guest to us and did us a huge favor officiating our wedding, to begin loading boxes into cars. It was extremely embarrassing for us that he was ordered around like this after all he did for us. - I didn’t boss anyone around. That is not my approach to people in general, let alone to my clients and their friends and family members. What I did do was pack up all of the personal belongings and load them on to a cart so it was convenient for whomever was taking it to the cars to do so. I explained where everything was and what needed to leave the venue. I showed them the things on the cart, the stuff on the shelf beside the cart that didn’t fit on the cart and explained about the leftover food and cake being in the fridge. The only other thing that needed cleaned up was the cookie table and I wasn't in charge of that. Your parents were handling that. Everything else was neatly packed up and I was just relaying the info of where it was so people knew. I was not aggressive with these explanations. It was my typical end of the night routine. 13. We didn't know what happened to all the leftover food. In the end it was a miscommunication error on her part, and she never apologized or acknowledged that she never asked us directly what we wanted done with it, and didn't seem to care that we were upset about not being able to enjoy the food we paid so much for. - Again this is not true. I told your parents, as well as the group of people that were loading up the cars and the groom about the food. When I was saying goodbye and letting the groom know (you and he weren’t standing together at this point and you was talking with someone so I didn’t want to interrupt) where things were and what had happened already in terms of loading up the cars, I asked at the end if he or you needed anything else from me and he said “Yes, can you take a photo of me and my friends” Nothing else. 14. We received zero follow-up communication from Melissa, honestly solidifying for us that she really did not care about us or our wedding, and may have been salty about not receiving a tip (I could not, in good conscience, tip her for the service she provided, and we did tip well the vendors who provided good service). - I never expect a tip so to assume that and then put it in writing in a review for other people to see is poor judgment and honestly a bit of an attack on my character as a person. My follow up process is to send the follow up email within 2 weeks of the wedding. This is what I do for every client. Depending on my work flow and schedule, sometimes that email comes the day after the wedding and sometimes it comes at the 2 week mark. You wrote this review on day 9 so it hasn’t even been a full two weeks since your wedding. In the end, I am sorry that you were dissatisfied with my services. That is never the end result I want or strive for. I did want to submit this response though so that future clients who may read this review, can also see things from perspective.

iful review.

have to meet up at Bar Marco for a glass of wine sometime soon!

e you and Sean as clients. Thanks so much for allowing us to be such an intricate part of your day!

rate again with you in 2021!

ything!! :)

d I were so happy to be a part of your day. Thanks for trusting us with all the details of your day!

ing) that I am deeply sorry that you were not satisfied with Kristen as your day of coordinator the day of your wedding.. In the past 3 years, Kristen has coordinated over 35 weddings as the lead and assisted on too many to count. She (as well as all of the girls on my team) are well versed in how to efficiently run a wedding, coordinate with the venue as well as all of the vendors and the client. You and I talked in great detail about it, and you brought up some great points from a client perspective that I promised I would speak to Kristen about and I did. As a business owner, I think it's imperative for me to hear how the day went from a clients perspective because even though we may be doing our job, if there are things we can do better to grow as individuals and as a team I want to know about them. You laid a lot out here in terms of the day of and what you were unhappy with so I want to address it one by one... The marriage license was an honest mistake. She did not mean to take it home with her and she remedied that by dropping it off personally at the judges office the Monday following your wedding. I wasn't there to see how she spoke to the groomsmen but I can say that I've never seen her yell at a client, their wedding party, their friends and family or another vendor. And in terms of them not knowing where to go, we provide a detailed day of timeline and typically rely on the bride and groom to tell their wedding party in advance of the day of the wedding day where they need to be and when and we always reinforce that the day of the wedding if someone doesn't know where to be. In terms of the bus, they took the wrong way (which ended up being a longer way) to the ceremony. I don't know that there is a way to fix that other than to call the bus company and speak to both the manager and the driver directly to make sure that they know about the issue and also that the second driver didn't do the same thing. Both of which she did. She did not communicate that to you (which we talked about was one of the things she could have done better) but you also have to remember that on a wedding day, we can be coordinating and trouble shooting various different things all at the same time and we don't always report back to the bride to let her know that we made a phone call or addressed the issue...the client typically trusts that we know how to do our job and that we handled the situation. Because of the tight timeframe and the bus situation and Kristen trying to remedy that, she got to the venue after their staff had already started to put decorations out and my second assistant (who was there and I know this because I paid her to be there) was working on the escort card table and was focused on completing that before anything else was done. Normally the bride or groom or any of the family does not arrive at the same time so anything that has been set in the wrong place or not set up at all yet is remedied before you even know about it. Kristen did not have a chance to do that because you all arrived at the same time and as soon as you noticed things were out of place, you started mentioning them to her not giving her a chance to even get situated, check in with her assistant as well as the venue coordinator so that she could get started on what she needed to do. With that being said, once she did have a chance to do that, she did move the decorations to where they were supposed to be and where we had all talked about. The bathroom is the venues responsibility. If it dirty or locked or the toilet is overflowing, our extent of troubleshooting that is to tell the venue coordinator or maintenance staff about it (which she did multiple times) It cannot become our responsibility to provide maintenance on a bathroom. The timing of the thank you speech was absolutely a mishap on her part and I talked to her in great length about that. It is definitely our responsibility to make sure that things happen that are on the timeline and if they don't happen, it's because the bride and groom have chosen not to do it. Once the band started playing, she should have realized that the thank you speech didn't happen and went over to them to let them know to immediately announce it after that song. The fact that that didn't happen was definitely something she should have caught. In terms of all the question asking and not being able to find her on the wedding day, we are constantly moving around doing things and checking on things and talking to vendors (coordinating details) that you may or may not see. Which means we may or may not always be visible depending on that. And from what I know from what you told me and what Kristen has said, she spent a lot of her time that night dealing with things that should have been the venue's responsibility such as unlocking the bathroom and the bridal suite whenever anyone needed it. As I said earlier, I was not there that day, so I can not say exactly how the day went, but I can say that my company is built on principles of integrity, dedication, and hard work and my girls always give forth their best effort and do their best to please the client. Now I want to address what you said about me personally and your experience leading up to the day. I have to say that I am surprised by everything that you wrote here, because when we talked on the phone, you didn't mention anything about being unhappy with my services and the planning processes...everything that you were unhappy with had to do with the day of and Kristen. So when I opened this I was shocked to read what you wrote. Over the course of our planning (which was a month of coordination plus design package) our communication and my level involvement was definitely above and beyond what I typically do for that package. We had 3 consultation meetings with three different florists, a linen consultation, 2 on site venue meetings, a tasting with the caterer, a finalization meeting with the florist, several general planning meetings and countless emails, texts and phone calls throughout the process. There was a point in our planning that I switched email carriers and had an issue receiving some for a short period of time, but once I realized that I called and had it fixed. I pride myself on my response time to my clients. I never ever have taken multiple weeks to get back to someone no matter what it is. During busy wedding season, there were definitely times where I took up to 5 days depending on how urgent the issue and/or question was but NEVER took two-three weeks. And my general threshold for where I draw the line in between "work" time and "personal" time is pretty flexible and lenient. I always tell my clients that if you send an email and you don't get an immediate response from me and if you need one to please text me because that is quicker, especially during busy season. I answered your texts on Sundays after 5PM, on wedding days before 8:30AM, weekdays after 9PM and weekdays before 9AM. This is not typical and/or expected but this is how I run my business. I try to be available and answer things when I can because this is your wedding and I want you to feel like you are important and that I am a partner in your planning process. If there was a time that I didn't answer a text right away, it's because I was with family or away on vacation and I do draw the line there and try not to work when I am spending time with my children. In terms of the way I run my business and how I delegate, I was very upfront with you (and I am with every client) on that from the very beginning. If you were hesitant about me not being there the day of your wedding or "not overly enthused" with me even before we started to work together, then I'm just not sure why you signed the contract to begin with. I make it a point to tell potential clients that hiring someone to help you coordinate your day is essential and if for whatever reason you feel that we don't click or are not the right fit, don't let that stop you from hiring someone. Overall, again I am so sorry that Kristen and I did not live up to your expectations of what you wanted in a wedding coordinator but I can tell you that we worked hard and both were dedicated to you, your planning process and your wedding day.