Forever Loves Wedding & Event Planning

I’m writing to express my extreme disappointment with Kierstin Smith. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the bad reviews from her recent weddings when I booked her in July 2023 for my November 16, 2024 wedding. There were red flags early on—she was scatterbrained, distracted, and unresponsive—but I assumed it was due to managing other weddings. She often cited these as reasons for delayed responses, and I gave her the benefit of the doubt. We purchased the "Peace of Mind" package, which included booking a florist, bakery, and table linen rentals, along with custom signage for our welcome sign and seating chart. Kierstin never provided the signage, so we had to cover those costs ourselves. As the wedding approached, her scatterbrained behavior continued. During planning meetings, she repeatedly got the names of our wedding party wrong, blaming dyslexia but never correcting her mistakes. This became a problem during the rehearsal, where she misnamed nearly everyone. On the wedding day, it was clear Kierstin needs a proper team. Despite the package including event setup and cleanup, members of the wedding party were asked to help set up chairs, tables, and centerpieces. Later, when the DJ played the wrong song for the processional, I had to tell her twice before she corrected it. During the cocktail hour, she was supposed to ensure we got sunset photos but disappeared, leaving me to manage the timing myself. The worst came at the end of the night when Kierstin asked the groom how we planned to handle the event trash—despite cleanup being part of her package. She assumed there was a dumpster onsite, which was incorrect, and attempted to offload the responsibility onto the caterers. She agreed without consulting us when they told her there’d be a fee. The caterers called her behavior inappropriate. Kierstin then asked the bus driver to transport trash to our hotel without first confirming with the hotel. I told her that she needed to call. She said she did, however, when my maid of honor called the hotel to confirm, they knew nothing about this arrangement. Instead of enjoying our send-off, the groom, the wedding party, and I ended up helping break down the room. Kierstin assured us she and her husband would handle the trash at the hotel, but they never showed up, leaving the groom to take care of it. They were staying in the same hotel as us. Her unprofessionalism and disorganization made our wedding night far more stressful than it should have been. I regret booking her.