I hired Tara O'Grady eight months prior to my wedding because she seemed very nice over the phone and at our first visit. As soon as we put the deposit down for full wedding planning (although the site lists partial planning we were told this is no longer an option) her demeanor instantly changed. Just to give you an idea, the happiest day of my life, was actually the day after the wedding because I knew I would never have to contact or see Tara again.
She was a total nightmare to work with, at times I thought my whole experience with her was part of some romantic comedy - and that these things could not possibly happening to me based on the amount of time and money that we spent on her services and the wedding - from a melting wedding cake, to family heirlooms stolen from our home, to misplaced bouquets, to my vendors contacting me because she was always unavailable, to her yelling at my mother - it was all out some awful reality show.
I was left alone my whole wedding day that included - having to keep the hair and makeup team on track, the photographer and videographer both of whom left early despite being paid for the night. The bridal party almost left the house without our bouquets for our photoshoot until I asked where are the bouquets and my florist walked them over not Tara. She did have time to post photos of my wedding on instagram during the actual wedding which I thought was in poor taste but a good example of her work ethic.
From the start, Tara was unwilling to suggest or meet with vendors that did not fall under her one or two selection of preferred vendors usually her friends. I ended up having to do all the leg work though I haven't lived in Toronto for about sixteen years and work in Chicago which is why I hired a wedding planner locally: that included hair, makeup, cake, flowers, and food, and I had to hire, meet with, and negotiate all my own budgets and contracts. Even the simplest of tasks as finding a limo company and putting our guest list on a chalkboard became huge endeavors for her.
My hair and makeup team told me that they had never experienced a wedding planner who failed to interact with them or the bride the day of the wedding. Multiple guests asked if we had considered hiring a wedding planner due to many mishaps that occurred - honored guests not having a place sit for dinner, bridal party not receiving food or drinks, wine bottles that were purchased not being placed on the tables nor served the list goes on.
The day of the wedding, Tara insisted on coming at noon even though hair was arriving at 7:30 am and the set up for the wedding was incomplete. I had to insist she come in at 8:30 when she did arrive she was late 9:30 and then disappeared to the backyard as nothing was set up even though staff had access to the venue for four days in advance and everything had been delivered and ready for set up days beforehand but she was too busy with another event.
It took me almost three months to calm down enough to post a review, because the whole situation left me so distraught. I truly hope no on else makes the same mistake I did by trusting Bliss with planning a once in a lifetime occasion.
For additional Specifics read below:
- Unable to meet after 2pm in the afternoon, does not respond to email or texts sometimes for weeks at a time.
- Uses her kids as an excuse not to meet or email or text since she would have to pick them up for school or go on weekend trips. This made it extremely difficult to communicate with her or meet with potential vendors due to her limited availability.
- Doesn't work with any assistants or at least in our case didn't have one, concerns and issues go unaddressed.
- Budget finalized two days before the event after we had paid everything.
- Errors in itinerary such as scheduling bridesmaid for hair first when she was not even in town as explained in five emails.
- The catering staff unsupervised for the reception and did not serve the bridal party appetizers, or sides that includes me and my husband.
- Fans were not ordered so my $1000 plus wedding cake melted and we had to use a regular knife to cut our cake, even though we paid her company thousands of dollars to rent all the utensils and serving utensils
- sparkler exit did not happen despite buying sparklers
- antique bone china was stolen from our home by hired staff
- Failed to show up for the pick up of rental items after the wedding or assist in supervision of clean up, dissembling, and packing up of items.
- Rental companies sent us invoices for missing items despite her company being in charge of what was ordered, delivered, and responsible for pick up we paid Bliss over 30,000 to act as middleman upon Tara's request. read more