Several months ago we hired a planner, it was a $1000 package and seemed ideal. It covered everything except the wedding shower.
My fiance does comedy on the side and one of his fellow comedians had done events with her. She also did weddings. I was impressed with her immediately. She was seeking out my crazy ideas within the first week and had leads. Then she started getting bad at returning calls, was late to every appt. rescheduled at the last minute, etc
I hired her because my job is a 50-60 hour/week gig. I can escape sometimes for midday appts because I'm salary but I knew I wasn't going to be able to meet with vendors during their hours. The bm's live out of town or have jobs/kids that wipe out their time to help. My mom lives out of town as well...
BUT then she would name drop and tell us all of these great things she would include for free. She is an event coordinator for a local mansion and had lots of "hook-ups."
But the shady behavior continued. She was great when she was sitting across from us, but in terms of calls or emails she was impossible to get ahold of. Well she finally admitted she was pregnant ...
We didn't sign the contract (she never followed up to get the signed copy) but I'm pretty sure we lost our $200 deposit. She never really produced any results, but because of her time--I doubt I should push the issue.
So questions for the board:
Pursue the return of deposit?
Where to find a day of coordinator? (Now all trust is gone, would you even recommend trying a local college? Or just pick an aunt or relative? The whole reason for the WC was so that no one lifted a finger.)
Any words of assurance or advice that I can do this alone would be helpful too :-/
We are firing her tomorrow. Final straw: An appt we have had planned for weeks has now been canceled because she can't find a babysitter
Thank you all. I'm just sad... back to square 1.