Gretchen Heller of Perfect Harmony Strings was incredibly dishonest, rude and unprofessional. I would not recommend her to anyone.
We contracted Perfect Harmony for a string quart...et to play our wedding ceremony in the Poconos for $1225. Gretchen explained that because the musicians would be traveling from Philly (5 hour R/T), we might need to pay an additional $200 in travel fees, which we agreed to.
After several weeks of no communication, Gretchen emailed us FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING to say that she had "good news and slightly bad news." The "good news" was that she'd lined up some great musicians for our ceremony! (Congrats on doing your job?) The "slightly bad news" was that we'd need to pay $400 in "travel fees" due to the long commute from Philly to Mt. Pocono. Gretchen did not explain what these "travel fees" covered -- no itemized breakdown, nothing. She merely reminded us that we had "indicated previously being open to some extra travel fees," as if we should have expected this.
When we said that this seemed like an outrageous amount of money to surprise us with just 5 days before the wedding, she responded that she'd run into "SO many issues finding good players" that she "literally was worried about not being able to produce a group at all." (What?!?) She seemed indignant that her efforts to fulfill the contract THAT SHE BID ON were being "disregarded" and "unappreciated."
She told us that the $400 fee was non-negotiable if we wanted a string quartet and that if we weren't happy with it, "then we can go ahead and cancel [the contract] all together." I felt my hands were tied, so I sent her a check with the extra money.
The musicians who showed up to our wedding were fine, but they were clearly students and NOT professional musicians! (One even had a Temple University music folder, though Ms. Heller had told us that the musicians would be from the far more prestigious Curtis Institute of Music.) So, we paid over $1600 for a bunch of kids to play our ceremony.
And things didn't end there! After the wedding, my husband and I left the country for our honeymoon. We did not have cell service and had limited WiFi. The day before we flew back home, I found an area with WiFi and noticed 2 text messages from Gretchen. The first noted that there was an issue with the check and said that I needed to call her immediately. The second, sent two days later, accused me of intentionally ignoring her first text and insinuated that I'd sent her a fraudulent check. She went so far as to threaten us with legal action.
In a panic, I called my bank to ask about the check -- and they informed me that no one had attempted to cash or deposit it! I texted Ms. Heller back to say that the bank confirmed the check was fine, and I told her that she could either deposit it, or I could stop payment on it and send her a new check upon returning to the US.
Ms. Heller chose the former, but continued to send texts implying that she still believed the check to be a fraud. She updated me with these rude texts for days ("I'm going to the bank shortly to deposit the original check and trust it will fully clear.") The check cleared, as expected, but of course Ms. Heller never apologized.
Working with Gretchen Heller was an utter nightmare from start to finish. Not only did she essentially extort us for $400, she then went on to harass, threaten and insult me during our honeymoon. If you need musicians, do yourself a favor and hire literally anyone else.