TL;DR: Hair and Makeup Artist cancels on me EIGHT DAYS before my wedding; company refused to refund me ANYTHING after I’d paid in full, saying I needed to accept replacement service from a man I might not meet until the DAY OF MY WEDDING; gas lighting, victim blaming, harassment, awful experience.

I am not a big review person in general and don’t think I’ve ever posted a negative review before. But after having such a horrendous, nightmare experience with this company, I feel I have an actual obligation to warn other brides about working with them.

Eight days before my wedding, I find out that the hair and makeup artist I had booked months in advance was suddenly canceling. I’m obviously panicked and deeply upset as—it probably goes without saying—(1) feeling pretty on my wedding day and (2) feeling confident in my plan/schedule on my wedding day were both very high priorities for me. The company says they have another artist available on the day of my wedding BUT DOES NOT COMMIT to offering a trial. I’m told that I might get a trial if this man happens to have the time and energy to do one, but that’s it. However, he doesn’t live in my state, so it is very unlikely. I, of course, do not find this acceptable. I will not be rolling the dice on a person I may never meet until the day of my wedding.

Having no other choice, I decide to move forward with another company (THANK GOD I’m able to find a last minute replacement, as again, this was EIGHT DAYS before my wedding). I tell WEB, but they REFUSE to pay me anything. They literally tell me that, by the terms of their contract, I have no choice but to work with this guy who is NOT the artist I worked with. Whether that’s legally accurate or not, I think that is completely unacceptable. They clearly understood the importance of knowing the artist you’re working with ahead of time—that’s obviously the purpose of the trial.

Our email correspondence has been an absolute nightmare. They were completely unwilling to budge—I had to accept substitute service or lose all of my money. They said they wouldn’t pay my money back because it had already been spent and—I thought this was particularly bizarre—they shouldn’t have to give refunds (presumably ever?) since they don’t have VC money?? They spent a significant amount of time in the emails trying to manipulate me into letting it go because they were a small business, as well as trying to fixate on small details of my experience, rather than the overall nightmare.

At a certain point, I had had enough. I had made my position clear, and they had certainly done the same. I wanted to just put this awful chapter behind me and even though I hated the idea of them keeping my money, my fiancé convinced me it was worth it just to put this ugliness behind us. So I clearly tell them to stop contacting me. They refuse to do so. I respond to say that, by continuing to contact me after I had asked to stop, they were harassing me. EVEN THEN, they continued to contact me—AFTER I HAD SAID I CONSIDERED IT HARASSMENT!

I know that they have a number of very positive reviews on other platforms. It seems like my experience was potentially an outlier. But if it happened to me, it could happen to you. I wish so, so badly I had never heard of—much less worked with—this company. I will never work with them again and cannot recommend anybody else do so. I deeply regret ever getting involved with them.