I will post more recs for wedding vendors in Colorado Springs at a later date, but wanted to share my review of Joni and the Couture Cupcake Company in Colorado Springs now, in order to spare any brides that may be considering this business the stress and anxiety that I had...
Couture Cupcake Company...BIG MISTAKE! I am not shallow enough, nor concerned enough with details to say that Couture Cupcake Company and Joni, the owner, ruined my wedding, because that is not what the wedding is about, but let's just say that her awful service, business practices, attitude, and mediocre cupcakes, did nothing to help my wedding (thank goodness for all the things that a wedding is really about to remind me that this review is really just about sparing future brides the same stress that I had to go through).
So let's start from the beginning. I was looking for a cupcake bakery, so I started emailing around for prices, as brides-to-be do. Well, once I establish contact with Joni, the owner, she becomes pushy, at one point sending me an email asking "Well, are you coming in?". Because I was on a tight schedule due to an out of state move, against my better judgement, I did come in, chose some flavors of (mediocre) cupcakes, and put down a deposit equaling half of the total amount due to the company. Time goes by and I do not hear from Joni until the balance is due 30 days before the wedding. She calls, I give her my credit card number, and indicate that I would like to discuss the details of my order. She tells me that she does not have the paperwork in front of her, but will call me in two days (as the next day is her day off...note to new business owners, perhaps don't take days off until you have your business under control), at a specific time. That day and time rolls around, and no phone call. I check my credit card statement though, and the balance of what was due to Joni had been charged to my card not once, but twice. NOT COOL! Call to clear this up...no answer. Email Joni. No reply. Next day call, no answer, email, no reply. This goes on for over a week (and I have the sent messages and phone logs to prove it), until I finally get a 2 line email reply that she has been on vacation (what business owner that makes money off of weddings takes a vacation during wedding season?), but that she has refunded the charge. 3 days later I finally get her on the phone, to tell her that I have still not received the refund of the second charge, and to discuss details of my order (like I needed gluten free cupcakes, to discuss how the cupcakes looked, and the flowers to be used on the cupcake tower), and Joni tells me that the charge should be refunded by the next Monday, and that she doesn't have my paperwork in front of her, but she will call me back in 2 hours. Guess what...2 hours later, no phone call...shocking, right? So I continue emailing, to try to get details in order, I try calling...nothing (and she still hasn't refunded almost $300 of my money, yet she LIES again and says that she just refunded the money). Finally, the week before my wedding when I arrive back in Colorado Springs to tie up loose details, I finally pin Joni down for an appointment to discuss details. She tried to tell me that I would owe extra for gluten free cupcakes since I didn't get that order into her two weeks before the event date (though if she ever returned my phone calls, I could have told her a month before the date...and more on this later). We discuss colors, flavors, flowers, and delivery time, and then...she has the audacity to say that I still owe her the balance! You have GOT to be kidding me. I informed her that she, in fact, owed me money, and she says..."Oh, we couldn't figure out who that was!" I ask you...do you really want to do business with someone like this?
So I leave Joni's shop 4 days before my wedding, still unsure if the cupcakes are going to show up (even though she has promised me a delivery time, flowers, and a dozen gluten free cupcakes on a seperate tower with a sign indicating what they were.
Cut to my wedding day...they showed up an hour and a half late to set up (as my guests were arriving at the reception), with cupcakes that looked like the belonged at a baby shower (what BRIDE wants cupcakes with animal crackers sticking out of them), no gluten free cupcakes, nor the flowers that I was charged for. Whatever...I had a great time at my reception, so it was no sweat off my back then. What I would like is my $40 tower deposit refunded, as I returned the tower (they told my mom they could not refund the money without the physical card...which is funny, because they were able to charge the money TWICE without the card, and lie TWICE about refunding the money without the card). Also, since there are no flowers in sight (confirmed by about 100 pictures, I would like that $40 refunded. And since they showed up VERY late, with not what I ordered, the $35 delivery fee should be refunded. Thus far, I have not even received the $80 that I am owed, let alone the $35 that I feel I should receive due to their incompetance.