Turks & Caicos Wedding Planner

[WCorey]

W Corey, I just came back from my wedding and Rosalind was our planner. She completely ruined our event. I can't even begin to list the serious errors she made simply out of lack of care. I can forward you the letter of complaints I sent to her that explains everything. She was very responsive at first so I made the mistake of putting my trust in her. My day is over, and I am left heartbroken. I am available to answer any questions to make sure that another bride doesn't have the same experience. 

[WCorey]

Oh no! I am so sorry to hear that. Can you tell me more details? What happened? Did you have your wedding at theAlexandra? Thanks

[Yelena]

Hi WCorey, I sent you the list of what ended up happening into your inbox. Please ask me any questions, I would be more then glad to help.

 

Kim and Kisha, Thank you for the support! Some of these planner really take for granted how important of a role they play I will definitely do a little private vowel renewal with my hubby. 

 

Girls, I hope your weddings are MAGICAL and I am here to help in any way I can

[WCorey]

Yelena, I can't view attachments. Do you think you could email my personal email? Let me know and I will message you my email. Thanks

[PeterJVR]

This is really very bad to hear!!! We are definitely not using a wedding planner. We are planning the event all ourselves and got a terrific website which offers a free on line wedding planning course. We have already shaved off about 54% from our original budget and now we plan using the extra cash more productively! Be on the lookout for phony planners and check out their credentials very carefully! For those who want to try it our yourself visit http://secretweddingplannerideas.com for the free course. Also this website is great for planning destination weddings.

[RME0304]

From initial inquiry and through planning it was difficult with Yelena.  I provided the services based on her wishes and information provided by her.  She was fully aware and agreed to the services and fees.  There is, of course much more to this story.  A week afterwards she asked for 75% refund or threatened to post negatively as she has here and to destroy my business if I didn't refund.  I have consulted an Attorney who said she has no base for this and believes, along with the other vendors involved and discussed with, that this is a ploy for money.  I work very hard and with this specific wedding put in over 100 hours although one event with a small group should only be 25-30 hours and this is what she paid for. As far as my reputation, I am a preferred wedding planner for many of the Grace Bay hotels with 8 years and hundreds of weddings accomplished.   I am pleased to provide an enormous number of glowing references from past bride & grooms, hotels and vendors on island.  Thank you

[RME0304]

In response to Yelena's posting I would like to reflect that all services, responsibilities and fees that were agreed to and discussed, were provided in full.  After the event, she issued a threat that unless 75% of fees paid to me were refunded, she would put a great deal of effort into posting bad reviews of me and my services.  I have consulted legal advise to which I was told there is no basis and strongly believes, along with other vendors involved, that it appears to be about financial issues. I am saddened by this and have respectfully addressed all issues appropriately with her.  I work very hard for all of my couples and specifically with this event extending upward of 100 hours in planning and coordination which is 3x the amount if time that would be considered to be normally required.  As far as my reputation, I am a recommended Wedding & Event Manager by many of the resorts in Grace Bay and have been for more than 7 years with the ability to provide excellent references from previous couples, vendors and resorts with successes with upwards of 300 weddings that I am proud of.   Thank you.

[sosnowto]

Our wedding is a ways away since I am finishing up Nursing school, but we were also wondering the same thing. Which locations are best in terms of pricing and accommodations? We were also wondering the pros/cons regarding T/C and St. Johns/Antigua. Since we are totally new to this, any information would be extremely helpful. 

 

Thanks everyone!

[JenRoseRDH]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luise at Nila Destinations is a dream! She was above and beyond helpful and informative from the very first contact we made. When we had finally narrowed in on Provo as our first choice for our destination wedding and honeymoon we planned a site visit. I needed to see the island first hand to be comfortable that we were making the right choice for ourselves and picking a location thet would suit our small group of family and friends. I contacted several local planners and Luise was by far the most helpful and accomodating. She offered to pick us up at our hotel and drive us to see the resorts we were considering. Keep in mind, this is before we made any sort of commitment to use Nila's services. She arranged a cake tasing for us and offered for us to meet with a florist. I declined the florist but we thoroughly enjoyed our cake with Diane! She sent us a list of cake and icing flavors and had our delicious cake ready and waiting for us for a small fee.

 

Luise was able to give us the pros and cons of the different resorts and caterers ands answered all of our questions. After the first day of our site visit we were convinced that Turks and Caicos was the place for our wedding and we were free to just enjoy the rest of our trip. We revisited our favorite resorts at night to see how they would look for the reception and we tried several of the restaurants that we might have used for the rehearsal and reception. Luise met with us again to go

over some of the required paperwork and give us a sample contract but she never tried to get us to sign anything or make a decision while we were there. There was absolutely no pressure whatsoever. The only thing she arranged that had a cost to it was the cake tasting to cover the cost of the cake. She also suggested a local band (Bowen Arrow) for the reception and gave us a place and time where they happened to be playing locally so we could go and check them out. They were great though we decided to go with a DJ instead due to our small group.

 

For us, it was not a question of which planner to use but whether or not to use a planner at all. We knew when we left the island that if we used a planner, it would be Nila. However we considered coordinating things ourselves with the resort and individual vendors. Looking back, I think that while theoretically we could have done it ourselves, it would have been incredibly stressful and probably would not have gone as seamlessly. For me, it was worth the small cost to have someone local to contact with all my questions and concerns while planning and to handle things the week of and day of the wedding. In spite of having Luise to manage the wedding itself, I still found plenty of things to be stressed out about leading up to it, most of them out of my control: weather, weight, everyone's travel and accomodations, how to pack for a wedding in a suitcase (or 6!). The week in Provo before the wedding I was kept super busy with small errands and arrangenents and squeezing in time with family and friends. If all along I was also handling all the ceremony and reception details, this could easily have led to a major breakdown. Going into it I thought a destination wedding would be so much less stressful because so much of it would be out of my hands and direct control. I still feel that this is true but even so, some level of wedding stress is unavoidable so I think brides do themselves a huge favor by using a local planner, I am so thankful I did!

 

Shortly after we got home, Geoff and I went over the details together of what we wanted and how many guests we expected and signed a Nila contract. Ashleigh took over many of the details and coorespondance for us but Luise was always available as well and between the two of them, they were quick to answer any questions we had and provide details for us. I looked at a ton of pictures and once I narrowed down the look I wanted, I emailed pictures and got pricing for the set up and flowers. I also emailed pictures of the girls fabric and dresses and they coordinated everything perfectly.

 

When I arrived in Provo, Luise met me with an inexpensive, pay as you go rental cel phone that I kept to use the week before the wedding and the week of our honeymoon. I highly recommend this, it was invaluable! I stayed the week leading up to the wedding with my family at a villa in Turtle Cove. I used the time to take care of last minute things like shopping for our guest welcome bags- Luise suggested some local items and shops. She also provided me with Dining Guides and maps for each welcome bag and took care of printing our welcome letters once the iteneary and all the details were finalized. She arranged a meeting with Pastor Colby to review the ceremony and do the paperwork. She also gave me the name and information for a local dry cleaner that could press my dress for me. At her suggestion, I went to Anna's Art Gallery and by emailing them a picture of what I wanted, they were able to custom make our wedding favors for us- starfish and sand dollar ornaments packaged up safely for travel. They got them ready for us in just a few short days, charged a very reasonable price and they were exactly what I had in mind. I'm sure there were many

other details she helped me out with that I am just not thinking of.

 

The rehearsal was pretty simple, we just looked at the area of beach we would be using and the reception location. We did not do an actual ceremony walk through. Looking back, I wish we had worked out the timeline in a little more detail. On the wedding day, no one with me was watching the time leading up to the ceremony and I ended up leaving my poor groom stranded for a few minutes while I was with the photographer and all my girls up in our suite blissfully unaware that he was wondering if I had gotten cold feet. I recommend designating someone to be the timekeeper.

 

By the time the wedding day rolled around, I felt like we had a friend managing all the details. Luise took care of the flowers for us with Environmental Arts, the beach canopy set up and guest seating, our officient- Pastor Colby, 2 hours with steel drummer Kelci Talbot for the ceremony and cocktail hour, we set up our own music playlist through dinner, 2 hours with DJ William John after dinner for toasts and dancing and a beautiful and delicious Cake by Diane. She even bonded with my 2 year old neice, dancing and playing with her at the reception. She handled each mini crisis as it arose- a scheduling conflict with the officient, calling us to get going when we lost track of time before the ceremony, searching with one of my bridesmaids in the dark for a buckle lost off my shoe somewhere between the ceremony and reception (My husband had to safety pin my shoe on for our first dance!), inspecting a tear in my dress at the reception... Small stuff in the grand scheme of things but she was on it.

 

I wish I could put into words how I felt when I walked around the pool and out to the beach and saw it set up exactly, EXACTLY, as I had wanted. I was overcome with joy and gratitude, it was truly like a dream, only so much better! When it came down to it, at the end of the day I was going to be married to the love of my life and the best man I know whether the wedding was a success or a complete disaster. Of course all weddings are a big deal but I had never really planned to get married so for my friends and family, especially my parents, who had all but given up on the possibility, it was a huge moment. It was incredibly important to me that we make it worthwhile for those who had travelled to be there and share in it with us. Luise pulled off a spectacular celebration and we have had many of our guests tell us since that it was the best, most beautiful wedding they have ever been to. I feel biased since it was my wedding, after all. So I am loving the positive feedback. I can't stop looking at our pictures and video, everything was just so perfect and we have those wonderful memories preserved for life.

[emiillly]

Jen, your wedding looks beautiful!  Do you have the contact information for Kelci Talbot?