Bella Terrazza

Just to let everyone know. If you are getting married at The Tuscany at Garden Oaks or Bella Teraza, they have gone bankrupt!!! Everything from the facility is gone and people have trashed it and taken things from there. I was supposed to get married there in Feb. 2009 and know I don't know what to do. They didn't even contact anyone to let them know. Sorry for the bad news.

I completely agree. I feel so incredibly sorry for anyone who has booked an event at this place in 2008. When I was trying to book my wedding date, their "coordinator" wouldn't answer any of my calls, or call me back. I couldn't get a hold of him for WEEKS. I finally had to call the main office and speak to the owner. he then offered me a "discounted price" at almost $20,000 for a wedding/reception for 200 ppl!!! Some DISCOUNT. They were supposed to be done by December and are STILL trying to finish the place (its now June). Dont go here. They DONT know what their doing.

A friend of mine had a wedding booked here for March of 2009. She prepaid and thought everything was going to go smoothly. Initially everything went through Heather Love as well and now she is hearing about this bankrupt situation and about all the looting and things going haywire. She doesn't know what to do about getting a refund but I would definitely stay away if at all possible

**UPDATE** - Just received this reply from Carolyn James, one of the owners regarding an email I sent to chefatbella@yahoo.com:

Richard,

No, we haven't filed bankrupcy. But all of the equipment was indeed ruined and the rest got looted. We are working very hard nonstop to sell the Tuscany so that we will have funds to refund the brides the money they have prepaid, as much as humanly possible. We have several prospects. I can promise you that no brides' payments have gone to any owners and will not in the future. In fact, we have lost all of our own money we invested with no chance of getting it back. We will pay the brides first. I know that an apology for all the pain caused by this situation is not nearly enough, but we are all so very very very sorry. We clearly intended to stay in business forever and honor every commitment. Stay posted on 713-206-8940. Any updates will be posted on that message.

Carolyn

Back to Me:

I have called the Atkinson Law Firm (who is filing a Class Action Suit against the Owners). I would suggest anyone taken advantage of by this group of crooks call the Adkinson Law Firm at 713.862.1700. This will be a class action and on a contingency basis, which means no money up front. The number to the firm is 713.862.1700

Richard



Here are the Owners and Co-Owners of the company owning Tuscany. If anyone has a way to find out where they live, lets put together a protest and invite the News Media out as we protest in front of their house or another of their businesses:

Business Management
Ms. Carolyn Nell James , Co-Owner
Mr. Fred Cohen , Vice-President
Mr. Dan Blassingame , Owner
Mr. William Gassiot , Director

I was one of the brides that was misplaced by Bella Terrazza. I should have realized early on they where having financial troubles becasue they were offering discounts to any bride who paid upfront! Obviously they needed the money upfront to pay off the debt for building The Tuscan Villa in Garden Oaks. I can not believe the bride a few post down, Nicole or whatever her name is has the nerve to blame the brides for The Tuscan Villa in Garden Oaks going bankrupt! Your being incredibly ignorant to the fact that your lucky your wedding went off with out a hitch. I'm positive if they took all your money and no one ever bothered to CALL YOU and tell you what was going on you wouldn't be sitting pretty!
The owners of Bella Terrazza and the lady who so called managed it, Caroline Jameson should be put in jail for FRAUD!!! They have robbed dozens of families of their hard earned money!

This is for anyone who comes across this who has a wedding booked here. Like kimberly1419 said, they were closing both sites and acted as though they weren't. My wedding is 10/25/08 and fortunately I found two sites that are still available. It was originally booked at the other site, Bella Terrazza. We went to check out the damage on 9/17 and it just looked a little shaken not destroyed but we were told by two people that were there that the building was condemned with several holes in the ceiling and that all of the wedding would be moved to the Tuscany. I received an email from our coordinator apologizing and explaining that they would be filing on this coming Monday (9/22) but if they did in fact file on 9/11 then anyone else that was mislead might have some sort of case against them aside from having their weddings ruined. And I'm beginning to believe that maybe Bella Terrazza wasn't as storm damaged as they claimed...

this is to nikoleemfinger and anyone else who read her post and is disgusted with her attitude:
How dare you blame the bunkruptcy of crooks on innocent brides who did nothing different than you. you should feel ashamed for making such accusations, it very well could have happened to you. You are no better than the owners who are crooks and left people with no money and no venue for their weddings. So many things come to mind to say to you and to call you, but I will only say this what comes around goes around, and your attitude concerning this will definitely come back to bite you. God forbid anything this devastating and upseting happen to you, because I don't know that anyone would have any sympathy for you.

The worst place ever they are bankrupt and they took all our money with no place to have my wedding 2 weeks before our wedding

For any brides who dont know the Tuscany of Garden Oaks filed for bankrupcy on 9-11! My wedding is Septemeber 27th and we just found out TODAY September 20th!!! 7 days before the wedding!!!! They are horrible and Heather Love is unprofessional idiot and I hope she never gets back in the wedding business because she has no idea what in the hell she is doing. The same with Dan and Scott the owners. These people have pretended that our wedding was still going to happen even going as far as planning menus last tuesday when they have known they were not going to be open! No one even bothered to tell us that they were closing...we found out by accident! We paid them in advance and they havent even paid some of our vendors.

Also Bella Terrazza there other property has also filed for bankrupcy. Brides can not get their money back or have their Weddings there. Hopefully you paid with a CC that will fight them for you. Call and dispute all charges with The Chefs Table. And get in touch with your vendors ASAP!

These people have also turned my dream wedding into a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE as if Hurricane Ike wasnt enough! Good luck to all the Brides.

To the mistplaced brides and grooms: the owners and employees at the Bella Terrazza and the Tuscan Villa are not crooks, and did not intentionally try to ruin anyone's event or take money and use it for something else. I know them and can tell you that they tried their hardest to make the business succeed, including putting their own money into the business, only to lose the business. No one is living in a mansion, driving expensive cars, or otherwise using anyone's money on personal items. It was a very, very, very unfortunate and terrible thing for the bankruptcy to happen. Not only for the brides and grooms that were affected but for the employees and owners of the company also. Yes the company was struggling financially, partly because they were building a new, bigger, better, more beautiful venue. That project went over budget due to an unscrupulous contractor. (who by the way, will come out ahead in this situation because he was solely responsible for the overspending, AND is the first one in line for his payment with liens on the building that he helped go into bankruptcy, before all brides!!! ) Things went downhill quite rapidly, but there was always hope for a bright future with a beautiful new building. The goal of the owners AND employees was always to stay in operation, for the next 100 years. But an unfortunate series of circumstances put a stop to that. Hurricane Ike happened to be the last blow. I can tell you that no one is sicker over what has happened than the owners and employees of this company. Do what you must legally, and rightly so, but you will learn that there was no intention whatsoever to defraud anyone, steal, lie, or otherwise cheat anyone out of their money.

We must act quickly and file a case. If you are all interested, please contact me. My name is Jay Raman, and my wife lost a lot of money as we booked early for the food and liquor, etc for 450 people.

Please contact me at raman_jay@yahoo.com or call me at 832-407-5796. We must work together to see what we can do. I am so livid that I am throwing away my normal discretion about my contact info, but something must be done.

To all Tuscan Villa in Garden Oaks wedding parties. My daughter was planning her wedding at this facility in January. It appears this establishment including The Chefs table and the Bellaterrazza facility are in or moving into Bankruptcy. We personally deposited the full amount for special rates and are looking at losing a considerable amount of money. I am looking to hire a Collections Attorney to attempt to recover money paid to this establishment. If you are interested in joining me in the pursuit of this collection....please contact me with your personal information.

Ladies, my name is Tony Thomas and I am one of the ownrs of The Tuscany Villa in Katy, Texas. I want to assure everyone that we are NOT assocciated with The Tuscan Villa in Garden Oaks nor the Bella Terrazza and never have been. If there is anything that we can do to help you out, please let us know. We might have your dates available.

I recently had my wedding here. We signed the contract back in February and were very worried about them being completed in time. My mom was so worried that she almost tried to drop them. I was confident though that they would finish by my date and I'm glad I convinced her to hold out. We really liked Heather Love too. She made sure everything turned out perfect for me, and ran smoothly. I never had any problems with her like the other reviewer did. She was always friendly and was not high pressure like other coordinators we spoke with at other venues. My wedding turned out beautifully, and our friends and family have been talking about it for weeks.

The only issue we had was with the security. The security guard and the hired policeman at our wedding were both ridiculous. As I drove up in the morning to park my car in front like Heather told me to do, the security guard proceeded to run up to my car, telling me that I needed to move. Heather just happened to be there to tell him that "that's the bride!" After, he apologized. He needs to calm down and be more respectful of people pulling up, these are their clients after all. Also, the officer we were required to have because we served alcohol ended up giving a bridesmaid's boyfriend a ticket! All he was doing was picking her up at the front while she was bringing a bunch of stuff out. Hello, it's a wedding, at the end we need to clean up and take it out! They gave him a ticket for blocking the entrance! It's not like he was some slobbering drunk, which is the reason the cop was hired! My other complaint is that the security guard allowed the people from the wedding after mine to come in when my family was still cleaning up (my wedding was from 12-4). We had until 5 to clean up and get out and these people started coming in at 4:15. These other people should not have been allowed to come start bringing things in. Their stuff started getting mixed up with mine! Not to mention that the mother of the bride was being a total bi*** to my people, telling them they need to clear things out of the way! Also, the wedding after mine was for a coordinator (Erin) who works to Bella Terazza (the Tuscany's sister location). If I was her, I would expect my family to act appropriately since that is the company I work for.

So, all in all, I thought Heather was wonderful, but something needs to be done about the crappy security guard.

My wedding was on August 15, 2008. I feel bad for the people who had a bad experience but mine was the complete opposite. The service was impeccable, the staff was amazing and my wedding coordinator (Heather Love) was awesome. Absolutely everything went as planned and the Tuscany was beautiful! New lighting was installed on August 12th which added a special touch to the entire venue. Every one of my guests were impressed with the venue as was I. The food was great and I had great vendors that have been doing wedding for years, so that helped. For future brides try not to pick vendors with little or no experience...pay the extra $ to get professionals. My Tuscany experience was better than I ever could have imagined!! Once again, sorry to those who had their weddings when the Tuscany wasn't complete. Future brides will be more than pleased. Good luck!

This facilities are beautiful!The biggest problem we had (constantly) was trying to get in touch with our coordinator. She would take her time to return emails and sometimes not return any calls. As far as coustomer service goes, they are terrible!If you are lucky enough to catch them with a phone call, they are always apologetic. Prime example: One of my friends is getting married there and Hurricane Ike just passed through Houston. All of their phone lines are down and the facilities took on a lot of water damage!YOU WOULD THINK THAT THEY WOULD HAVE THE COURTESY TO CALL AND UPDATE THEIR CLIENTS ON THE STATUS OF THE FACILITIES! It's been 13 days since the Hurricane came through. Guess what?Still no contact!

I had my wedding at The Tuscan Villa on 08-08-08. It was still under construction at the time, but we made the best of it. It was a complete scramble down to the end. We started with Heather Love & after numerous unreturned phone calls & emails complaining about how poorly the construction was coming along & almost cancelling, as well as unreturned calls to the Sales Manager, we were assigned a new coordinator... Sammi Brown. (I won't even go into how we had a completely different coordinator the night of the wedding who I'd never met in my life.) I can't express how poor the customer service and professionalism is with this place. We were so fortunate to even have our wedding because we could have easily been in the same boat as everyone else. The mismanagement of assets & disorganization was apparent from the very beginning & like so many others instead of taking heed I listened to these crazy coordinators insisting that everything would be just fine. My deepest apologies to everyone who has lost money in this process. The only reason we went forward with our wedding here is because we were out of options & unfortunately even that was taken from so many of the families impacted by these folks shutting their doors.

I hope they find a buyer because both properties have so much potential if only the proper team takes over the facilities.

They really didn't deserve our money, but we were already so close to the wedding. We threatened to cancel several times, which resulted in additional freebies, but at the end of the day it's just sad how disorganized they were & how difficult the process was. A really nice facility, but not worth the headache.

Our daughter's wedding was beautiful, but they stressed us out throughout the entire process. The rehearsal was completely disorganized & I don't think they were quite finished with construction even when she walked down the aisle. A gorgeous facility, but still not worth the stress.

Beautiful, but incomplete. I guess it doesn't matter much now that they're closed.

It will eventually be a beautiful place if they ever finish it. They should have provided better accommodations for the bride and the bridal party to prepare before the wedding. The place has potential, but leaves much to be desired.

WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE!
I had my wedding there July 27, 2008.
It went perfect and I do not understand how anyone else has complaints! My cordinator was Sammi Brown and she was super helpful and knows alot about weddings, so she was able to give ideas and help. This was the best location we found because they included the ceremony site, the food, and they have alot of vendors who work with them at a discounted rate. We booked the cake, flowers, dj, photographer and pianist through them and they all turned out perfect and got to the location early! All 250 guest that I had were completely happy and all I kept hearing was "this is the nicest wedding I have ever been to!"

And people who booked there weddings then found out they were not done with the building were offered to move locations and the Tuscany paid for anything else extra needed, including new invitations! So if someone was unhappy because the building was not done, that is there own fault for not taking them up on the offer to move.
And as far as the bancrupcy, I am guessing it is from making all the complainers out there happy because they paid to have people get married at new locations.

We had the wedding of our dreams and could not have asked for more from Bella Terrazza. The food was delicious and the facility was beautiful. They went above and beyond to accomodate our special requests. I was thrilled with the service and the overall product. Too bad they went out of business...

I was worried going into my wedding because the girl we were working with just didn't mesh with me. She kept trying to sell my parents on more things when we were supposed to be giving our final head count and make sure everything was in place. The reception ended up going perfect, so I can't really complain. When it came down to it, they did their job. However my mom has had some trouble with them now that the wedding is over and done with. There were a few things that got lost in the shuffle of cleaning up the building that they are not very helpful in locating. Also, we were skeptical that many of their preferred vendors were backing out of their partnerships with them right when it was time for payment. The whole reason we went with them was because it was an all together package. We ended up having to pay everyone individually and had no idea how much the individual services cost. Plus we had not signed contracts with these people, we had through Bella Terrazza. It was an added stressor in the last few weeks leading up to the wedding. It also might not be a good sign if their partners don't want to do business with them anymore. It worked out well for us in the end, but it was somewhat of a nightmare getting there.

Well, now that it is over...what can i say? We had our June 7,2008 wedding booked here for 7 months in advance; and 2 weeks before, we were informed they weren't ready and we would have to be moved! Heather Love was our planner and she was so great in the planning process but kept telling us all along there would be NO PROBLEMS, even though they had to move all the April and May weddings, due to not being ready. She kept saying it would be ready by our time!! Our original planner, Sammie, stepped in and helped us get it moved to The Corinthian downtown. The Tuscany did cover all the extra expenses (The Corinthian cost over $10,000, just to rent the building!) extra flowers, announcements to our guests informing of the change, extra speakers for the accoustics,etc.. Sammie was great but we never again heard from Heather, not one word! So it did turn out well, even though we freaked out at first. They should not have booked weddings before they had a firm opening date, and should not have lied to us, but I have to say they did pull through in the end. I don't know if Sammi is still there, but ask for her if she is!! She was wonderful!! It should be a gorgeous venue once they get their act together!

We were told 3 weeks before our wedding that they wouldn't be done. Promised for 6 months that there would be no problem. Will probably be a lovely place if and when they ever get their act together. I would take whatever you're told and believe about 1/4 of it.

This is a warning to all brides out there. DO NOT HAVE YOUR WEDDING HERE!! They turned my dream wedding into a complete nightmare. The main problem was that the place wasn't even finished, and they still allowed events to go on. Our coordinator acted like he had never planned a wedding in his life, and didn't even speak to me on my wedding day. These people should not be in the wedding business because they are rude and they completely lied to me and my family. They didn't even care that they ruined my wedding-the owner didn't even have the nerve to talk to us after our event. He "promoted" our coordinator to be in charge of handling all complaints. These people are ignorant, and they don't care about your wedding. Save yourself the headache of dealing with them and send your money elsewhere! I would love to post more info. if anyone is interested.

My experience with this place was HORRIBLE! They turned my life into a NIGHTMARE before my wedding! Its sad because it is going to be a beautiful place, but the ignorant, insensitive people who are working there are going to ruin it. The people that own and work here do not make your weddings dreams come true. They lie and feed you a bunch of BS.

Overall it was a good experience. The food was actually very good. Only a couple of thing went wrong. They left the house phone turned on and so during the ceremony it was ringing and they did not do anything about that and we were having it videotaped. We wrote them a certified letter about the incident but we got no response. Also the flower vendor that we used was recommended by the place they forgot my toss away bouquet. So I had to use MYbouquet.

Everyone raved about the food, and I just went with the standard buffet menu they had. The bartender told my Dad that if we had a bucket or container, then we could have taken home the undrank margaritas from the margarita machine at the end of the night. The venue is gorgeous and they were pretty flexible with all of the things we wanted them to do, like set up an area for a slideshow during the reception, put out favors by the front door while the guests were at the reception. After the ceremony was over they took everything down and some things disappeared (like our unity candle.) I understand they had to get the room ready for the next wedding, but things that belonged to us should have been returned to us. That is the one complaint I have.

It was a beautiful venue, but we were misled when it came to the capacity. They said it would seat 250 people but even though we had less than that attend, the wedding coordinator did not allow the ushers (2 cousins of the bride and one friend) in the actual ceremony. We didn't find out until after and were very upset. We had asked multiple times before signing a contract if it would be able to hold everybody and every time we were assured that it would. Wedding coordinator was not on top of things- some florals were supposed to be moved upstairs after the ceremony, she said it would be taken care of but it never was. The rehearsal was a joke, the coordinator had absolutely no control over what was going on and seemed to not have a clue. The officiant did not attend the rehearsal and we were assured that he would know how to proceed at the wedding but he ended up messing up the order of the ceremony, rather embarassingly. Had the rehearsal been conducted as it should have, none of this would have happened.The food was good however, and the place is beautiful. But beware of their preferred vendors- because these people are linked with this venue, they seem to be able to get away w/o brides scrutinizing their actual work, simply because they are recommended and convenient to hire. Ex. Evoke photography. We were not impressed.

This was a great place to have our wedding. We had so many compliments about how romantic it was, it was a perfect size for all 140 people we had there for the reception too. Amazing food, though when we (bride and groom) got our plate of food, it was cold...so that was a bit disappointing. Everything else was pretty good!

Gorgeous place! Our coordinator took long to return our calls and reply to our e-mails and seemed to be in a hurry every time we spoke to her. But the set up, food and service the day of the wedding were excellent! Will book this place again, but will request a different coordinator.

Food, bar and staffing exceeded my expectations. Delicious food with outstanding presentation. Setup and cleanup were quick and efficient. Coordinator for the day is now a personal event coordinator for me!

Bella Terrazza was the perfect backdrop for our wedding. The wine cellar is great for the ceremony and you can make it as lavish or as simply decorated as you would like. The upstairs looks fabulous any time of day. We personally liked the elevator access for handicap people. We had a noon wedding and for the price on a Saturday it was very reasonable. Night time rates do triple but the backdrop with candles would be worth it if you can afford it! Nice staff, beautiful location.