WARNING about WC Jennifer Smith

[asayle]

Bottom line:  Based on my own experience, I recommend not using her or at least exercising severe caution.

 

I knew I was not doing an all-inclusive so I figured I needed a wedding coordinator for sure.  I had read some good reviews about Jennifer and certainly about her bakery Turtle Bay Cafe and she came recommended by one of my other wedding vendors.  I exchanged a few different emails with her to get an idea of her style, prices and see if we were match.  She was very responsive to those emails and said all the right things.  I hired her in February, paid her 50% of the cost of the wedding in March ($2200), and from there on out it was nightmare city.  She rarely responded to my emails and ended up sending me her signed contract six months later in August after I asked about a number of times, and she never finalized any of the vendors she was working on.  By mid-December, I did not have a wedding location, a reception location, any kind of flower or decor suggestions, pictures, or photos, and the last e-mail Jennifer had responded to was in September (which is when I suggested that we just part ways as we obviously weren't working well together and she responded that she was terribly sorry she hadn't been more responsive, etc.).  My wedding was 2 months away... 

 

I don't think I'm a bridezilla -- I probably sent about 10-15 emails over the course of 10 months - and I wasn't looking for more than a reasonable reception/wedding location and some actual photo samples of flower arrangements, etc. 

 

When I finally informed Jennifer that we just weren't going to work out and I needed to end the contract and asked for the return of the money I'd paid her for the vendors at the wedding ... no response.   So not only did I not get any planning advice or help from her, but she kept half the cost of the actual wedding (not just 50% of her WC fee--which I still think would be unreasonable under the circumstances). 

 

Again, I know some brides have had a great experience with Jennifer.  But my experience is about as bad as I can imagine. I just can't account for her lack of enthusiasm, lack of responsiveness, and now keeping the money I need to have a wedding.  Could be a fluke but I caution future brides. 

 

Um.  Yikes.

[mmcst38]

I feel bad you have had to deal with that, it is unacceptable and I hope everything turns out well for you

[LeanneMarie]

That is so unfortunate that you are having to deal with this situation.  Planning from afar is always a challenge, and I know how much trust you have to put in your coordinator and they are actually there to help and should make it a lot less stressful for you. 

 

We're you able to get everything taken care of on your own?

[asayle]

Thanks gals.  We still have a month (GAH!!).  I'm working on it. I'm convinced everything will turn out beautifully; even better.  When you have a nightmare story to share, it's amazing how many similar stories you hear!  A woman I work with told me that she was on her way to her wedding hotel in Jamaica when the driver pulled over, took out their luggage, and left, telling them that the hotel was booked solid.  !!!  She got through it with grace and spirit.  We will too.

 

Right now I've been working with the coordinators from Lol-Ha (Laura) and Al Cielo (Donaji), both of whom have been fantastic.  We are trying to decide between the two locales and with 50% of the wedding cost still with Jennifer, we may simply decide based on cost.  But both are really responsive and engaging.  Already they've both given me flower quotes and specific looks, centerpieces, complete menues, guitar recommendations and prices, and the ever-important gazebo look!  Donaji even recommended specific colors for the ribbons on my bouquet and my BM's bouquet -- and I haven't even signed or paid them yet.   That would be my suggestion to any future bride trying to plan from afar: go with someone who gives you ideas, pictures, and specifics before you complete the deal.

[Daniel]

 

I wish that I had read this before…

 

We just returned from our destination wedding in Akumal and had hired Jennifer Smith to coordinate our wedding. She is unprofessional and employs unprofessional people. She is a smooth talker and knows all the right things to say to land the job, however she falls short of all the things that she promises. We met her in June and hired her because we didn’t want to worry about planning our destination wedding. Our wedding was at Casa Romero, a private villa; we had rented for the week and wanted to enjoy our time there with friends and family. After we paid her $4500 the she suddenly became less responsive and we really didn’t hear anything from her in the weeks preceding the wedding. As a result…

 

1. We had to track her down when we arrived in Akumal and didn’t speak with her until after we had been there for 2 days.
2. She had lost all of the photos and information regarding our requests that we had given her in June.
3. She was generally unavailable and we spent most of our time dealing with her assistant Natalie who was equally disorganized and unprofessional.
4. The people that Jennifer hired to press the dress didn’t do it right and had fix it the day of the wedding, they also put more wrinkles in my shirt than when I gave it to them.
5. The rehearsal was rushed and on the day of the wedding nobody really knew what to do.
6. The guitarist that Jennifer hired missed notes and was out of tune. He also started singing when my bride was walking down the aisle after we specifically requested an instrumental version.
7. The videographer that Jennifer Smith hired was barefoot, wore an obnoxious Hawaiian shirt during the ceremony and is in nearly every picture that was taken.
8. The DJ that Jennifer hired announced my wife as “Angie†twice, her name is Angelica. Also he didn’t play any of the songs that we had requested and the songs that he did play he would stop in the middle and start something completely different.
9. The decorations that were used were not what we were promised.
10. The cake looked nothing like what we requested, however, it tasted great.
11. At the end of the night when we went up to our room…the safe had been ripped off of the wall and we lost $1200 cash, my wallet, all my cards, 4 passports, and some jewelry. My I-phone was also stolen. I’m including this last one due to the fact that her staff was running around inside the house all night and I know that they were in our room. We just have a gut feeling that someone connected to her stole from us.   

 

I'm very sorry to hear bout your experience and I'm glad that you were able to find someone else. I hope that your day turned out wonderfully and you have many happy memories. Thank you for writing about Jennifer Smith I'm hoping that more people will come forward and expose her for what she is.

[Daniel]

 

I wish that I had read this before…

 

We just returned from our destination wedding in Akumal and had hired Jennifer Smith to coordinate our wedding. She is unprofessional and employs unprofessional people. She is a smooth talker and knows all the right things to say to land the job, however she falls short of all the things that she promises. We met her in June and hired her because we didn’t want to worry about planning our destination wedding. Our wedding was at Casa Romero, a private villa; we had rented for the week and wanted to enjoy our time there with friends and family. After we paid her $4500 the she suddenly became less responsive and we really didn’t hear anything from her in the weeks preceding the wedding. As a result…

 

1. We had to track her down when we arrived in Akumal and didn’t speak with her until after we had been there for 2 days.
2. She had lost all of the photos and information regarding our requests that we had given her in June.
3. She was generally unavailable and we spent most of our time dealing with her assistant Natalie who was equally disorganized and unprofessional.
4. The people that Jennifer hired to press the dress didn’t do it right and had fix it the day of the wedding, they also put more wrinkles in my shirt than when I gave it to them.
5. The rehearsal was rushed and on the day of the wedding nobody really knew what to do.
6. The guitarist that Jennifer hired missed notes and was out of tune. He also started singing when my bride was walking down the aisle after we specifically requested an instrumental version.
7. The videographer that Jennifer Smith hired was barefoot, wore an obnoxious Hawaiian shirt during the ceremony and is in nearly every picture that was taken.
8. The DJ that Jennifer hired announced my wife as “Angie†twice, her name is Angelica. Also he didn’t play any of the songs that we had requested and the songs that he did play he would stop in the middle and start something completely different.
9. The decorations that were used were not what we were promised.
10. The cake looked nothing like what we requested, however, it tasted great.
11. At the end of the night when we went up to our room…the safe had been ripped off of the wall and we lost $1200 cash, my wallet, all my cards, 4 passports, and some jewelry. My I-phone was also stolen. I’m including this last one due to the fact that her staff was running around inside the house all night and I know that they were in our room...nothing else in the house had been touched.

 

I hope that everything worked out for you in the end. Thanks for posting this review I hope that others will see this and not make the same mistakes.

[Jessica4LUXE]

This sounds terrible!! I'm glad that you have found some great help Asayle. You can also find planners in the U.S. and Canada who are very experienced (and have the same sense of urgency and professionalism as you do) that can help you with all the ceremony and reception details.

[Bartley Smith]

My name is Bartley Smith and I am the husband of Jennifer Smith. We are both upset and surprised by the review that Daniel has posted. 

My end of this event like all other events is the food and beverage and delivery of equipment. Everyone I talked to after the event were just going on and on about how beautiful everything was and how wonderful every thing turned out. Considering Daniel and his bride first contacted us in June about their wedding in August with a very limited budget, the event was a lot of fun for all those involved. I am not going to go line by line in this public forum about his various complaints but if you want the truth about how everything went I would be more than happy to send you a private message of what it was like on our end in dealing with this event. What I do want to discuss is his lie concerning the robbery. Someone came in through the backside of the house and took the safe from the master bedroom. Another house in the same area was hit as well that night. The safe and most of its contents were found behind the house a couple of days later. What the robbers did take were some credit cards that the robbers attempted to use later that night while Jennifer and our whole staff were with the Police and Daniel. The only members of our staff that were in the room were Jennifer and her assistant who were lighting candles and spreading flower petals for the returning couple. We have now found out that Daniel falsified the police report by greatly exaggerating the loss in the robbery.

Due to the robbery we felt sorry for what happened and told them send us the remainder of their payment to us when they returned to the states and got settled. When we sent them and email asking about payment we received nothing from him but he posted this review.

We have performed over 250 events of sizes ranging from 2 to 175 people with rave reviews. We can offer many independent references form brides and other vendors. We are looking at what kind of legal action we can take right now about these lies and hopefully we can get this settled.  

We have tried over and over again to contact them but no response so this is all they have left us and I am sorry for that. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this out and for any consideration you may offer us in planning your event,

Bartley Smith

 

 

[delmarchic]

I am so sorry to hear the horrific troubles you had with your WC. We just had to fire ours. Juliet from Destination Weddings.com is extremely Lazy and totally unprofessional. She had the nerve to tell us that we were taking all the fun out of it for her!  Hello Juliet this is not your wedding. I guess we had the nerve to think we could actually ask questions and tell her what we wanted on our day. We are currently looking for a WC who is professional,honest and dedicated to make our day as care free and wonderful as possible. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

[Sandy Planner]

OMG at the time I read this I got  sick , really ...This type of people make that wedding couple make their own arrangements  instead of get  planner services , not everyone can be a wedding planner , it is so sad because there are people that really passion  and love do weddings and detail them ....grrrr, I hope you guys are doing great in your planning now. Please enjoy the planning it is something that will be reflected in your BIG day.!!