“Dear Becky,
Considering your abysmal treatment of me and my business partner, I am disappointed by all the false claims in your review. I was hoping some time and reflection on your part would improve your disposition but I see, sadly, it hasn't.
As you have noted in your review, I do strive to put my clients at ease and provide support for them on their journey to their wedding day.
This includes the tasting you mentioned, which I charge a very small fee to cover ingredients and travel. At the end of that two-hour tasting of over 10 different cocktails, not once did you express any dissatisfaction with any of the drinks, but instead raved about the drinks and asked for refills (specifically the espresso martini, which you chose as one of your specialty cocktails).
Following this tasting, I continued to work with your additional demands of uncompensated site visits to a location over an hour outside my service area and an additional uncompensated tasting.
This still was not enough to satisfy you. I was asked to attend a second site visit, which I politely declined. You then asked for another uncompensated tasting to "practice" making a Painkiller, a drink that I supplied you with during our initial tasting. Unable to accommodate your last minute request, I asked you to send me your version of the recipe, so I could be sure to make it to your standards on your wedding day and you proceeded to send me the exact same recipe I used to prepare this drink at your tasting.
To clarify on which services were "out of scope," meaning, not that I cannot provide these services, but that these services do incur extra charges.
These services include:
• A third specialty cocktail (two are included with my package)
• Pre-batching those 3 specialty cocktails, which I simply added on an hour of service time to be able to prepare this in time for service
• The addition of 20 more guests, which changes the initial service quote
• The addition of 2 mocktails, also pre-batched, which incurs an additional charge for additional ingredients and prep time necessary and is also considered a specialty cocktail. This, you added on a week before your event and insisted on making yourself, so as not to incur the extra charges. I never asked you to.
• The addition of a second bartender, who you repeatedly refer to as "my wife". She is, in fact, my business partner and a certified bartender.
All of the above services were added on after our initial consultation, within the weeks leading up to your wedding. And after I updated your invoice (in which I was already giving you a discounted rate) to include some of these changes, you proceeded to call me and scream at me over daring to charge you extra for things you asked for. I am very mindful of budgets and have worked with countless clients to find solutions and services that fit within their budgets. I, however, am a business and cannot work for free.
Any stress added to your plate, was due to your unwillingness to properly compensate me for these additions as well as making constant changes leading up to the week of your wedding. In the 3 years I've been in business and over a hundred events my business partner and I have bartended, you are the only client I have had to part ways with.
I am happy you found someone you trusted more than me to make your wedding a success and I wish you all the best on your new marriage.”
