Sasha Souza Events

We are based in San Francisco, and were married in Napa Valley. We mistakenly hired Sasha Souza and Mellysa Levy because of the great PR around their business. We wanted an elaborate, special, all-out wedding event. They suggested three venues for us to tour. We took a drive up to Napa, to discover they had recommended the backyard of restaurants. Super down market for what we had in mind. Not at all the resort look and feel we were going for. I noticed within two weeks of hiring them, they delivered on nothing they said they would. Nothing. They missed deadlines. They didn't deliver on promises. They missed conference calls with other vendors. Since we had only signed our contract two weeks prior, and they did not put in any work, we requested a full refund. Sometimes it is not a match, and sometimes people are not who they seem. They refused to refund our money two weeks after we signed and having done no work. We walked away from these people and found a wonder event professional to replace them. It left a very bad taste in my mouth. Their utter lack of professionalism. It bordered on actual theft and fraud. They did not live up to their end of the contract. As a new bride, getting married is a special time and these people absolutely didn't seem to care.

Do you want a full-service wedding planner? If so, Sasha Souza Events is not for you. My wife and I hired Sasha Souza Events towards the end 2018 for our October 2019 wedding in Napa, CA. We visited several different venues in January 2019, which was scheduled by her team prior to our arrival. After selecting a venue, we corresponded with their team over the next few months. About 2 months prior to the wedding, we had not received our design packet, pricing information, layout; anything to do with our wedding. We had to schedule calls multiple times with them to ensure they were following THEIR timeline that they gave to us at the beginning of the process. My wife and I constantly had to babysit them and ask what we needed to be working on, what answers they were waiting on (if any), etc. There was not a moment during the 11 months of planning that I was impressed with their services. They made our lives more stressful and we spent weeks worrying about OUR day, to the extent that we thought about firing them a month prior to the wedding. I would not recommend Sasha Souza Events to anyone, not even my worst enemy. They overpromised and underdelivered. My wife was crying in my arms at our rehearsal dinner because of how much stress Mel and Sasha were causing her and how much coordinating she was doing, instead of the “planners” we hired. On the day of the wedding, our photographer and videographer were forced to take on the wedding planner role, helping groomsmen with corsages, guiding the wedding party after the ceremony and coordinating the start of the dancing after dinner. Sasha Souza Events should not be allowed to market their services in the Valley and it is a shame they are still in business.

Please read my review prior to interviewing this team. I would NOT recommend Sasha Souza Events to anyone, not even someone I truly disliked. Save your sanity and hard earned money for the sake of you and your event. My husband and I hired her to plan our wedding with 3 additional wedding related events. Unfortunately, I debated firing them numerous times throughout the 11 months we were planning. We had to have a serious conversation with them about half way through because we were so disappointed with their level of communication. Sasha Souza and Mellysa Levy do not respond to clients in a timely manner. Our questions would go unanswered for weeks. She was 2 months late in presenting us with the design of the wedding. Vendors would reach out to us complaining that they could not reach her or Mel. She portrays herself as a full service wedding planner and this simply is not the case. She never planned the last two events for our wedding, which were itemized and included in our contract, and charged us for it...more on that later. On the day of our wedding, she made my life harder instead of being someone I can rely on/hired to run the show. She pushed off her responsibilities on our other vendors and was OPENLY rude to our photographer and videographer. She rolled her eyes at me when I asked her to bustle my dress prior to our entrance to the reception. I could go on. For the two events she never got around to planning... she stopped all communication with us when we requested a partial refund. We emailed and called her many telephone numbers about 20 times (me, my husband, my parents, etc.) with no response. Her unprofessional-ism is outstanding and I am surprised she is still in business.

Unresponsive. The day of coordination went smoothly, which I will give them credit for. But I had a very hard time getting responses from them the entire time. There was also an incident after I had hired and paid them where they were dishonest with me and it was handled very unprofessional. Luckily, I was able to handle much myself, but I shouldn’t have paid them for month of service when I really got week to day of service. They also posted on their professional instagram account a complaint about the box of placecards I had made and provided to them just as they had asked me to because I didn’t provide them in a particular order, which they had never requested. Don’t recommend.