| Venues in Paradise |
| Venues in Paradise VIP Horrible experience Internet |
| 19th of Sep, 2011 by User297450 |
| It all began roughly a year ago when my fiancé at the time (now wife) and I decided we wanted to have our wedding at an Orange County estate, take the ceremony/reception outside of the typical ballroom and do something different. In doing some internet research we came across Venues in Paradise, which specializes in estate weddings around OC/LA counties.Our 1st meeting with Sanya was with the florist. We had a budget of $2,000 for floral arrangements through our package and anything over we agreed to pay the difference. Sanya met us at the florist's shop about 30 minutes late for our appointment (this would become a theme, how late would Sanya show up for EVERYTHING). Once she got there, we had already started and we caught her up on our selections. The entire time Sanya was there, she was on her phone texting/emailing and rarely looked up to see what we were choosing. She would offer little feedback other than "That looks nice". After our meeting was done, Sanya sent us the invoice for the floral arrangements, which was roughly $4,000 total! THE ENTIRE TIME WE WERE THERE, NEVER ONCE DID SHE SAY WE WERE APPROACHING OR EXCEEDED OUR BUDGET! She would just smile and nod, and never discussed prices or flowers with us. So now we had to go back and rearrange all of our vision because she couldn't look up from her texting/emailing to keep us in check. We would have had no problem revising things right then and there, but to see it in an invoice 6 weeks later was very disappointing. Moving along during the year, Sanya became increasingly difficult to get ahold of. She would rarely call my wife or me back and would respond to emails days later. As the planning days ticked by, Sanya would again dispute menu options, though this time we had her because she put in writing that we were getting the menu at no additional cost. From that point on we aksed for EVERYTHING in writing for fear of her coming back at a later date and saying something different. She always tried to paint the picture that she was doing us a favor with costs but it was my wife who phoned the florist and caterer directly to "negotiate" with them. Sanya did little to help us, just caused more tension.Here's where it gets really fun. About 3 weeks before our wedding day, my wife emailed Sanya to discuss our wedding timeline. Sanya wrote back and said let's meet up to discuss the timeline. During that meeting Sanya tells us that a few weeks before the Laguna Hills Police were called by the neighbors of Las Palmas to shut down the wedding and music at 10pm although we were contracted until 12. She tells us right there that we either need to move our wedding to the daytime, end it earlier, or find a new venue! MIND YOU SHE KNEW ABOUT THIS WEEKS BEFORE!!! You would think she would have called us with this urgent news! No, she waited until we emailed her to tell us. We were heartbroken as we wanted a night wedding and also loved the venue. We couldn't believe she was telling us this 3 weeks before the wedding. Sanya suggested we use one of her other estates, Villa D' Este. We set up a time to look at it and liked it, didn't love it, but liked it. It was entirely different from the Las Palmas. It would be inside now, totally different color schemes, and the reception room was much smaller so we now had to sit a few tables outside while others sat inside! We were so embarrassed but we had few options. After she shows us the contingency plans she then says she needs to make sure she can get the estate that day...shouldn't you have checked that out before offering it up as a solution! We waited another 2 days, got the approval from the owners and now had to send out new notifications that our venue has changed She just simply said we would have to pay for that, after she said she would. Through this whole process we became so tired and frustrated with arguing with her we just let it be at that point. The actual wedding lacked coordination, our wedding party was put to work and our coordinator Sanya went missing most the night (as her infant son was in the home with her mother).I apologize for this post being so long, but I wanted to give you the reader a taste of what we had to endure with Sanya and Venues in Paradise for this past year. I never have been treated so unprofessionally and rudely by a company. They lack the class, drive, and professional atmosphere to coordinate weddings the way couples want them to be. |
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