Weddingbee boards

I just wanted to make sure I got the word out.  Fairy Tale Affairs in Massapequa has been a total nightmarte!  From the start, the experience was chaotic. 

A young girl helped me and about 20 other customers at the same time one Saturday morning in April.  I felt bad for the girl becuse she was literally running around trying to accomodate everyone, but there were too many people and only she and the owner running the show.  It took me 2 1/2 hours to complete my wedding invitation order because I was being helped in 5 minute increments because there were too many customers and not enough help.  

I had to return to the store to approve my prints when it came in.  I wasn't told originally that I would have to treck back to the store to do this, so when the owner called and I sked if it could be emailed (because I have dealt with other invitation companies that email them) I was icily told no.  I have to say, being warm and friendly goes a long way and I was not feeling the love. When I arrived to approve the proof, I was told that the young girl was let go for making too many mistakes (well, duh - the place was crazy!) and that parts of my order weren't right.  Long story short, it was rectified, but of course I ended up paying more money.  Turns out I needed different envelopes for my color scheme and I was never charged for the caligraphy I thought I had originally paid for.

Now we get to the caligraphy.  Mind you, everytime I called this place, thre owner sounded like a disgruntled employee who hates her job.  When I got in touch with the owner to find out about sending in a final list to go to the caligrapher, she was icy and matter-of-fact when she told me that the process took a two weeks and offered no help when I said I was hoping to get my invitations out the next week.   A week later, and already slightly behind my original schedule, the owner called to say the laser caligraphy machine broke and they no longer provide the service.  She did give me the name and number of a calligrapher to use.  However, I had to call this other person and coordinate, pay, and pick up from her business myself. OK fine, whatever.  Amazingly, the calligrapher turned out to be wonderful.  Everything turned out perfect; however, my invitations went out two weeks late.

Now we get to eveything else.  My mom (good bless her heart) wanted to hire the owner for a day of coordinator.  We also ordered linens, candies, a cake topper, and a place card board from here.  A couple of weeks after the initial order of the candies was placed, my mom called to say we had to cancel the order because our catering facility did not allow outside food.  So now we lost our deposit on that, even though the order was cancelled in June and my wedding was in October.  The owner claimed she had to put a deposit in with the 3rd party candy people.  RIGHT.  Mind you, my mom gave the owner more money than needed up front, which is always a terrible idea.  

We had to cancel the linens because I changed my color scheme.  The prices were astronomical, and any dilligent bride-to-be can find linens much cheaper online to buy for the price to rent here.  (PS - I ended using Table Wraps in Plainview/Syosset and they were AMAZING!)

The owner got incrasingly annoyed with the cancellations, even though she now just got a whole bunch of money for doing nothing.  By this point I had it - and cancelled the owner as my "day of coordintor" because I couldn't see putting up with her attitude and unprofessionalism any longer.

I called a week and half before my wedding to get measurements for my guest list board because I had to find a frame.  She did not have the measurements and did not offer to help me get them.  I had to wait until the Wednesday before my wedding, when I went to pick up the item to be able to shop for a frame.  

To top it all off, THE OWNER LEFT ME A  BIZARRE VOICEMAIL this week.  So strange.  

What's very interesting, something that small businesses always forget, is that for the money you don't return to a customer when they are unhappy costs way more than the actual money.  You have succedded in thoughroughly annoying the original customer so that they never return, and now they're going to tell all their friends.  So, here you go friends.  I just wanted everyone to know.