Complaint Review: Forever Weddings

We met Mitch at the food tasting on 4/17/12 and made a payment, and after several calls, (all initiated by me), and a few reschedule appointments (all by Mitch) I was finally able to meet with Keyvn on 6/29 for another payment, I was told they only accepted checks or cash as I was willing to make a payment over the phone using my credit/debit card.  At this time I was concerned and wanting to get the ball rolling on color selections, menu selections, songs, photographer, adding additional items to our contract (hours for bartenders) etc., but Mitch assured me when had plenty of time to do this and really didn't need to do anything other than the colors until the walk through. He said he would get a hold of my daughter (bride) for the colors, but she never heard from him.
 
I finally reached Mitch and scheduled to meet with him at the Miramonte (for a final walk-through, payment, etc) on Wed 7/11,  he would call me with a time as he did not have his calendar with him. We did not hear from him and after leaving several messages he finally called me late Saturday or Sunday, apologizing for not getting back to me, he has Crones disease had a flare up, and was sick and at the hospital. We rescheduled for Monday 7/16. Again, I never received a confirmation on the time or the meeting, and after several attempts to reach him (with messages of my concern) he called me on Tuesday 7/17 apologizing for not getting back to me (flare up of Crones disease again or still) and we agreed to try and meet on Wednesday 7/18. I told him I would need to contact the kids (bride and groom) to determine their availability. I called him back Tuesday 7/17 evening and Wednesday 7/18 several times with messages that we could only meet at 7:30 pm due to our work schedules and having to drive out to Miramonte and to please confirm our meeting and time. On Wednesday 7/18 late afternoon he called me to say he could not meet with us, at which time I conference called my daughter and we made final decisions over the phone (I typed up our conversation and sent him an email confirming our conversation (see below), and agreed I would meet either him or Keyvn on Saturday 7/21 for final payment (had to be in before Monday) and walk-through at the Miramonte (again he would contact me as to who to meet and what time). On Saturday 7/21, he called late in the afternoon, apologizing as he was not sure if he could meet or not as Keyvn had a tournament and was still winning and could possibly play again. If he could still meet it would be in my neighborhood, or one of them could meet me on Monday 7/23, by my office as the money had to be submitted by that morning. I stressed to please call and let me know, do not leave me guessing! Again I did not hear back from him and he when he called me on Monday 7/23, he had once again had a conflict and could not meet as planned. He wanted to meet on Tuesday 7/24, I told him I was at an all day retreat that day, so we agreed on Wednesday 7/25 over by my house as I had so much to get ready for and did not feel at that time that I should have to drive 45 minutes away to meet with him as this was not my procrastination but his. On Wednesday 7/25 mid afternoon he called my daughter (I was sitting right there) and canceled the meeting again! At that time he informed her that I needed to pay CASH at the rehearsal on Thursday night 7/26 or he would have to cancel our event! I am at this point LIVID! Thursday evening 7/26 as we were headed out the door he called me and indicated that my daughter was the one that told him I could not meet the day before (that is simply not the truth!) and that he could not be there for the rehearsal as his daughter had a ball game, but he would dash by to pick up the money, which he did. This was the last I saw and heard from Mitch.

Saturday at the wedding, to my knowledge as there was no communication, Mitch was not there to ensure that things were done and in place on time as agreed upon. It was my understanding that the hall would be set up by 3 pm, yet at 4 pm when guest were arriving the hall was not ready. I mentioned several times that we had 16 people at the head table,  yet it was set up for a total of 7. This created a spacing issue with the reset of the head table, as all the other tables were in place. There were only 160 chairs outside (ceremony) for guest and we had 217 RSVP's I was told there would be more chairs, but when the wedding started we still only had 160. Linens-the colors I ordered were not fully available due to the wedding the day before. We ended up with Red and Black sashes on chairs and Black and White napkins on the tables.
 
The photographer showed up in short shorts and was uncommunicative to both myself and my daughter and therefore some of the request we put down for pictures did not happen. She seemed to be more interested in communicating with the DJ than with us. Here it is 2 weeks after the wedding and I still have not seen or received any photos!
 
I am an Events Planner, and at no time would I leave it up to my customers to do all the work and coordination for an event, so I guess I expected more from Forever Weddings (Mitch) as well. I cannot believe that there is not a "back-up" person that can handle conflicts in scheduling. I understand things happen, but certainly not this often and then to feel that I have to take on extra responsibilities/steps (meet in Broomfield or across town in Littleton/Denver, go to the bank for cash, numerous attempts to set up meetings) when I was more than willing to meet and finalize things at least 2 weeks prior to our event date. At this time I would not recommend this service to anyone, as I certainly am not sure what my $8k paid for.