I unfortunately did not have the amazing experience that other brides have had with Renata Estepan. I wish that I had, it would have made my day a lot less stressful.
I found her to be unprofessional, rude, and unresponsive the majority of the time. I had had difficulty reaching her throughout the process of booking with her. Most times she did respond I felt as though she had no idea who I was (as in responding with the wrong information about my trial, sending an artist with traditional makeup for my trial even though I requested airbrush, etc.)
But to top it off, the week leading up to my wedding my coordinator was tasked with confirming times with all of my vendors but couldn't seem to get a response from Renata, I wasn't surprised. However, I was surprised when I finally heard back from her at 10:40PM the night BEFORE my wedding. She came at me with a terrible attitude and told me that she wasn't responsible for responding to my coordinator because my coordinator doesn't pay her, I do. That's insane.
There was an issue on my contract where I accidentally put the start time as the end time. That is obviously my mistake but it could have easily been worked out if Renata were responsive to our attempts to confirm the time.
Lastly, she actually wrote to me in a text message that she has me and "100 other brides" to deal with that is why she's difficult to reach. Great customer service there.
Despite Renata's lack of business skills or professionalism, Zunia who did my makeup was fantastic. I have to say she was sweet, responsive (I actually had to reach out to her directly when Renata wouldn't confirm she received my payment for over a week), incredibly talented, and made me and my family feel gorgeous the day of.
Zunia should be running the show. I'm sure Renata is a fantastic makeup artist but she is a nightmare to work with.
UPDATE: I just want to add that Renata actually disputed my review on Wedding Wire and I had to prove that I was even a client of hers since she claimed I wasn't. That review has since be reinstated since Wedding Wire deemed it legitimate despite her best efforts to take it down. If I could give her zero stars I would.
UPDATE II: Since Renata has the nerve to write such a long-winded response claiming my statements aren't true, I would be happy to send anyone who is interested my screenshots from our conversations proving what a difficult person she is to deal with.
1. Throughout every email I requested airbrush, when Zunia did traditional at the trial I didn't care and I paid for whatever Renata told her I owed. It wasn't until after when I looked at the price list that I realized that I paid for airbrush even though it was traditional. I didn't even bring it up bc it didn't really matter in the scheme of things since Zunia did such a great job.
2. I just want to clarify that I while I did in fact make a mistake on the contract (which I noted above too and instantly admitted to on the text with Renata), there is no where on the contract that it asks for "start time" so I never wrote 8AM. It's a pretty understandable mistake to make and if Renata were responsive we could have confirmed way before the night before. Her claims that my coordinator did not try to contact her are a full out lie. My coordinator was able to contact every single vendor except for Renata. Renata then on the phone told me she isn't responsible for responding to coordinators...well, she did a terrible job responding to the bride throughout the entire process too so I shouldn't be surprised.
Maybe she should treat people better if she's concerned with how she'll be portrayed within her reviews online.
It's not hard to apologize and admit that you had a bad week or let things get behind. It would've been over then. But when you call me at 11PM the night before my wedding with such a defensive attitude then yeah, you're going to piss off an already stressed out bride. Anyone who has ever planned a wedding would know that.
She may feel I was short-tempered with her the night before my wedding but everything I wrote here is absolutely true and I can back it up.
Claiming someone isn't telling the truth simply because you just don't like what they have to say is childish.
By the way Renata, it's really not that hard to find someone's contact information through a simple search of their name online. But then again for someone who can't manage to save a bride's information nor answer emails it's not surprising you don't know that - Fyi, I'm talking about how I found Zunia's contact information.....her name is unique and it was on her Instagram profile....
Renata is a rude, argumentative, unprofessional person. I'm generally a reasonable person but I won't be pushed around and mistreated by a simple-minded, petty, "mean girl".
I've literally used the entire word # Yelp allows so I'll end it there. Good luck to anyone that books Renata and has any sort of issue with her. read more