We hired Darel and his company, We Set The Bar, for our wedding on May 23, 2026. While the…read moresubstitute bartender who arrived (Penny) did a fine job, Darel's handling of our event, his complete breach of contract, and his total lack of professional ethics added massive, unnecessary stress to our wedding day. I am leaving this review so future couples know exactly how this business prioritizes its clients.
1. Last-Minute Abandonment Without Consent
We booked Darel with the explicit written agreement that he would personally be the professional bartender executing our event. Instead, at 2:40 PM on the literal afternoon of our wedding--less than an hour before his agreed arrival time--Darel sent us a text message informing us that he would not be attending. He didn't call the day before, and he didn't ask for our permission. He waited until the final hour, knowing we were entirely occupied by our wedding schedule and unable to access our phones, to make a unilateral decision to abandon our event. Even worse, when we asked him about the situation, he showed absolute no apology. He claimed that it was his way of doing business.
When confronted, Darel explicitly admitted in writing that he had a staffing shortage at a completely separate, larger retirement party in Vacaville. Because he couldn't find anyone else willing to drive out there, he decided to pull himself off our wedding to work the other gig because our venue was in "closer proximity" to drop a substitute into. He treated our once-in-a-lifetime wedding as a logistical chess piece, optimizing for his own convenience and bottom line at the absolute last second.
2. Failure to Deliver the Contracted Scope of Work
Our explicit agreement, confirmed multiple times in writing, was for a two-location bar setup: a limited bar for our cocktail hour on the first floor, and a full bar in the dining hall for the reception. We held up our end of the agreement and ensured all four required tables and locations were ready. However, his company completely failed to set up or service the cocktail hour location, entirely omitting half of the contracted service. When called out on this, Darel tried to shift the blame onto our Day-Of Coordinator, refusing to take any business accountability for his substitute failing to execute the checklist.
3. Careless Inventory Forecasting and Waste
Weeks before the event, I explicitly notified Darel in writing that our 43 guests were very light drinkers. He ignored this data entirely and provided a generic, high-volume template shopping list. Out of respect for his "expertise," we overrode our own hesitation and spent over $450 on alcohol based exactly on his list. We ended up using barely 10% of it, leaving us with a massive financial deficit and a mountain of wasted product because he couldn't be bothered to tailor his service to his clients' stated needs.
Conclusion:
When we confronted him about these major breaches of trust, Darel completely avoided accountability, sending defensive texts bringing up irrelevant details about cup formats, caterers, and glassware to cloud the issue.
A true professional manages their own staffing emergencies without compromising a wedding, and has the courage to say, "I made a bad call, I am sorry." Darel did neither. He took our money, treated our wedding day as a secondary priority, and completely violated our trust. Proceed with extreme caution.
