TAYO Weddings And Special Occasions

his was a hard lesson to learn on my wedding day. The wedding planner appears by all accounts to be very professional, knowledgeable, and competent--it's why I hired her. She was also one of the less expensive options--and boy, do you get what you pay for. BEWARE. In reality, she was unprepared, flustered, unable to handle crisis situations, and in my eyes and those of my wedding party, completely incompetent to handle a wedding. It was obvious to everyone during the rehearsal that she was unprepared, and she did such a poor job directing that I alerted members of my wedding party that since the planner was not on her job and they would have to familiarize themselves with the details Their willingness and that of the DJ, the emcee, and other guests to step up are the only reasons my wedding was not a complete disaster. They basically did her job for her. I hired her to do day-of coordination, which I thought would be fairly routine. On the day of the rehearsal, it became clear that she really had not taken the time to familiarize herself with the set-up of my wedding, and (because we were unable to rehearse at the venue) never once set foot in the actual venue until the day of the wedding (despite my repeated suggestions that she at least go take a look). I was freaking out after the rehearsal, because I really felt like there was no way she was going to be able to get things together the next day. I was right. Fifteen minutes before the wedding began, she asked me where an item for the altar was. This was something that should have been realized during set up (four hours earlier) Can you say bridal freak-out? She miscued my music (yes, bridal march is playing, no bride) and sat there as if nothing was wrong. The venue had it's own flowers that I asked to have removed from the ceremony space. When I got to the altar, there was a dying potted plant squarely in the middle of my two white orchid arrangements! These are the types of situations that a wedding planner is paid (if I could bold "PAID" I would) to handle. At the end of the day, I could have saved my money. I paid her to alleviate the stress of coordinating every detail on the day of, and after months of meticulous planning, she was not supportive, responsive, or even sorry for the things that went wrong. The only reason I changed my overall rating from 1 star to 2 is because there were some things she did do (like securing and returning our linen rentals for us) that I believe show she was trying to do a good job. She just wasn't very good. I realized too late why he wanted her entire fee weeks before the wedding began. If I had owed her a balance on the deposit, there is no way I would have paid her in full. The worst part was that when someone mentioned that I was suing my wedding planner in small claims (which I did, and won), someone responded "There was a wedding planner?"