Where the F#%$ Did She Get Married | Wedding Planner REACTS

The caption reads, my Airbnb wedding horror story. Where the fuck did I get married? I love that. It was like, what, Risa Tisa?

Who started that?

Like, who the fuck did I marry? We're just keeping that iteration going, guys. We're just keeping it going.

My wedding venue was threatening to cancel my wedding literally weeks before we were getting married, and they made the entire wedding planning process a living hell for me. But hello, I couldn't talk about any of this because they were already threatening to cancel my wedding. Guess what? We're married. I'm done. I'm retired. And I finally get to sit down and spill the tea with you guys on all of the diabolical shit they've put me through for an entire year. I joked around that I was going to make this a 20-part series. I am genuinely going to try to keep this into one part. If I hit the 10-minute limit on TikTok, I'm going to have to go into part 2. But I have to share a level of detail for you guys to understand the state of mind they put me in, the level of gaslighting and lying from like 3 or 4 different employees. If I don't share that level of detail, like, you simply just will not understand. So grab a drink, grab a snack. We're going to be here for a second.

Mm.

Okay.

If you haven't seen this this is, there's like a 3-part series. I'm sure she does more follow-up videos. I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to fit it into one video. Hi, if you're new here, my name is Jamie Wolfer. I'm your online wedding planner. I wrote a wedding planning book, mentioned it last week's video. You guys are already hitting that preorder button and I am so excited. If you don't know, preorders are a way of telling publishers like, hey, this book is good. You should probably put it on like all the shelves. And while of course I am slightly biased because I'm the one who wrote the book, I find it to be the perfect combination of big sister bestie advice for like helping you plan your wedding and actual practical applications of spreadsheets and budget breakdowns, etc., to help you feel really empowered when you plan your wedding. Because I think you should make educated choices when you're spending thousands of dollars. But, you know, that's just me. So if you're interested, I'm going to go ahead and link the US Amazon link right here. But there are multiple links down in the description box for the UK, for Canada. I— my, my publisher was like, just put all the links there. So I've set what might be considered a lofty goal of trying to hit 500 preorders before the book comes out this December, because I think this is going to be an incredible piece of literature for couples getting married to help you plan easy and stress less. So if you want to check that out. Also, I know I don't normally do so many announcements, but if you want to see my cow, hold on for a second. And yes, I mean cow. The amount of comments that were like, you got a cow and you didn't show her to us. Okay, well, we're gonna, we're gonna take a little bit of a field trip and just go say hi to Miss Belle. Meet Belle, everyone say hello Belle. Whatcha doing, mamas? Oh, there it is, there it is, found it. She is 3/4 Jersey, 1/4 Normandy, and she will be our family milk cow. For those of you following along at home, we have milk goats as well. Jury's still out on if we're going to keep milking them or not because we're gonna get a lot from this lady. Don't headbutt me! She loves to headbutt. She loves it. Hi, Mamas! Oh, you sniffing? And she's just so little. You're so little. You're gonna headbutt me, aren't you? Don't do it. So if you hear mooing, it's the baby Belle. Don't do it, you butt head. Okay, that's housekeeping. Back to the video.

I need to preface the story by saying yes, I had my wedding at an Airbnb. I have heard the Airbnb horror stories, but you don't think it's going to happen to you. Nor could I have ever imagined in my wildest dreams that the series of events that occurred would have ever happened in any alternate universe. Okay, let's start back in February 2025.

Okay, what she's referring to here is when Airbnbs will cancel a reservation with like little to no notice at all whatsoever. That could leave couples in a serious lurch. Now, this doesn't just happen with Airbnbs, it just happens with a lot greater frequency with Airbnbs, in my opinion, than it does with regular venues. This is a good— this is a good plugin for insurance, you should probably get some of that, especially if your venue cancels on you. Okay, so you at least get some financial protection there. And as far as I know, I don't think there's a real big legal workaround here if they are able to cancel your event without notice. I would have to see a contract, I'd have to read through it. I'm definitely not a lawyer, but I've read a ton of contracts in my day, so I think it'd be interesting to see the nuance of what the paperwork looks like on something like this. But please, please, please, please, please Always read your contracts. I know they seem boring, but you want to make sure that you're not stuck in a position like this one day.

Okay, we're on Airbnb looking for different properties. We stumbled across this one in Palm Desert and we absolutely fell in love with it. It's 5 acres that had 3 houses on property. It was going to fit our entire family and a couple of close friends. Had 2 pools, a tennis court, like it was just absolutely beautiful and unlike anything else we had found. We shot them a message, told them we wanted to have a wedding, asked if they allow weddings. They said that they did, they just charge like a small event fee. So we immediately book a walkthrough and we go and visit it in person.

Okay, I don't love Airbnbs like this for weddings because if there's a lot of like installations around the property, like a tennis court, a basketball court, those kinds of things, it can end up being really chopped up and hard to host an event with great fluidity. Because typically you'll have your ceremony in one spot, your cocktail in another spot, and then your reception in a third spot, unless you're doing something called a shuffle or a flip, which means you're turning your ceremony space from ceremony into reception requires a lot of people working really fast in a short amount of time to pull that off. So when you're looking at Airbnb properties, I want expanse, okay? I want a vast expanse where we can seat people, ideally 3 different locations for ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception so we don't have to do a flip. Flips are expensive, they're really stressful, and I prefer not to do them if we have a choice. Um, so if you are in the market for an Airbnb venue, make sure you have something with bigger spaces. Um, I'd have to see photos of this specifically, but usually that makes me go, mm, depending on the amount of people, it could get a little clunky.

First kind of weird thing is that we were told somebody was going to meet us in person to do the walkthrough, and nobody ever did. They just like shot us a gate code and like door codes, and we did kind of like a self-guided tour, which actually we were fine with because we didn't want the pressure of like, you know, feeling like we had to book right then and there. So we were like, you know, whatever. A little weird, but it's fine. So after we viewed it, we loved it, we knew we wanted to book immediately. We had a couple follow-up questions that we obviously needed to call them because nobody met us there to do the tour.

Not meeting them there is wild. It's wild. I, I don't love it because you're naturally gonna have questions as you go. Plus, I find that a lot of couples— and please hear this with all the grace in the world— they don't have the creative eye that it takes to invent how the event is going to look when the actual day is going down. So where are you getting ready? Where's the ceremony space? Where's the typical cocktail hour? Where's the typical reception? It might be pretty well laid out, but you still need someone to walk you through the rhythm of the day so you get a really good idea of the experience. So just like letting them on onto the property. I mean, yeah, they got a vibe for it, but they are definitely missing out on having the full experience. Although sometimes venue managers and like tour guides can get a little pushy, so I do see where she's coming from. This is a red flag for me, okay? This is a deep burnt orange.

They had told us right off the bat that the owner was planning on doing construction to the property. No, they told us that they wanted to add on to the property, like add on bedrooms, that they also wanted to do some work outside, like add on some sports fields and some playground equipment. As we were booking the construction had happened, but they knew our wedding would be after the construction had happened. They basically were trying to figure out a rate to charge us because essentially we were going to be getting like a post-construction experience with a pre-construction rate. Does that make sense?

Yep, that makes sense. I hate it.

I hate it.

I hate everything about this. I hate everything about this because what if they take away the ideal spot that you want to get married at? What if you're like, this is the perfect setting, these are the trees we want? What if they take that away? Like, what if they fill in the area of where you want your reception to be with a basketball court? It's just, it's just a different vibe when there's a hoop. That you can't remove. Don't love this. I understand if you're falling in love with the location or you want a lot of people to stay on property. I get it. I do. This is kind of pushing it for me.

They were essentially doing construction so that they could charge more. Long story short, for like 2 months—

also, it's so many thoughts on this and we're like 4 minutes in. My husband works in construction and construction oftentimes does not run on schedule due to delays on the contractors' part, on, on the subcontractors' delays, on shipment of things. So like I don't, I don't love this because like, what if it's not done? What if it's not done? You have no guarantee. This is a bold move.

For like 2 months, every time I would call them, they would say, we still haven't heard from the owner, we're still trying to get an answer from the owner, call back next week. I'd call back next week, they still wouldn't have an answer for me. Literally 2 months goes by where I cannot get an answer from them, and we are just trying to book our wedding because we were almost a year out from when we wanted to get married, which is really when you have to have like the big ticket items like venue, photographer, videographer booked because they literally start booking up. Finally, in May 2025, exactly a year out from our wedding date, they allow us to book. Still didn't have their permits approved, they still didn't have like a guaranteed construction timeline, so they went ahead and just gave us like the pre-construction price, as they should have, because hello, what if the construction didn't happen? But they really framed it as we were getting such a deal because by the time we get married, there's going to be all of these improvements and the construction is going to be done and yada yada, whatever. That's a theme here, okay? I got such a deal. Now, something extremely important to note is at this point I was talking directly with the property management. We had taken all communication off of Airbnb, and I ended up booking directly with property management because there was like a 10% discount because we didn't have to pay the Airbnb fees.

Okay, now this more often than not ends up being a really good thing for both the couple getting married and the owner of the property. I don't know if Airbnb still says no events technically. Um, there was a season where they're like, hey, you can't have events here at all. So I don't know if that's been rescinded. Obviously this whole video series is relatively new, but if you book directly with the venue, oftentimes there is a more ironclad contract than there is with Airbnb. Oftentimes, not always. Read your contracts, please and thank you.

I was no longer protected by Airbnb. Also, this is a full-blown property management company. They have like almost 100 houses out in the desert. It was not some like sketchy little small company. Like, it, it's a legit thing. Okay. I didn't think I was going to need the protection of Airbnb, nor do I even know if that would have helped. So we put our 50% deposit down.

It probably would have helped. It probably wouldn't have helped. Okay, Airbnb— like, this happens with Airbnbs through Airbnb. So like, being through there wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't help out my buddy.

We made sure there was something in our agreement that stated like we needed to be informed of like when the construction started and ended, and that if construction was going to go into our wedding day and the house was basically inhabitable, that the property management company was going to be responsible for placing us in a different home, which was never going to be ideal anyways because none of their other homes compared to this place. Like it was 5 acres and like 10,000 square feet. Yes, they had some other really amazing, beautiful homes, but like nothing else would have really worked that was kind of just there for like a protection for us, you know?

Okay, 5 acres. I feel a little bit better about the space. A little bit better. But again, I don't know, like, I don't know, I haven't seen construction plans. I don't know what their ideas are. All of this is like a walking burnt orange flag. Like, it's not, it's not great. But I understand that couples get really excited about location because they want to create this experience. Where they fall in love with a spot. Like, I get it. I truly do. So I'm not trying to knock on this gal. I'm just using this as a cautionary tale for you guys to— for when you book.

That was my way of thinking like, oh, I really like found a loophole in making sure this Airbnb wedding really happens. Now, when I booked, they informed me that they had a referral program that basically was if I refer anybody to book one of their properties, that person would get 10% off of their booking and I was going to get like 8% of my booking back, which is actually a lot of money when your booking is $8,000. Like 8% back of $8,000 is a good amount of money. I was like, oh, that's amazing. Like, I post content online. Like, I really think a lot of people are going to be interested. I'll probably have a pretty large influx of people interested in this property. Like, what is the best way for us to go about this referral program? So I'm not like completely inundating you guys, but that we can like keep track of who I'm like handing off to you. But they were like, oh my gosh, no problem. Like, all you have to do, shoot us a text with somebody's name, their phone number, their email. We're going to create an account for them. We're going to mark in their account that you are their referral so that at any point in the future if they decide to book, we will know to give them their discount and we will know to give you your discount. And I was like, great, this sounds amazing. Literally the second—

no, this does not sound amazing. Why are you giving the administrative work to the couple that's getting married there? You're getting more business from them. I'm so sorry. This is like, obviously because what I do here, I get sponsorships on occasion and I do affiliate marketing on occasion, don't make the affiliate do all the mental load for you because most people are not going to put forth the effort to try to get this all figured out for you. If you would like this to be an effective program, you need to do the administrative work. So no, why are you having someone text their name and their phone number and whatever other information that you need? Why are you putting the onus on the couple? You guys should be handling this. I don't— I don't— I don't like you. Not you. The venue people.

I posted a video that is currently sitting at 200,000 views on TikTok. 200,000 views of free advertisement for them. Oh, I did not want to inundate them with every random person on TikTok that was commenting saying they were interested. So I was spending hours, hours and hours and hours every single day vetting people. It got to the point that I was messaging people so frequently, just like responding to the inquiries I was getting, that TikTok literally banned me from DMing people because they thought I was doing like something suspicious. The only way I would actually pass someone along as a referral contact to the property management was if somebody had like confirmed they were getting married, confirmed they were local, and confirmed they physically wanted to do a venue walkthrough. Then I would pass along their info so that I was not sending them like literally hundreds of names a day. But even with vetting people, I sent them like dozens and dozens of names and spent all of the time— yes, I was trying to get money back too, but that was also me handing off lots of free customers to them. So from about May to September, everything was business as usual. I have no complaints. I didn't really need them for anything. They didn't really need me for anything. It was kind of quiet. Okay.

She's never seen that money. She's never seen that money. I'm calling it right now. Right now. Right now. This is a lot of administrative work. And if she's sending dozens and 8% off per person, I mean, like, that's, that's a lot. That's a lot. She probably should have gotten a decent chunk off of her overall fee, even though they're already like, you got such a screaming deal. No, if she's bringing in dozens of referrals, and handing them to you on a silver platter. You have warm leads that are already interested in your location. Like, you should be kissing the ground she walks on. All right. This is way better than advertising with something like The Knot or even potentially doing your own social media because she has warmed them up for you. She has primed them. She has made sure that they are ready to potentially book with you. And she's handing you— she's handing you the warmest leads you could possibly be getting.

On September 24th, I'm going through and sending them a couple more referrals and I get this text back from them. It says, just an FYI, for that location, we are no longer accepting new reservations. The owners are doing a major overhaul of the property and wanted us to not take any reservations until they're finished sometime in 2026. In which I respond, thank you so much for letting me know. Is this going to interfere with our current booking in May? Left on read. That was the first time in this wedding planning process that I really shit myself because I'm like, how are you going to drop that bomb on me and then just leave me on read when they— when I asked for reassurance? Like, Hey, like, we're good, right? Like, this isn't going to interfere with our booking. Why would you leave me on read?

Okay. Okay. I feel like I know the avatar of the owner of this property. I feel like I know the avatar. There is— there is a— there is an owner that I had a decent amount of experience with who was just like this. Very wishy-washy. Literally, a couple showed up for their wedding, the rehearsal the night before their wedding, and they were getting ready to pour concrete on the ceremony space. Without telling the couple. And this owner made it like the couple— like it was a good thing. Like, don't worry, we'll have fresh concrete. It might not be ready for you though. It's like no one else has gotten married on it, but it might not be dry in time. Why do these people open wedding venues? I think they just think it's some sort of cash cow and they'll just make a bunch of money, but then are really all over the place with how they want to spend their money and the renovations they want to do to their property. This is— oh, girlfriend, I'm so sad and mad for you. And that's— this explains why it's 3 parts.

Something you're going to notice here is this was a theme, okay? Anytime I needed any type of critical information, no response. Zero response. Ghosted. Phone number, email, texting, doesn't matter. I would not get a response from them. Finally somehow got them on the phone in early October, which was like, again, literally an Olympic event. When I got them on the phone, they didn't really have any new information for me besides like, yeah, business as usual, we're starting construction, you should be fine, is what I kept getting. You should be fine. We scheduled another walkthrough for October 5th because we had to finalize some stuff rentals. And I was like, great, good to go, nothing to worry about. And on October 15th, I received this DM from a random girl on TikTok. It says, hi Brit, I reached out to the company that manages the house you're getting married in, which I was also hoping to rent myself, but they said the owners are going to begin self-managing around January or February. Have you heard about this? Do you maybe have the contact info for the owners? Could you share? Thank you in advance. Why am I finding out this information from a girl on TikTok and not from the place that I have literally booked this venue through? This was now the second time I had shit myself in the wedding planning process. This because let me just explain this to you. Every single written, verbal, any type of agreement I had for this venue was through—

it's through the rental company or through the management company. It's through the management company. I, I'm, I'm calling this Avatar. I know exactly who this type of person is. I don't like this.

The property management. So if the owners— and there was quite literally something in our agreement that said if the owner sold the house or if the owners stopped working with the property management, essentially all of my agreements were null and void. The owner did not need to keep my booking. The owner did not need to honor the price they gave me. My referrals, the dozens and dozens of people I had already sent over to them, that was an agreement with the property management. This was a very big deal. Again, why am I finding out about this from a random girl on TikTok? Now we're 7 months out from our wedding. I'm freaking out. I try calling them. Do I get an answer? Of course not. So I send them this text message. I was just told by someone that I referred over to you guys for the blank property will no longer be managed with you guys and will be turned over to the owners. I was hoping I could get some additional information from you since we have this booked for our wedding and I have already paid 50%. I would also like to find out about the referrals I've sent over and if that will still be honored. Any information would be appreciated. In which they say, right now they've asked us to not take any more reservations and they are upgrading the property and are planning on honoring— again, planning on honoring— any existing reservation. They plan to take over management once they're finished upgrading. Then I say, have any of the referrals I've sent over made bookings? Left on read. It was in October. You can see my next text to them was in December. They literally just never got back to me again. Any time I needed some type of like accountability or answer from them, like he had just texted me, I texted him back 30 seconds later and all of a sudden I can't get a response because now I'm asking about the referrals I've sent them. All right, guys, this is going to be a lot more parts than I anticipated, but I'm at time.

Okay. Okay. Not, not great.

Okay.

We tend to see some turnover with venues and venue management. That's pretty common. If you have a contact at your venue and then that person switches like 2 or 3 times throughout your tenure with them while planning your event, that's common. Some venues are really bad at communication and it drives me insane. I'm like, someone is paying you thousands of dollars to be able to get married on this property. Can you just return an email? A phone call, a text? Is like, is it, is it that complicated to, to reply? Is it too complicated to say, hey, that's over in the owner's court? Like, we can say something. We can say, I don't have information for you, great question, I don't know, let me see if I can get back to you on that. Like, okay, I need coffee. But don't worry, there's more parts.

Part 2 of Where the Fuck Did I Get Married? Over the next few months, I'm trying to call them, I'm trying to text them, I'm trying to get an answer from them on what this whole situation is going to be with the owner's taking over management. Okay. They told me everything should be fine, but that is not reassuring enough when you are literally planning a wedding. My vendors were booked, like save the dates were out. Like I needed definitive answers that everything was going to be fine.

Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I forgot, I forgot, I forgot, I forgot, I forgot. The, the, the whole agreement is null and void if the owners take it back over. That was in the paperwork. That was in the paperwork that you signed. Did we, did we have something else in the paperwork that said you would get a refund? Guys, get cancellation insurance, please. Okay, because, because I, I didn't hear her say that, and that might have happened. It might have happened, but this is like— mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Okay, started gaslighting myself into thinking I was like being annoying and like asking too much. So I like, I took a step back, but in December I actually reached out to them for like an unrelated issue and actually got a response from them for the first time. So I was like, ooh, I need Why don't you take advantage of this? And I sent them this text message. I said, when is a good time for me to call and speak to someone regarding our booking? I know in January that Airbnb is supposed to be managed by the owner. When will we get information on this transition? Left on read every time. Left on read. Mind you, I find out later in the wedding planning process that one singular man, the man I had spoken to every single time, his sole job was to respond to text messages, answer phone calls, respond to emails. Okay, why am I not getting a text back or a call back? I don't know, I couldn't tell you. Finally, on January 26th, I get to the point where I'm like, I am so desperate for a response. Phone call isn't working, texting isn't working, I'll email. I'll take it back old school. I'm gonna send you a full-blown email. Leave it on the screen, you can pause and read. But basically I was like, I have not—

hold on, hold on. Hi, my name is Brittany and I have a booking at blank from April 30th to May 3rd. I have been trying to get a hold of property management for quite a while and have not received calls or texts back. We have gotten word a few months back about management being handed off to the owners of the property. I was hoping to get an update or timeline on this so we know who to communicate with moving forward. Additionally, I've sent over quite a few referrals. Have any of these people booked, and will you still be honoring the referral reimbursement we had discussed? If it's easier to have a phone call, feel free to give me a call at blank. Thank you, Brittany. Paper trail, people. Paper trail is very important. I mean, they might not respond, but at least, at least you made a trail.

I have not been able to get a hold of anybody. What is going on? Like, I need help. SOS. Did I get a response? I did not. I didn't get a response. I think the day after this, I gave it one last shot. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna pick up pick up the phone. I'm feeling good. I finally get them on the phone. Mind you, this is 3 months after they have dropped that bomb on me about the owners taking over. This is 4 months before we get married, okay? Tensions are high. Like, that, that's cutting it way too close for me. So I finally get answers. First things first, they ultimately decided that the owners won't be taking over management. So the 3 months of stress and making myself sick and not sleeping for nothing. But overall good news, also tells me that the construction is officially done. This is very important, okay? This is January, and I told, the construction is done, complete. He told me that they added on 3 bedrooms, they added in the softball field, they added in the football field, and yeah, I think that was it. But officially construction is done.

No, it's not. No, it's not. It's not done.

Also shared with me, we're on the phone, as an FYI, like, oh, just so you know, I know things have been really turbulent and like it's been changing, like just know this isn't usual, but, um, the owner really wants to get out of the wedding industry. He hates doing weddings. It's just too much work. It's, it's too much liability. So like, just so you know, in the future we're not going to be taking weddings, and like, we're honoring current weddings. And like, I'm sitting there like, okay, like, why are you sharing this level of information with me?

And I literally on the phone was like, but we're fine, right?

Like, like, I get it, you don't want to do future weddings, but like, we're fine. He was like, oh yeah, yeah, like, the owner is planning on, you know, honoring reservations. Again, I kept getting that language, the owner is planning. Like, I don't like that. Tell me yes yes, it's fine, or no, it's not fine. Like, the planning to— like, we're 4 months out. Like, we need a little bit more than planning to.

Did I call it, or did I call it? Can I get it? Can I get a 'you were right' in the comments? Can I get a 'you were right'? It's, it's these, it's these like persnickety bored people with too much money, and then they get really frustrated when people are like in their building or like wanting things from them. But they would just like want the property to make money when they're not there, but then they don't want to be bothered at all. I don't get it. Can you tell I've dealt with a few of these? What is happening?

Then finally, for the fifth time, I'm like, okay, sir, now that I have you on the phone, can you please tell me if any of my referrals have booked? I shit you not, this is what this man tells me. Oh yeah, you know, it's just, it's really hard to know who has booked that's one of your referrals versus like somebody that's booked that's just like an organic customer. I shit you not, he told me that. I was like, um, you guys told me you had a referral program. You guys told me what you needed to keep track of of it. You guys told me you were going to be making an account for everyone, you'd be making a note, and now you just don't know? Now that I've sent you dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of names, you don't know who I've referred to you? Like, what?

Okay, I guarantee you they didn't realize that it would have this big of reach, and they started looking at the numbers and were like, well, we're gonna give her a free wedding at this point. Like, and how do you not know? You look at the list, you obviously aren't taking on any more customers as of whatever month you were like, hey, FYI, don't refer us anymore. And she's like, okay. Now she's being told the, the owner wants out of the wedding business. Okay, that doesn't matter to me. Can you take a list of the people who have booked with you? There's only 52 weekends a year, and if you book it for the weekend, then it can't be that hard to look at the list that have booked. And the list that I sent, I will happily resend it for you. Or if you want to, if it's not an inappropriate, um, you know, breach of confidence or whatever, if you want to send me the list, I'll highlight the ones I sent over and I'll, I'll cross-reference the list that I have. You know, you could then— I, I'll, I'll do it for you because at 8% back per couple that books with you, um, I am chasing this rabbit down this rabbit hole and I'm figuring this out. I would bet money that she sent so many couples that they like panicked and had to rescind that, and now they're just playing dumb.

I'm getting re-triggered retelling the story, guys. I'm— I was like, how about this? What if I take the entire list? Like, this was all in a text message thread. So I was like, what if I take that entire list of names I've sent you guys and compile it into a nice little neat email and send it to you? Like, will that help you? Like, will you be able to audit these names and tell me if anybody's booked? And he was like, oh, you know what, that would work. And I I was like, okay, so even though I'm in the peak of wedding planning and I've, I've already done all of this work, I took the time to sit down and copy and paste every single contact I had sent to them into an email in a pretty little package and sent it his way. Um, did I get a response? No. I think I waited like a week or two, emailed him again. Did I get a response? No. I was at like peak annoyance at this point. I'm like, why can I literally just never get a hold of anybody? How come it's like the second I need an answer to anything, I can't get a response? And I was being so low maintenance. Like, I was not asking for any special accommodations because we were doing a wedding. Like, I was simply asking them to hold up their end of the bargain of like the agreement they have with anybody that books with them. And 2 days later, everything comes to a peak. On January 29th, I get a text message from a girl named Cassidy. Hello Cassidy! We are trauma bonded now. I am so glad she reached out to me because we are the only 2 people on this earth that have experienced this experience together. This is the first time I have a confirmation that somebody I have referred over has in fact booked. She booked the venue. She was planning on getting married end of March. I was like, wow, wow, would you, would you look at that? Apparently I have referred people over to them. But most importantly, she was texting me some photos because they updated the photos on Airbnb to show me that they put in the softball field and the football field, which they had told me about. Um, but specifically where it was placed was like exactly where we were both planning on getting married. Like there's these these beautiful trees we're gonna get married under, and basically the entire softball field netting was going to block any— like, it was gonna be the background of any photos.

So I freaking called it a freak. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. This is why if you don't see the construction plan— I, I knew this was gonna happen. I knew this was gonna happen, especially with an owner who is like not thinking of how weddings are gonna look or be perceived or be photographed. So anytime you're working with a quote venue outside of an actual venue, they may not be thinking in the overall aesthetic. Aesthetics. Many, many venues capitalize on aesthetic moments. Gorgeous trees, really pretty ceremony location. Some install chapels or buildings with giant windows to really make sure you're getting the most artistic and aesthetic bang for your buck. If you're going with a bored billionaire's home in Palm Springs, he's not going to care about the aesthetics of what's happening here, especially if there's already sports fields or sports park type things. I'm not a sporty girl, I don't know, whatever, whatever. There, if they're already there and they're saying he's going to add more, then it's very likely going to cause a detriment to your wedding's look.

She had told me like, just a heads up, like, I want you to know this is going on, like, I'm crashing out, like, you know. So we're like bonding over it. Honestly, I was not too concerned about the football and softball fields because Tyler's a big kid, like, he wanted our wedding to feel like summer camp, so like he was excited about it. It was more just like an annoyance that like we had to move our wedding around of where we had anticipated putting it. But at the end of the day, it was an Airbnb, it wasn't a wedding venue, and I was again trying to be positive and understanding. And like, I— it wasn't something I was planning on throwing a fit over, to be honest. Now then, she shares with me that she actually got a $1,900 refund for the inconvenience of them putting in the softball field because she was going to need to bring in additional rentals.

Hold on, hold on, I want to be able to read this. By the way, I put up a fight with the venue and was able to $1,900 back on our reservation. I don't know if you've talked to them much, but it's worth a shot. I just explained all the extra costs we were going to incur due to the changes of the home. They also renovated the main house and added 3 more bedrooms. LOL. Okay, okay, okay. Uh, this is very real. Even when a venue changes ownership— I will never forget, I know, I know I've told this brief, like, the story briefly here on this channel once before. Um, this couple booked a very aesthetic, very gorgeous venue just outside Laguna Beach, California, and someone else came in and purchased it and painted everything like super vibrant colors. You know the exact location that I'm talking about if you drive through the canyon in Laguna. So vibrant that the couple was like, this is not at all what I want, or what we pictured, or what we signed up for. This is a completely different aesthetic. And unfortunately, in that circumstance, there's literally nothing that we could do, and they just had to get married in a place that was super brightly colored as opposed to that gorgeous, like, creamy adobe white that's on so many of the historic buildings in Southern California. Just listen, it was brutal, man.

She and me too, we were planning on like stringing lights from the trees and having that as like decor. So she was gonna have to bring in additional rentals. She had to go visit the venue another time to see like what had changed.

Sure.

And I was like, wow, that is very good information to know. We chatted for a while, we compared notes, we were literally on the same wavelength. They're the worst to communicate with, they lie about all kinds of stuff. Then she shares with me, oh, did they mention that they are actually canceling weddings? They had told her—

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Did they tell you they canceled other weddings? Mine is March 28th and they told me I'm their very last wedding at the property because the owners want to do them anymore, and that's why they put in sports field to attract a different type of audience. What?! My wedding is May. They literally said they canceled every wedding after mine starting in April and that I quote just snuck in. I'm crashing out and I'm not even involved in this.

What? That she was the last wedding at that venue. Guess what? She was getting married in March. I was getting married in May. So what do you mean she's the last wedding at that venue when I literally just spoke with them 2 days prior and I was told everything should be fine? Again, why am I finding out information from Girly Pops on TikTok and why are they not contacting me to let me know? That is something I will never get over. So then she sends me this message where she said, I literally asked about you and they said that. And I was like, oh, I found you you guys from Britt on TikTok. I know her wedding isn't until after mine. And they were like, uh, we probably didn't cancel it because she's an influencer and didn't want backlash. First of all, I never told these people I was an influencer. They don't even know who I am. I can't even get on the phone with them, okay? The only time I ever mentioned anything was when they told me they had the referral program and I said, oh, I create content online, so I'm sure I'll get a large influx of people that are curious about this venue. I don't call myself an influencer.

Well, that, that's the same thing to them. Like, that's the same thing. So it doesn't matter if you— I also don't like the term influencer. I hate it. In fact, I call myself a content creator, okay? And that's very different, right? Because I only influence you to buy my book. I'll link it here again, and it's in the description box below. Um, but you basically told them that you were gonna send a large influx of people. So like, yeah, and if you didn't want backlash, maybe, maybe, per chance Much like last week's story, if you don't want backlash, um, maybe just offer good services, okay? And don't lie. What a novel experience. There is no way we're gonna fit all this into one video. Oh my gosh.

I don't just like give that information out for free. Like, I'm pretty sure they were just talking out of their ass. They don't know who I am. I don't think they've ever seen any of my videos. I don't even think they've seen the video I've made about the venue. Like, I just— I feel like it's just always like lie after lie after lie.

I bet they looked her up. I bet they looked her up. And when she said she's gonna send a large influx of people, like I don't think that's keeping it a secret. I think that's letting them know that like, hey, oh, I, I like— what you inadvertently said was, I have a following online, which is fine, that's totally fine. And then I bet they saw your name and looked you up because why? We people be nosy as heck. And they probably saw your following, saw the video of you sending everyone their way because they want to see what kind of press you're giving them, right? What kind of free press you're giving them. So yeah, of course they looked you up, of course they saw your following number, and they went, oh yeah, we can't piss this one off, okay? So I don't think that's lying. I think they 100% stalked you, just, just a little, just a little bit.

I think they were trying to make her feel special and make her feel like they weren't canceling her wedding, but there was no reason they were keeping my wedding. And I just, I don't know, like, it, it literally blows my mind. So that was the first time I had actually heard that they were literally canceling people's weddings. They were offering them like, you can pay a $20,000 event fee or we'll cancel. And so they literally started canceling people's weddings, which there was literally a pit in my stomach where I'm like, that was my worst nightmare. And to hear confirmation that they were doing that to other people— people had potentially referred over, mind you— not like that makes me feel like shit and look like shit that I'm like referring people to this venue and then they're canceling their wedding. Anyways, while I was talking to her and while we were trauma bonding over the fact that they're the worst, she had shared with me that she had gotten a contact at the property management that was actually helpful, a sweet empathetic person that was not the same guy we both kept getting in contact with. Let's just call that person Sarah for the sake of this video. She shares Sarah's information with me and I'm like, thank God, I'm calling Sarah today. I'm literally so nervous and sick over the fact that I've heard people's weddings are getting canceled. Going to follow up about this refund situation. I'm going to follow up about this referral situation because I need answers. I get Sarah's number, immediately try getting in contact with her. I leave her voicemail, she texts me back. I will say overall Sarah was relatively helpful. She was very sweet. It just felt like there was a lot of like very sweet, kind words being shared and still very little action on her part. That's kind of like my biggest gripe with her to this point. I would get the, oh my god, I'm 100% gonna call you today, and then she doesn't get back to me till 8 PM when I'm like sitting on the couch with Tyler. Be like, oh no, no, I'm for sure gonna call you today now. Then it would be like 7:30 and she's like, are you free tonight? It just felt very unprofessional. Like, why are you getting back to me at 8 PM at night when like you're telling me you're gonna call me, you're gonna give me answers?

Mm, this is— it just smacks of unprofessionalism. You're not a priority. You're not a priority. She's making herself sound super busy, and maybe she is. Maybe she is truly that busy, but she lacks follow-through and lacks professionalism. So, um, this whole venue experience is a walking red flag. So I know you say that she's being nice. I would argue that she's using nice language to appear that way, um, but she's not actually being nice. She's not actually being— she's just using nice words. And I think there's a a big difference.

Finally, on March 9th, I get on the phone with her. She's very sweet. She apologizes for everything. She immediately talks shit on the man I've been speaking to this entire time with the property management. Apparently they all do. Apparently they all say that he's the worst, and they laugh at the fact that like his job is customer service but like he can't even answer phones, get back to text messages. So again, weird, a little unprofessional because she had also shared that with Cassidy, but confirmation that like yes, he is the worst and he has not been communicative up until this point.

Okay, so now she's like using nice language and she's gossip. That's great. She's gossipy about her team instead of being like, I'm so sorry you've had this experience with this person. Um, I have heard, I have heard potentially, um, that happening with more than just you. So, uh, unfortunately it's not individualized in your case, and I'll do my best to see what we can do moving forward. I don't even know if I'd be so bold to say that. I would just say, I'm so sorry that's been your experience. Like, let's, let's, let's cut him out of the equation and you and I just work together and we'll see what we can figure out moving forward. That's probably how I would handle it. Not this, like, whatever this situation is. But I think, I think this gal, this new Sarah person, is just manipulative enough that she knows she can twist the language to make Brittany feel like they're on the same side. Right. And make sure Brittany's not mad at her without actually giving her anything. It's all fluff. It's all fluff language. There's no actual progress that's happening here. Okay. Okay.

She told me to forward her the email of all referrals and that she was going to look at it. She told me that I was also eligible for the same refund that Cassie cost they got because we needed to bring an additional rental. So I was like, great, I'll start looking at draping. There's all kinds of stuff I can look into bringing in to like cover up the softball field. So I was like super appreciative. Got me scheduled for a third and final walkthrough so I could see the changes that they had made. And she was just like, I've got you from here on out. Like, from here on out, you're good, you're taken care of, you're in good hands. Like, we are not gonna let this go awry. Like, we're gonna make sure your wedding's perfect. We're so sorry it hasn't been perfect up until this point. And I was like, I was on a high. I'm like, thank God this finally happened. 2 months out from the wedding, like, I felt so reassured and like finally we were making progress. Was on March 9th. I check in on March 13th. Hey Sarah, do you have any updates on my referrals? You know, some catastrophic event came up in her life, she didn't have it for me. I follow up on March 18th. Hey Sarah, do you have any updates for me? Still nothing. Then finally I hear back from her on March 19th, said yes, I had one referral, which I kind of had figured knowing that they canceled people's weddings that they weren't booking future weddings that like the likelihood of anyone besides Cassidy booking was really low. But I was just like finally reassured that they were acknowledging that, yes, in fact, I had referred one person over to them, that I was going to get my 8% back. Like, I was just like, I just wanted that validation, you know? Cassidy's wedding was the last weekend of March. I had booked my final walkthrough on that Sunday right after she checked out. I get a DM from her on her wedding weekend. Hey, I don't want to freak you out. Oh no, make you stressed, but She got to the venue and not only did they also add in like 7 or 8 pieces of playground equipment in the last—

hold on, girl, I don't want to stress you, but we just checked in, they added a whole playground and mini golf under the trees. They've been putting us through the wringer this morning, changing so many things they originally promised. Brittany responded back, girl, I've been meaning to message you and wish you luck. What did they change?

7 or 8 pieces of playground equipment in the last spot that we had planned to get married. They also added in a Wedding Green, but they also took out 9 beds. 9 beds. She had showed up for her wedding to 9 beds missing, gone. Mind you, I was told back in January that construction was done. Now in March, she shows up for her wedding to that shit. All right guys, I should be able to finish this in part 3.

Okay, okay, don't, don't don't hate me, don't hate me. We have to do— we have to do this in two parts. It is way too long. There's too much happening. I don't have a moral of the story yet. I am on pins and needles. You see me? I'm on pins and needles trying to get this. Oh, what's our takeaway? One, buy my book, okay? Buy my book. It'll help you plan your wedding as stress-free as possible, okay? And as a reminder, all the links are in the description. Uh, two, read your contracts, read your contracts, read your contracts. Three, cancellation insurance. Wedding insurance. Get it, get it. Okay, okay. 4, this is actually a really good case study for why having a wedding planner advocate for you can remove a lot of stress from the situation. Because, um, if this was my client, I would be the one having this conversation. I'd be the one stepping up being like, hi, I'm so sorry, what? Or do you have a construction schedule that we could take a peek at? Or do you have any drawings or renderings or maybe something from your architect that would tell us what, what we could anticipate the grounds to look like afterwards? We'd love to hear your vision so we can figure out how the wedding like works within the space of what it will look like. Um, it's fine if you don't have any like rough drawings, but if you could keep us apprised on the overall construction schedule and what things are looking like, that'd be great. We'd really appreciate it. Um, and being real direct of like, hey, this will affect our event, this will affect my client, this will affect what it looks like. So we just want to make sure that the overall aesthetic integrity of these locations are staying the same. So if you find yourself in a situation where a venue starts to mention construction, which— oh gosh, I was reading something on Reddit the other day where this couple booked a historic, like, manor or castle, and then after they booked the castle, decided to start renovations on the exterior of the building and had scaffolding around the entire thing that was too laborious to put up and take down for events. So this gorgeous, gorgeous moment they were hoping to have outside this old beautiful venue, um, is, is literally scaffolded It's just, it's all pipes. It's all pipes and it's all not cute. It's not cute at all whatsoever. So this does happen outside of Airbnbs. If you hear a whisper of construction happening, you have every right to ask these questions. In fact, I highly encourage you to ask these questions. If you have a wedding planner, have them ask on your behalf. If you're feeling a little meek or a little nervous, like this gal was talking about how easygoing she was, I think she should have been a little bit more firm with them. 'Give me more details. I'm now beginning to have less faith in your ability to host my event in the way that was promised in our contract, in all of our conversations, and all of our meetings together. So if you could take a few minutes out of your day to reassure me that our event will still look and feel the same way that we were told it's going to feel, that would be great.' I don't know, something along those lines of like getting a little bit more firm. But I know that's not everyone's personality, so I'm not trying to make her behave or act in a way that doesn't feel aligned. But if she didn't, then someone else should. Okay, okay. Okay, don't hate me, we're gonna have to wait for a part 2 because the next part is 18 whole minutes. Okay, so stay tuned for next week. If you haven't done so already, jump on down there, hit the like button if you like the video, and subscribe to this channel for more tips and tricks for the modern-day bride. And make sure you don't miss the massive update. I peeked, I peeked. Okay, I kind of know what's coming. I kind of know what's coming and you're gonna need to know it too. Okay, and so until next week, bye guys!