Event Savvy

One example of her unprofessionalism was talking down about our budget-forming ideas; clay bouquet, fabric pomanders, rose petals galore, etc., to other vendors. We know she did this (as three of them specifically informed us of her unprofessional comments), and the irony is that everybody (meaning our guests and several of our vendors mentioned that they) loved our stuff; especially the bouquet, which was essentially perfection incarnate. Alyson made a big production about our linens, how she was going to fold our napkins a specific way and place the menu inside the fold of the napkin. She made a huge point about this, & how it was going to look nice & that it would take her some time to put together. On the day of the wedding, she did not fold the napkins at all like she claimed she was going to fold them. She made this a big production (& frankly we did not care at all about the linens, except for their rental cost), but since she made such a big deal out of it, I must mention it. The napkins looked sloppy & the menu's were just tossed on top of them haphazardly. She claimed she ran out of time, however she could have done it the night before, or come to the reception site at 10:00 AM when she knew it was open & that the tables were set up the night before (& she knew it was setup because both the groom & bride were at the reception site & texted/ called Alsyon to encourage her to get there & start her part of the setup. Also, again with the linens, she did not decorate the cake table as she claimed she would either. It was simply just a different colored tablecloth whereas she stated it would be done up in a much more elaborate & unique fashion by draping other linens with it or affixing another type of linen swooping around the sides of the of the cake table---again, not a big deal except for the fact that she did not follow through with her work. Speaking of tablecloths, we were told by Alyson that she would be setting up the linens and napkins. Later we were informed that she was not even the one to place them on the tables?strange considering that she had made that molehill into a mountain every time it came up in conversation about how it would take her hours and hours to put on 15 tablecloths & fold napkins(all of which was her idea, again we could not have cared less about the linens). Furthermore, the catering company's staff even broke them down for her at the end of the night. Again, we really did not think this was a big deal in and of itself, but combined with all the other damning evidence of poor performance & laziness, this lack of effort is disappointing as well. Alsyon was also shopping at The Dollar Store at 4:00 PM the day of our wedding when the ceremony started at 3:45 pm. We found a receipt packed away in our belongings indicating that she was there, buying frames. As the groom mentioned to her at approximately 10:00 AM the day of the wedding when he called her from the reception site(that she was not at even though she was supposed to be setting up), he had brought frames, frame holders, & other miscellaneous items that Alyson would need for our décor. Also, Alyson was present & picked out these frames at the store that she then chose not to use, & instead used frames from The Dollar Store. This makes us think that she didn?t even arrive at the reception site until after our wedding, which is also when guests would be arriving. She was supposed to have it setup before guests arrived. Also, this again was wasting our money because she did not even use those frames along with $300 worth of merchandise purchased from that store, which has a NO RETURN policy. Back to the church/ceremony, we had issues at the church as Alyson had not toured or familiarized herself with the layout of the church in order to direct our bridal party, guests, or even the seamstress. The seamstress was steaming gowns in the musty, dark basement halls of the church instead of in the designated bridal room. After the rehearsal of the wedding, she announced that she in fact would not be able to make it to the wedding and that we would be on our own the day of the wedding. Needless to say, we, our minister, our parents, and bridal party were less than pleased to hear this, and I had to convince her into coming to the wedding to direct/coordinate it on the day of the wedding. She did not bother to inform our ushers of how, where, and when to begin their job of ushering/directing guests. She was not available to direct us after the ceremony which was simply stated chaotic--she should have had a plan in place. She did not meet or direct the bridal party or the bride/groom once we arrived to our reception site. Our bridal party voiced frustration that they just meandered around trying to figure out what to do and where to go, and reported that once they located Alyson, she was unable to direct them, she had ?no idea where they should go?, and, in fact, she told them that they should ?go find out the information from someone else.? As a lay person, my thought was that the wedding coordinator/event planner, Alyson, should have known where to direct them as she was supposed to the wedding coordinator overseeing all details of the event, and if she did not know at the time they asked for her help then the appropriate course of action would have been for Alyson to find out the information for them rather than directing them on a wild goose chase to figure the information out on their own. Same with the bride and groom when we arrived at our reception site after the bridal party--we had no idea where to go, only met her when we went looking for her and were in fact mere minutes away from being announced for our grand entrance into the reception. Alyson was also unavailable during our reception to troubleshoot, one example being that the wedding gown needed hemmed with some safety pins, my bridesmaid found Alyson, handed her a box of safety pins and informed her that the bride needed her help pinning up the wedding dress and I was waiting on the ground level near the restrooms. Rather than moving to assist the bride, Alyson just stood in the same spot and continued to talk to another vendor for 15+ minutes just holding the safety pins in her hands. What Alyson should have done was immediately ended the conversation with this vendor to attend to the needs of her client(s)?the bride & groom. Instead the bride and groom spent that time in the ladies bathroom in the pulling floral pins out of the wedding bouquet and used them to hem the bottom of the wedding gown. Also, we have photos of her in the buffet line along with our guests grabbing a platefuls of food---um, what was she doing in line with our guests??? She was supposed to be helping direct guests & reminding/encouraging them to use the photobooth, not helping herself to our guest's buffet & certainly not being in front of them in line. Also, several of my bridesmaids, catering staff, & the reception site staff, reported that she was sitting at a table in the kitchen area for over an hour eating the remainder of the wedding cake & other wedding food. The wedding cake was not for her to indulge in, as the bride and groom each only had one bite, & would have liked to, as well as paid for the extra cake, & would have been the one?s entitled to any leftover cake/food. During this time that she was just hanging out in the kitchen, she should have been making sure the event was going smoothly and that the bride and groom, the bridal party, our parents, & all of our guests were cared for & doing well, & she should have been checking in with our vendors making sure that they were doing well & did not have any problems or issues for her to solve. It was noted that the person running the photobooth was twirling around in his chair rather than helping people with the photobook & putting the second copy of their photo booth pictures in the memory book. Alyson also argued with the bride on the wedding night about sparklers that were to be used in downtown photos of Columbus at night. She brought them into the reception where they were prohibited, and thus they were immediately confiscated. She was supposed to keep them in her car until it was time to use them in the designated areas. She did not bother to tell the bride or groom of this, until we searched her out to get them & that?s when she delivered the news. She should have known better than to 1) bring them in at all or in a visible fashion, & 2) save her arguing for a day that is not the bride?s wedding day, no matter what & especially not over sparklers. Also, at the end of the night, our gift card box was tampered with & missing some of our cards & monetary gifts contained in those cards--BTW, Alyson carried the card box to our car--hmmm, interesting. Despite working with Alyson, overall we had a lovely wedding & reception. It would have been a lot less of a hassle, less stress-filled & easier to plan without Alyson. It was due to other vendors, bridal party members, & family of the bride & groom that the event was successful & we were able to compensate for Alyson's lack of organization, ideas, planning, laziness, setup & breakdown of the event. I?m not saying that she did not perform any work on our behalf, but given the above, I think I am entitled to at least ½ ($750) to 2/3 ($1000) the cost paid for her services (in addition to the cost of the items that we were unable to use that were purchased under her direction at the store WITH A NO RETURN POLICY...I still have the receipt) as she did not do most of what she advertised when we hired her. If the scope of Alsyon Strickler from Event Savvy LLC services was basically to be a negotiating intermediary with the catering company, and to assist the bride/groom with design elements of the reception, then perhaps she should change her job description and contract as a wedding coordinator/planner, and adjust her sales pitch and pricing accordingly.