TonyaM20's reviews
I am a fan!
I recommend Michelle to every single bride I run into. She is everything that a bride hopes for in a successful wedding vendor:
1. Experienced (She's been at this for 20 years)
2. She has a great personality and is easy to work with.
3. Sensibly Priced
4. Thorough (went above and beyond on the set up)
5. Creative- she ran with our ideas and examples and produced gorgeous arrangments.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about her work or want to see some of the photos of her arrangements from our wedding. I really just can't say enough nice things about her!
Wow- where to start?! The complete disregard of months of planning? The unauthorized/illegal use of our images on her website after agreeing to their removal? The demands for additional payment above and beyond what we contracted for?
I think I'll start with my intent: to assist other brides in making an informed decision. The only reviews that I was able to find for Teri Van Horn were on her website, I would like to provide my humble opinion for anyone considering her services.
My husband and I met with Teri in September to interview her as the Day of Coordinator for our March wedding in Brenham. We found her to be delightful, and with her claim of 20 years of experience in the industry, we were more than confident that she would be able to keep everything running smoothly on our big day. We immediately signed a contract with her and agreed to her fee of $1k.
Before I go into further detail, let me tell you that I have been routinely responsible for professionally planning events for the oil companies with whom I have been employed over the past ten years. The point is that this wasn't my first rodeo- I'm organized and very detail oriented.
A few weeks before the wedding, my maid of honor and I met with Teri for a final site visit. We went over everything, from the smallest decorating detail to the flow and feel of the ceremony, cocktail hour, and the reception. I can’t imagine having given a more complete informational package than the computerized table layouts and notes. We confirmed who would be doing what and gave her an opportunity to tell us if any additional help would be needed. Teri made many suggestions (such as having the cocktail hour and the reception in the same area) that we vetoed, but of course Teri agreed to my plan. I left the site visit confident that I would have little to worry about on the big day.
I couldn't have been more wrong! Teri told us that she would be on site at noon to direct the setup and layout, another vendor told us she didn’t arrive until well after 3pm- a short half an hour or so before I arrived. Not surprisingly, almost none of my plans were carried out. She even made a fuss about making sure my grandmother was properly escorted down the aisle – she actually snapped at me and told me I needed to decide what was more important to me- making the day special for me or my grandmother! Really??!!
As the day progressed, I discovered that my carefully laid out plans for everything from decorations to the location of the cocktail hour and the layout of the tables were disregarded in favor of her suggestions that we had vetoed.
I had to make the conscious choice to not allow her poor professional performance to taint the joy of the day. In fact, by the end of the wedding we had the wedding party joking that we were lucky that she hadn't changed our colors without telling us:-)
About a month after the wedding I contacted her to find out why my plans had been so obviously disregarded. I was hoping for a partial refund (as she had not performed either the core of what we hired her for or several of the services she detailed in her contract) – but I would have settled for a sincere apology. I received neither. But at least I convinced her to remove the photos of our wedding from her website. Not only did she not have permission to use our photos (in truth, I had no idea she had taken any,) but I just couldn't stomach the idea of another bride hiring her on the basis of our wedding.
About a month and a half later I got a wild hare to check her website and found that she had reposted our pictures! Of course, she still had no authorization to do so. I contacted her and asked her to remove the pictures immediately. She refused, explaining that she was in communication with two brides considering having their wedding at my venue (and presumably also considering her services.)
Teri successfully added insult to injury by then claiming that she had emailed us an invoice for an additional $400 after the wedding- for services she felt she rendered above and beyond what was included in the contract- and our failure to remit payment immediately would result in her taking legal action! Not only did she never email us an invoice, but she included several statements in emails she sent five weeks after the wedding that she had never asked for any additional payment.
I contacted the Association of Bridal Consultants and her local Chamber of Commerce before sending the formal cease and desist letter our attorney had drafted. Thankfully, after being contacted by the Association of Bridal Consultants, she removed the photos from her site.
I've heard Teri's multiple conflicting stories about what happened that day. She's claimed everything from blaming the caterer to my maid of honor to my lack of planning for not having followed my very clear directions. I would think I was beginning to lose it if I didn't have this series of fictions in email to hold up next to one another!
Perhaps Teri is the world's best planner/coordinator and we were just the unlucky couple who got her on her very worst day. I just didn't feel right about failing to post my experience with her so that other brides might make a more informed decision than the one I made.
I’ve tried to make this review as impartial as possible, but obviously, it is written from my perspective. Of course, I am happy to share any emails or additional information with another bride.
