Weddingbee boards

So long story short--my fiance and I booked a place last February, along with a photographer & dj. It wasn't a super expensive place, but it was a little 'higher' end and we really loved it...well last June (EXACTLY 1 year before our wedding) FH had to 2 emergency surgeries and was in the hospital for 5 days. As you can imagine, we had some bills to pay! We could no longer afford the venue, and they rented it out on our date and we got our money back (thank Jesus!). The photographer & dj agreed to come to our new venue instead of cancel with us, and it worked out well.

WELL.

Our photographers are amazing and so easy to talk to/get in touch with, etc. We love them. The DJ, however, became harder and harder to get in touch with, finally to the point that I haven't heard from him since last August depsite numerous emails, phone calls, voicemails, etc. Finally last week I called his number and it went to some woman I have no idea who she is...he had changed his number!!! So I googled and found a new number for him, but no answer EVER. He has a website that he shares with a florist, but I had no idea who she was. Yesterday, though, I did not CARE who she was. My thought is this, if she's on a website with him she has to know him SOMEHOW. Right??? Oh yes, right...since she's his mother.

I was very nicely blunt with her, but I straight up told her that I didn't pay him a $500 deposit to NOT BE IN TOUCH OR POSSIBLY EVEN SHOW UP. I booked him a year and 4 months in advance. He had no other bookings. When, in July, I called and told him about Matt's surgeries, he said it was no problem to come here (which is 4 hours away, btw) and would work out a traveling fee. Sure thing, I had no issue with it.

She apologized profusely for him, and I never got ugly or mean to her (hey, it's not her fault you know? And at this point I'm not even caring about anything but knowing what is gonna happen!!!!) and she was so nice. She got back to us within the hour, and we had our money deposited back to us (via paypal) within 2 hours. He had taken our deposit, booked our day for us...then after we had a change of venue, AND without telling us, booked another wedding on that day and completely was not going to tell us or give our money back or contact us in ANY way. How effing shady is that?! His mom called me back to ensure I got the return and kept apologizing about it...and I told her it was no problem, but with the wedding 4 1/2 months away, I just needed to KNOW something, you know?

So, now I'm scrambling for a DJ. But that's ok, at least I know what's going down and hopefully this time I can find a respectable businessman/woman to hire!

Thanks bees! I told my FH (as we were on our way to a bridal fair yesterday, thank goodness lol) that at this point I'm over being angry to just being concerned about finding a replacement. If it would have been my photographer I would have probably bawled, as I really like them lol :) I did find 3 open dj's yesterday though, so now it's just finding the package we want...and of course me and FH like different ones so compromising on that is essential too ;) But we'll have it figured out by the end of this week I hope!