We were scammed by Beyond the Event and Juliana, and we are now left with permanent trauma. I do not want to write this review, but I am doing it to warn others. Even as I type this, I genuinely do not feel safe and I worry for my family, friends and entities, knowing what Juliana is capable of. We are all on high alert. My intention from this post is not to shame or hurt a business, but to speak truth about what Beyond the Event/Juliana did to us.
We hired Juliana to be our wedding planner/day-of-coordinator. In the coming months, we often felt Juliana only had her own best interests at heart. For example, she tried to sell us her flowers/centerpieces (which we found overpriced and amateurish) when we could get them for FREE as it was included in our catering package. Juliana tried to convince us her arrangements were better than the caterer's. Despite this, we decided to give Juliana the benefit of the doubt and kept her on board.
Right before our wedding, Juliana emailed that she would not be coming to our wedding because something personal came up last minute. The email of her explanation looked suspicious- like a template used before. Juliana said she would be sending some people (who were strangers to us) to our wedding. However, our caterer and venue coordinator (and later photographer) told us that Juliana had planned on skipping out of our wedding for quite some time- there was nothing last minute. We had no choice but to fire Juliana for breaking her own contract and for lying. We could not trust her. On the day of our wedding, we saw on Instagram that Juliana was likely coordinating another wedding. She was trying to double dip! We were later able to confirm this. We could not fully enjoy the moment because of the overall shock we had just experienced.
When we asked for our money back, Juliana initially refused. Later, Juliana said she would return our money if we signed a contract that said we would not write any negative reviews about her on Google and other wedding websites. This is absolutely illegal. If you are wondering why there are few negative reviews about Beyond the Event, this may be it.
We sought counsel from a lawyer who told us that this looked like a case of "fraud in the inducement." The lawyer wrote a demand letter for us and eventually with a court order, Juliana had to refund our full payment without any stipulations. We felt like we were bullied and gaslit by Juliana, to the point of mental fatigue and anxiety, throughout this process. For example, after we fired Juliana, she obtained a private document that contained personal information about our family and friends and tried to use it against us. What a violation.
I would NOT recommend Juliana or Beyond the event. If you do decide to hire her, here are my suggestions: do not share any personal information with Juliana. Make sure you have Juliana's business address. Read the contract carefully- if it says Juliana is to be present for the wedding, make sure she shows up. If it says that others can take Juliana's place- make sure you have them involved from the start so that you can see if you can trust them with your guests. Put all conversations with Juliana on paper. Do not pay Juliana until after the wedding. Pay in a protected method, not Venmo or Zelle. Beware of her lies: Juliana tried to tell us that back at the time of signing the contract, she informed us that because she is a military wife, she needed to have the freedom to leave at any moment, so her actions were acceptable. She never told this to us. If you needed that liberty, why would we or anyone hire you? It is unethical to use your position as a military wife to swindle people. I have never seen someone so comfortable with lying as Juliana is.
I am sad to know that this was not the first time Juliana has double dipped on wedding coordination duties. To the other couples out there who were hurt by Juliana and silenced: I am sorry and I deeply resonate with your pain. But I am here to speak out for all whose wedding day was cruelly stolen from us by Juliana. Be safe out there. read more