DC - MARYLAND - VIRGINIA areas BEWARE!! I will be filing a complaint with the Better Business…read moreBureau. With so many Wedding Planner services in the DMV, I STRONGLY DO NOT RECOMMEND Charming Grace Events.
This review is coming from a Naval Officer with 12+ years in the Navy, and someone that is familiar with the wedding industry having my own wedding videography company. I say this, because I'm not just some "angry" social media person writing a negative review because I'm disappointed with the service I received, but rather to provide credibility to those that reads this review and provide awareness to those wanting a smooth wedding planning experience.
We signed a contract for FULL SERVICE Wedding Planning Services for $6,000. She did provide us with a 10% military discount, even after we had signed the contract which was very nice of her. We paid a $1,200 retainer agreement. However, our experience was overall POOR as Brandi presented us with limited options, and expects you to sign whatever she presents to you. Brandi QUIT after we asked for multiple quotes from vendors, and kept the retainer citing:
"Between the questionnaire from your initial consult, to the design board, I created based on those conversations, I do not feel that things are realistically matching up."
Using the blurb in the contract:
"may be terminated at any time by either the Client or the Consultant for such reason as, but not solely limited to: dissatisfaction, inability to maintain a civil Client/Consultant relationship, personality differences, etc. The liability is then limited to those funds already paid and received."
She never tried to sync up with us to verify if things were realistically not matching up. She delayed things by not responding to our emails, then responding to our emails that she is busy and will respond later to our emails, to eventually flat out quitting.
Here's more of the backstory:
Brandi was certainly delightful to work with in the beginning. She was charming, and full of life. She came off as very organized, and delightful to work with us and meeting our wedding planning needs.
We on our own found the photographer, videographer, DJ, and venue. My fiance still wanted to have a full-service planner for piece of mind. We do well for ourselves, and was by no means trying to find a low budget wedding. However, we are smart with our money, and seek to find optimal value in a business market that can be plagued with over inflated pricing, especially if you aren't familiar with the industry.
The trouble began of when I started poking at what we were getting with Charming Grace Events. I'll start off by saying when I would text Brandi, she never responded. When I would email Brandi, she took 3+ days to respond.
When my fiance would receive quotes from Brandi, I did some digging. My fiance informed Brandi that we would like to have catering around $15,000. What she presented to us were 2 caterers over $21,000 and that's before taxes and gratuity. I find it very hard to believe that in the entire DMV, there aren't caterers for the budget range we were looking for. Nonetheless, I called the caterer myself, and was able to work the price down without sacrificing food options or quality by about $3-4k, basically through getting a greater discount and optimizing staffing.
This should've been Brandi's job, not mine.
We received 1 quote for a florists. $5500, of which 30% was for a delivery, design, and setup fee. We asked for another quote. Never got one. I did some digging and found a florist with high ratings for about 25% cheaper.
We were VERY, VERY appreciative and friendly in our emails. We even said if she is receiving a commission on her "preferred vendors" that is fine, but we would like to receive MULTIPLE options - not just ONE, or TWO.
She will probably that she provided the following services:
You stated you provided the following services:
Venue research and scheduled tours
Booking your venue/Choosing wedding date
Aisle Planner Account - wedding management program
Customized wedding design board
Catering & florist research and proposals
1 in person meeting to discuss overall vision
1. We had already found our venue when we reached out to her.
2. She provided us with 2 Catering proposals, and 1 Florist proposals. All of which were extremely overpriced.
3. She did meet with us in person to discuss overall vision.
4. The other stuff was partially used.
In summary, Brandi quit and stole our $1,200 retainer more than likely because we asked her to do her job. Yes, we tried to find some lower price options, but by no means nothing unreasonable. Like I said, we have no problem paying for a really good wedding that my fiance and I both want. What we have a problem is OVERPAYING because we didn't do our homework, or in this case overpay because our wedding planner just not to do hers.
