At Your Service Event Management

sional staffing turned into an experience that required far more involvement and oversight from us. We had two planning meetings with Trish and were given an opportunity to provide feedback through a shared document. She missed our second scheduled meeting without notifying us and did not respond to our messages for several days. We knew she had a personal event that weekend so we forgave it, but, the ghosting left us concerned about whether we would need to find another company at the last minute. Our biggest disappointment was that much of the detailed information we provided during the planning process did not seem to carry over to the actual event. We spent considerable time preparing diagrams, seating arrangements, setup instructions, and written feedback to make our expectations clear and help the team execute everything smoothly and make their job easier. During our final meeting, we revisited questions we had already answered, and it was pretty clear she had not reviewed any of our previous answers. For example, we specifically requested no linens or additional glassware, provided a detailed seating chart (including high-chair placement), and told her we had sent diagrams including that for the drink station. Trish assured us these requests could be accommodated. However, when I arrived on the wedding day, the head table was being set with linens and glassware we had specifically declined, and the seating arrangement appeared to be based on an earlier plan for approximately 10 fewer guests. When I asked about our updated instructions, she acted like I was speaking a foreign language and shoved her original documentation toward me and said "I don't have the diagram you sent" WELL, why didn't she ask us to resend when we referred to it SO many times in the call? This was particularly disappointing because the primary reason we hired this company was to avoid having to manage these details ourselves on the wedding day. Having to correct arrangements, answer questions, and oversee tasks I believed had already been addressed created a great deal of unnecessary stress and significantly affected my ability to relax and enjoy the day. I nearly cried several times. Thankfully, our family and friends stepped in to help interpret our diagrams (I got complements on how INCREDIBLY CLEAR everything was), make decisions, and ensure things came together. Several independently commented that the coordination team seemed unfamiliar with our plans and asked whether we had met with them beforehand. We had, extensively, which made the situation especially frustrating. I want to emphasize that the crew working the event appeared to be working very hard, and I appreciated their efforts. The team seemed overwhelmed and lacking clear direction from Trish. To be fair, dinner service went smoothly, and we were grateful for that. Ultimately, our experience was one of overpromise, underdeliver. We invested a great deal of time in planning because we wanted everything to run smoothly and hoped that hiring professionals would allow us to be fully present for this important day. Unfortunately, that was not our experience. We didn't expect perfection. It was that so many of the things we had already discussed, clarified, and agreed upon seemed to have been overlooked.