I wish I could write a glowing review, but my experience with House of BASH fell far short of what…read moreI expected from a professional wedding coordinator.
A wedding is one of the most important days of a couple's life, and the reason we hired a coordinator was so that we could be present and enjoy the day rather than manage it ourselves. Unfortunately, my family, friends, and vendors ended up stepping into many of the responsibilities we specifically hired House of BASH to handle.
What makes this especially disappointing is that the written scope of our $1,800 "Something Old" package explicitly included vendor management, master timeline creation, rehearsal coordination, guest direction, reception flow, troubleshooting, and two experienced House of BASH coordinators.
The sales process vs. the reality
When I first inquired with LT, she was extremely upbeat and confident on the phone and described everything House of BASH could provide. I initially planned to use her for both coordination and floral/design services.
The design process was one of the first places where I became concerned. I provided a Pinterest board with the aesthetic and ideas I wanted, and the resulting proposal largely consisted of images from that board rather than a developed design presentation showing how those ideas would be translated into our wedding. The proposal itself was difficult for me to follow and did not give me confidence in moving forward with the additional design services.
I ultimately decided not to continue with those additional services and lost $300 associated with the design process. At that point, I decided to handle much of the design myself.
Communication and professionalism
Once we moved into the planning process, my experience was very different from the initial sales call.
Communication with LT was often blunt and made me uncomfortable asking questions. I was told things were "unusual" or "not what [she] experienced in years in the industry" when I asked questions or made decisions differently from how she typically runs weddings.
I also worked primarily with an assistant throughout much of the planning process. When we had our venue walkthrough about a week before the wedding, the assistant asked questions about details we had already discussed, including linens and cocktail stirs, even though we had already confirmed we were not doing those items.
More importantly, the questions that mattered most to the actual flow of our wedding were not discussed in the level of detail I expected from a coordinator.
The package we purchased specifically included vendor management, master timeline creation, and two experienced House of BASH coordinators, so I expected the team executing our wedding to be very familiar with our plans.
Timeline and preparation
I chose to build our master timeline around our photographer's schedule because photography was extremely important to us. LT repeatedly described my approach as "unusual," and I felt pressured to follow her preferred way of doing things.
Ultimately, I stayed with the timeline that worked for our photographer, and I am grateful I did because it allowed us to get the photographs that were important to us.
The bigger issue was that I felt I had to prepare extensively for the coordinator rather than the coordinator preparing us.
We created our own comprehensive wedding binder containing our timeline, vendor information, ceremony music, meal assignments, substitutions, and day-of instructions. We printed copies and distributed them to our wedding party and family because we wanted everyone to have access to the information.
Despite that, even in the week leading up to the wedding, the coordination team was still asking questions about details such as ceremony music that were already clearly documented.
The rehearsal
Our rehearsal was scheduled for 11:00 AM. My wedding party and I were there on time, but LT arrived at approximately 11:08 AM.
Eight minutes may not sound significant, but the package specifically included rehearsal coordination and leading the ceremony rehearsal so the wedding party would know where to be and when.
I had not been given a clear answer beforehand about which coordinator would be present, so I personally had to call and text to figure out who was coming.
That experience did not give me confidence going into the wedding day.
Wedding-day coordination and vendor management
This is where the difference between what we purchased and what we experienced became most apparent.
Our package specifically included vendor management, oversight of vendor setup, coordination with catering, management of the day's timeline, guest direction, reception flow, and troubleshooting.
Unfortunately, my family and I ended up stepping into several of these responsibilities.
Catering and vendor meals
Our vendor meals and substitution meals were clearly documented in our wedding binder.
On the wedding day, LT did not know which individuals were su
