First, I want to say that the food at my wedding was very tasty and we paid a very reasonable price. But I took off two starts because there were SO many day-of mistakes.
1. The wrong appetizers were served! I selected three appetizers (stuffed mushrooms, pizzeta with figs, and corn fritters)-- my favorite of the three, the corn fritters, was NOT SERVED AT ALL at the wedding, and instead Deb served polenta that I found to be flavorless. When I confronted her about it she said "well your husband liked them! "-- my husband used to eat plain rice with hot sauce for dinner so this doesn't say much.
2. Our bartender was Deb's daughter, and she was a pilot by profession. She did NOT know how to make drinks. The groom's signature drink was a whiskey smash, which she served by pouring Whiskey into a glass then pouring simple syrup on top and garnishing with mint. Essentially all of our guests were handed a water glass full of whiskey when they arrived (but hey, they all got drunk so I guess its okay). The bar ran out of limes before I even arrived at the reception 45 minutes later (after photos) and so she was serving drinks with large pieces of orange already floating in the glass. Everyone complained that she was very slow.
3. We were supposed to receive PLATED salads, which were supposed to be included in the price. THE MORNING OF THE WEDDING, Deb emailed me to tell me that she was not going to do plated salads because she had not ordered enough plates and did not have enough servers. When I complained she said, "You never confirmed the plated salad" even though we had emailed and discussed a few times and I had plated salad written on my timeline that I sent her MONTHS in advance.
4. Seating charts screwed up. The day of coordinator did not have the seating charts on the tables before guests arrived and when she did put them out they were in the wrong places!! Groups of people were split up and my cousins/ bridesmaids ended up near the back and far away from me. I am sure they felt snubbed.
Unprofessional Behavior Before the Wedding:
Deb was unavailable to do a final tasting until the Wednesday before the wedding, which added a lot of stress because we had to print the menu so last minute and probably led to the day of mix-up regarding appetizers. When my fiancé (now husband) did the walk through with Deb and the day-of coordinator, everything was very rushed and they left before we even selected linens. They made my husband measure the area by himself to determine how the tables should be set up which seems like a job for the coordinator.
The week before the wedding, she told me that I could no longer do lemonade or water because somebody had gone out on disability due to a back injury from carrying around the containers they used. This should have been told to me right away, and not one week before the wedding. Also, use different containers! Figure something out! It was frustrating. We ended up compromising with lemonade and bottle water.
The Thursday before our Saturday wedding Deb called around 6:00pm and asked how we wanted our ceremony chairs arranged. Keep in mind I answered my emails within the hour every time she reached out so this should have probably been addressed weeks if not months prior, but we said we would figure it out and send to her. At 7:30am the next morning she sent me 2-3 emails frantically asking about the arrangements then sends my husband an angry email about how she couldn't reach me. This really added to the high amount of stress we were already feeling the day before the wedding. Why didn't she tell us when we talked to her on the phone that she needed the arrangements before 8:00am??? She was so disorganized.
At first I was very attracted to Deb's laid back style. I thought she was very sweet and that is the main reason we selected A La Heart, but she was responsible for SO MUCH wedding stress that I am not sure if I would have gone with them again if I could do it over. There are a number of other issues I can't even fit on this review as well. I was planning from New York so that may have added to the difficulty so if you are planning from Santa Rosa or Healdsburg you are probably okay but I do not recommend planning with her via email and telephone. read more