Complaint Review: Val's Weddings

In short, Valeriya Sergienko, my wedding coordinator, double booked my wedding with another bride and lied to me about it. What resulted was a total and complete disaster on my wedding day, and she was no where to be found. She has since promised me a refund, which she has never returned, and is completely ignoring my messages. Below is a review I wrote of her with details of everything that happened.

This is the hardest review I have ever had to write. No bride should ever feel this way about their

wedding coordinator, about the person who was in charge of delivering and executing their

vision, a vision that my husband and I have had since the day we contacted her, and on the day of

our wedding, 9 months later, our vision was completely trampled on, so much so that my heart

literally sunk when I walked into our venue. Valeriya Sergienko (Val), our coordinator, was

nowhere to be found. I feel it is my duty to all of you to write as detailed a review as possible, in

order to avoid another catastrophe, and to shed light on Val and her unfair and deceptive and

business practices. Once and for all, she deserves to be shunned by all brides and vendors and

does not deserve to do business in my home country and in our beloved Punta Cana.

Let’s start at the beginning. But before I do, the best advice I have for all of the baby brides out

there is to follow your heart, and listen to your gut. From the beginning, my heart was set on

Kukua, but because of my extremely large wedding party (120+) I could not afford it. I was

quoted $31,500 by Bego, and this did not include any of the other expenses along the way (dress,

grooms suits, souvenirs, flights, resort, gifts, etc…). At this point, I was looking at a $45,000

wedding. Kukua was unwilling to negotiate any type of discount, because, and I quote “While

you will be bringing in a lot of guests, we cannot offer you a discount because we host weddings

of similar and larger sizes all the time.” The whole point was to avoid this expense by going

destination, while still enjoying the company of our loved ones. I didn’t appreciate this comment

or Kukua’s style of doing business. So, Alex and I looked into other options. We found two

venues at the time, Playa Blanca and Palapa Juanillo that offered us a BYOB option, all we had

to do was pay a small corking fee. We fell in love with the beach at Juanillo, it was secluded,

incredibly beautiful, and the perfect location for a wedding of our size. Juanillo is a blank

canvas, and it is honestly one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.

So we contacted Mayte and Val for quotes. Mayte was a little pricier, and we saw the work that

Val had done for Rocio Torres’ wedding (which was stunning), so we decided to go with Val,

even though Rocio mentioned how lackluster her communication was. I should have listened and

my gut was telling me to reconsider. Regardless, we submitted our deposit on November 5, 2015

and became a Val’s Weddings couple.

At first, Val was great. We received an e-mail from her nine days later welcoming us to her

company with an invitation to a Pinterest board. She also included a ceremony form, cocktail

hour form, and reception form, which I later completed and submitted with careful and

meticulous detail. We had a skype meeting with her and her associate Maria, and we were pretty

confident we were in good hands. We had constant communication between that time and April,

when all of a sudden we were pawned off to another coordinator named Luiciana. We received a

link to a website with a presentation of the new palapa, which Val had explained to us would

host our welcome event and the cocktail hour. Val explained to us, and Luiciana confirmed, that

the old palapa had been moved a couple hundred yards away, but that it was still there and we

would be able to have our reception there. Hosting the reception in the palapa was one of the

most important aspects of my wedding. I chose the palapa because of its high ceilings and dome

like structure for the sole purpose of decorating the entire ceiling with bistro lights, as shown

below. I had never dreamed of what my dream wedding would look like as a little girl, but when

Alex proposed to me and I started looking, this was the only thing I knew I absolutely needed at

my wedding. Not only did I include this in my Pinterest board, but it was all over my wedding

forms. We spoke about it throughout the planning process and during the week of the wedding.

So let’s continue. I e-mailed Luiciana on April 16, 2016 to confirm that the old palapa was still

there, to which she responded in the affirmative, and that it was just being moved. In the same email

she confirmed that the bridal suite is also being moved and extended. When the renovations

were taking place, Val guaranteed that the bridal suite would be 100% complete by the time our

wedding came along. I asked Luiciana for some updated pictures, but it was still under

renovations, so there were no pictures available during the presentation. At this point, this is

when things took a turn for the worst. On May 4, 2016 I e-mail Luiciana with a couple of

questions, whether there was an area for the groomsmen to do a mock getting ready and whether

we could renegotiate the transportation costs. I did not hear from her. I again e-mailed her on

May 13, and no answer. We did not hear back from anyone at Val’s Weddings until June 1,

2016, nearly a month after my initial e-mail on May 4th.

At this point we were once against pawned off to another coordinator, this time to a woman by

the name of Anyeli. From the beginning she was rude, did not listen to our wishes, rebutted our

ideas, and never, EVER answered any of our e-mails completely if at all. When she did answer,

it was clear that she was either in a rush, or simply did not care enough to read our questions.

Between June and August, just one month before our wedding, Alex and I found ourselves

having to follow-up on numerous e-mails, including writing an e-mail to the company about how

insulted we were and how unacceptable the company’s lack of communication was. Val began to

use a new system to organize and plan the weddings, including a vision board and a floor plan

which was never actually completed on Anyeli’s part.

We also learned for the first time that the old palapa would be destroyed for parts and that our

entire wedding would be taking place in the new palapa, which was not big enough to fit our

wedding party, nor was it high enough for the bistro lights as shown above. Particularly of

concern was that there was a huge kitchen and bar separating the palapa, so Anyeli was actually

suggesting that we divide our wedding into two. We immediately voiced our concerns in an email

dated July 31st and then again on August 1st wondering if Anyeli was at all familiar with our original vision. She resulted to creating a new floor plan, which would add an addition, at an extra cost of course, in order to keep the wedding party together. This addition would cost us $1500. At this point we asked to speak directly to Val, because it was clear that no one knewwhat was going on and our wedding was a month away.

Val answered the next day, which really put us at ease. She provided us with some suggestions

about how to rearrange the floor plan. I responded to her e-mail with some additional comments,

but yet again I did not hear back from her. I e-mailed her against on August 8, still did not hear

back. Alex e-mailed her on August 11. We still did not have our final quote. Val responded on

Saturday the 13th that she was away and needed until Monday to respond. Alex sent another email

on Wednesday the 13th, following up that we were expecting to hear back from her, as she

promised. At this point we told her that if the wedding had not been so close, we would have

chosen another wedding planner due to the lack of attention we had received from her and her

company. Alex and I didn’t even know if we were having a wedding at all. There was simply no

reason why we should be chasing our coordinator for a final quote and scrambling with last

minute details. The wedding was two weeks away.

Val sent me a WhatsApp message apologizing for not responding to our e-mails. She got stuck in

Toronto due to a major thunderstorm. She sounded incredibly remorseful and even promised that

she would take charge of everything from thereon out. She also told us that Anyeli had been

fired, for obvious reasons, including not responding to many of my e-mails. She also proposed

moving my entire reception to a large tent, which would accommodate my entire party and give

the impression I was going for, based on my Pinterest board. She also said, and I quote “Having

the tent set up will also allow us to start with the set up time we want, so we will have everything

prepared well in advance before the ceremony time. I do not want you to doubt for a second the

wedding, you can rely on me and my team 100% as well as your guests.” I felt at ease with this

response, to know that the person we had originally hired, and who knew our vision from start to

finish, would finally be taking over. After one final Google Hangout meeting for about two

hours, I felt confident that Val would be able to deliver the wedding of my dreams.

We met with Val in Punta Cana on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 for the site visit and tasting. We

spoke in detail about the timeline of the wedding and tasted the food, which was

PHENOMENAL. There was just one little issue during the site inspection. The bridal suite was

not completed and the AC was not dependable. Val suggested getting ready at Now, which I was

hesitant about because of the vendor fees, but she promised that she would be able to speak to

Anyeli, who was now working at Now, to allow Anna to come in with a guest pass. Alex and I

decided it was a better idea and our group would be more comfortable at Now. We just wanted to

have a good wedding day, so we agreed.

All in all, everything seemed like it was coming into place. Val and her food and beverage

manager, Ivan, went shopping with us for ingredients for the welcome and cocktail hour drinks.

When my father arrived with the alcohol on Thursday, we even visited Val’s Weddings offices to

deliver the alcohol and had coffee with Val and her staff. I was really beginning to feel like a

member of the Val’s Weddings family and felt like I could finally relax until the day of my

wedding.

On the day of the wedding we ran super later because of hair and makeup. I was in contact with

Val about this up until the moment we left the resort, at around 3:53pm, when we were finally

picked up by Renny’s. We arrived at Juanillo at around 4:37pm. Our ceremony was supposed to

begin at 5. As I walked up to the tent the first thing I noticed was that Val’s team was still setting

up the tables. Then I looked up and noticed that there were no bistro lights anywhere on the

ceiling. I immediately approached Ivan about this, who was the only person I knew that was

there, and he said, verbatim, “We will be putting those up later, we had some issues with a short

circuit”. I accepted that as an answer because I was so busy running around trying to take some

pictures with the bridesmaids on the beach with our robes.

As I was walking back into the bridal suite, I walked through the tent and surrounding areas and

began to notice everything that was missing or that was just flat out wrong (complete list below).

The wedding had a semi-travel theme to it, since there were 14 countries represented amongst

our guests. The table numbers were supposed to be maps of all of the countries represented. I

walked by table USA and the map that was on the table placard was a map of another country,

and not the USA. I don’t even know what country it was, but it was really thin and long, clearly

not the United States at all. I almost threw up on myself I was so embarrassed. I can’t even

imagine what my guests would have thought if they had seen this. I informed Ivan and he

removed it immediately, leaving table USA with no identifying placard.

I walked back to the bridal suite and I just broke out into tears. Val was still nowhere to be

found. When Alex inquired about her whereabouts, he was told that she had a family emergency

and had to rush out of the wedding. This immediately seemed fishy to me because I had just

spoken to her not even an hour ago. Sebastian and Martin told me to take it easy to and breathe

so that we can get through the ceremony and take wonderful pictures. I had no choice.

After the ceremony and photo sessions my mother came up to me and asked me what happened

to the cocktail hour appetizers. At this point it was nearly 6:30pm, our guests had been drinking

for a good hour, and no appetizers had been passed around. I called out to Ivan and demanded an

explanation and he looked at me dumbfounded. He actually had the audacity to say, “I thought

we decided that those would be put out with the buffet?” I literally lost my cool and my mother,

brother, and Alex took over. The appetizers came out fifteen minutes later. I’m still not sure if

they simply forgot to serve the apps, or if they were just running that late.

When nighttime came I looked up to the ceiling of the tent and noticed no bistro lights had been

set up. At this point Alex and I both approached Ivan and another one of Val’s employees named

Igor. We demanded to know where Val was and demanded to speak to her. Ivan got her on the

phone but she would not speak to us. They reiterated that she had a family emergency. We later

found out from numerous people that Val was coordinating another wedding in Casa de Campo.

When we approached the team about this, they insisted that that was not true. Alex told Ivan that

the people who told us about Val’s whereabouts had no reason to lie about it. As the night

progressed, it was obvious that Val was at another wedding. Numerous other vendors confirmed

this for us. Val and her team literally made a mockery out of us.

Below is a list of everything that went wrong the day of our wedding. One or two things may

have been acceptable, three is one too many. More than ten is a catastrophe.

1. Val, our coordinator was not present at the wedding.

2. No bistro lights decorated the ceiling of the tent, which we paid $575 for.

3. Our wedding colors were gold, navy blue and green. Charger plates were silver, and not

gold. We also decided on rattan charger plates, not gold.

4. Cocktail hour appetizers were late and almost never served.

5. Photo booth sign said “Yolanda and Manuel” and not “Yoly and Alex”.

6. The wedding was still being set up when we arrived to Juanillo at 4:30pm.

7. As I was walking down the aisle towards Alex I noticed that the wedding was still being

set up, at around 5:15pm. Val’s promise that everything would be set up well before

ceremony time was unfulfilled.

8. We had to pay an additional $220 in vendor fees for getting ready at Now because the

bridal suite was not 100% complete, as promised when we signed our contract with

Val’s.

9. Cake cutting was never announced as per our reception timeline and we ended up having

the waiters cut the cake at midnight, when half of our guests were gone.

10. There was no “love” sign as promised.

11. No apps on the sweetheart table.

12. No ceviche on three of the 14 tables.

13. Dinner was served so late that the food was served cold and there were no warming

devices used. Just cold food. This is really too bad because the food was absolutely

delicious, and should not take away from the amazing work the chef at Juanillo does.

14. Vendor table was the closest table to the sweetheart table, and our parent’s tables were

the furthest away. This was due to the fact that we never received an updated floor plan,

and due to the fact that our coordinator was not present, and therefore the tables were set

up completely at random.

This disaster was no one’s fault but Val’s. The person who organized and planned this wedding

was not actually present at the wedding, but instead went to another wedding. The reason why

everything went wrong is because Val was not there. No one had any idea what was going on.

Before my dad left the wedding he said to me, “Despite all of the mishaps, it is the overall

experience that matters, and overall, it was a wonderful wedding.” That broke my heart. The fact

that people noticed ALL of the mishaps. I can barely even think about my wedding day at this

point it makes me cry so much. This was not my wedding, this was someone else’s wedding. The

wedding I planned for and paid for I did not get.

I called Val the day after my wedding, twice, but she never responded. Val finally sent me a

WhatsApp message stating that she had spoken to Ivan about what had happened and that she

would send Ivan to the hotel with a refund. She also asked me to tell her “exactly” what went

wrong. She never actually apologized in this message. After I sent her a lengthy 3 minute voice

message highlighting “exactly” what went wrong, she responded via message again profusely

apologizing and acknowledging that everything I sad was 100% unacceptable. Apparently she

received a phone call just ten minutes after she had spoken to me that the floors in the tent of

another wedding her company was decorating in Casa de Campo had completely collapsed and

they lost 30% of the décor on the tables. She made the executive decision to go to that wedding

because everything seemed completely under control at my wedding.

So here’s the thing about that, if what she claimed had happed was true and had Val been honest

with me from the beginning, perhaps Alex and I would have been more understanding. However,

from our perspective it is very difficult to believe that she left Juanillo just 20 minutes before we

arrived and everything was “under control”. The lack of attention to detail in the decoration of

our wedding is appalling. The fact that she missed the outmost important aspect of my wedding,

the bistro lights, is unforgivable. It is obvious that Val chose one wedding over the other, perhaps

because they paid her more in Casa de Campo? But nothing was “in control” had Val actually

left Juanillo when she said she did.

What is worse is that I am still waiting on the refund Val promised me. Ivan came to Now and

brought us a third of it and we signed a contract as to how the remaining amount would be

refunded (via Pay Pal or wire transfer, more than $2000.) I sent Val a WhatsApp on 09/07 asking

where the refund was, she responded via a lengthy message apologizing for the delay, and that it

would take four business days but that I should receive it soon. I sent her another message on

Monday, 09/12 and then again Wednesday 09/14 and she has outright ignored my messages. It has been nearly a month since my wedding and I have yet to receive the refund. All of Vals promises to date have been illusory. But this is a contract, which she has broken, and I will not let that slide.

To end:

Despite all of the mishaps, my guests had a wonderful time, thanks to my photographers,

videographers, DJ, live band, fire show, and the staff at Juanillo, including the servers and

bartenders, who did a wonderful job. Additionally the ceremony and the ceremony space itself

was beautiful. But unfortunately there were too many things that went wrong, and it would have

all been avoided if Val was present at my wedding, or if she had put as much attention to detail

in the execution of my wedding as she had planning it.

Future brides, the best advice I can give you is to be on top of your coordinators. I’m not sure

where I went wrong in this process, perhaps I trusted Val too much? But isn’t that the point of

hiring a coordinator? Val has since apologized, and has offered to give us a refund for services

we paid for and were never rendered. But the wedding is over, all of those hours of planning and

hard work saving for this wedding have passed us by, and I did not get the wedding of my

dreams.