The bridal car that never came
It’s been almost a year since my last post. Sorry about that, I’ve been pretty busy with my day job and other blogs. That’s why I’m opening this blog for contributions… If you’re interested, feel free to send me an email! 
Funny, the first post I’ll made after such a long hiatus would be this. But you see, something like this shouldn’t really happen — there are so many ways it could have been avoided, and yet, it still happened.
Last December, my husband and I attended the wedding of our friends, Aileen and Jay. As a guest, we were very impressed with the way their wedding turned out. Not surprising really, as Aileen and Jay were very hands-on in planning their wedding. Everything went smoothly, save for one: their bridal car did not show up.
Aileen and Jay hired Jack and Jenn Catering to service their bridal car needs. They were supposed to pick up Aileen from the hotel and bring her to the Church, but they never came. The couple desperately tried contacting the supplier, but they were not answering their calls. Aileen had to use the taxi she hired to shuttle things around. Imagine that: taking a taxi to your wedding! Luckily, it was a white taxi. But that wasn’t the worse.
We really had no idea that such boo-boo happened. Well, not until the end of the reception, that is. My fellow blogger friends and I stayed behind a bit after the reception during clean-up, and thank goodness we did. Because as it turned out, Aileen and Jay didn’t have a ride going back to the hotel.
Unfortunately, the old second-hand Toyota Corolla my husband and I brought to the wedding took such an opportune moment to break down (our car was a victim of Ondoy, so we had no choice but to use a second-hand car until the parts we ordered from Hyundai arrives). The break pads were shot while we were parking at the church, so my husband had to bring it to a nearly car repair shop and pick it up after the reception. But the problem was, the car wasn’t ready until the evening. Aileen and Jay’s reception was done by 2pm, so waiting for the car was out of the question. Luckily though, Juned was there to offer help: his spanking red Tamaraw FX delivery van.
Photo by Blogie Robillo
Juned and I thought that Aileen would be changing out of her wedding gown before we left the reception venue. We were shocked when she said her clothes were at the hotel.
So there. In the absurdity of the situation, we couldn’t do anything else about it but just joke around amongst ourselves as we escorted the newly-weds to their hotel. To add insult to injury, another pair of newly-weds got off their sparkling white bridal car right in front of us at the hotel lobby, while our wedding couple got off a delivery van.
I was lucky that when Marc and I got married, one of our principal sponsors volunteered her Mercedes Benz for our bridal car. We experienced some minor mishaps like some technical issues with the background music of the reception presentation, but nothing really significant. I don’t know what I could have done if I were in their situation.
What Jack and Jenn Catering did to our friends was horrible. Just imagine the stress and embarrassment the couple experienced. After the wedding day, Aileen and Jay were finally able to contact the supplier. The couple had to demand that supplier personally hand over their refund and meet with them. Their excuse was that a staff member had to take a sudden leave. But the thing is, they booked way ahead of time and Jay even followed up with them days before the wedding. You’d expect that even if somebody in the staff had to take a leave, adjustments should have been made. For more information, take a look at Aileen’s post on her wedding blog.
I have to admire Aileen and Jay for the calm way they handled the situation. No use ruining a wedding day for an incompetent supplier.
I review a lot of wedding suppliers in this blog, as its main purpose is to help couples plan their wedding in some way or another. And I definitely won’t recommend Jack and Jenn Catering.
Posted in Bridal Car, Real Brides, Styling Guide, Wedding Essentials
8 Comments
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we’ve already got married married in civil last july 2008. And now we’re planning a church wedding this dec, and it will be held in St. marc in UPLB. There were also cottages and reception there at the middle of the mt. makiling. The place is just like forks in twilight. A forest inspired wedding. the chappel is very unique, the reception, well its emelda marcos inspired place, the laguna de bay is overlooking all around the place. The place is very amazing and its very affordable.
I wasn’t expecting this wedding is from Philippines until I heard the word Ondoy.
Curse for the car for rent that did not come.
Ohh that was so sad for Ms Aileen’s wedding. She deserve the best for that day.
Hay nakooo… the never ending wedding nightmares! hehehe… =) got married 2 years ago and glad sanay kami ni hubby na hands-on lahat. salamat sa help ng aming mga relatives and everything went well naman. =)
reg wedding nightmares, have heard so many bad reviews about this wedding coordinator: Bells and Doves Event Management – one stop shop of everything from cakes, flowers, catering, tents, photobooth, etc. and just would like to warn everyone not to hire them because i heard na may nag-sue na daw sa kanila na client nila dahil after hiring them for full coordination – palpak daw ang buong wedding. pati groom naiyak since they spend 500k for the wedding plus other damages. sobrang di daw maaasahan yung reign tanjutco and husband. tapos heard another story na pati daw photobooth super low quality. parang may naghawak lang ng camera and take pics sa corner and they call it already a photobooth. even the invites daw parang pinrint lang sa printer sa bahay tapos binebenta na nila. tapos have seen another comment from a blog na yung coordinator daw end up as guests lang during the wedding halos walang natulong. paano kaya sila nakakatulog sa dami ng mga naloloko nila. please be warned. kawawa mga couple na nabibiktima nila!
hi =)
we’re planning to have our church wedding on March 2011.
please, do you have photo gallery of your designs for wedding dresses from bridal gown to the flower girls’? appreciate if you could send them to my email.
thank you and more power to you =)
cheers!
Hi to Rica!! kukunin din kasi namin ung bells and doves. nakapag-down na kami last sat.. paano ba naging nightmaire ung wedding? baka year 2008 pa yun kaya ganun/ pero nung 2009 ok na rin nmn ung mga feedback sakanila.. Please message me. D ba sila nag-cocoordinate
Yes there are a lot of coordinators na mahirap kausap and di marunong mag PR sa client. In fairness naman sa Bells & Doves ok naman ang service nila sa kasal ng cousin ko last January full coordination din ang kinuha sa kanila. We saw blogs na binabanggit sila pero we gave them a chance. Considering na yung cousin ko nakabase pa sa Canada and online lang transactions nila and payments naging smooth naman transactions. Nakukulitan lang kami minsan kasi panay ang followup nila sa decisions ng cousin ko at dumadaan sa akin most of the time lalo na pag busy ang cousin ko. Their staff are respectful naman and they follow instructions.
Me and my fiance was online this morning and the owner and my fiance talked on the phone and namention nila na there was this blog na nabanggit din ng client nila. Binigay nila itong url and syempre as a satisfied client we have to defend them din kasi di naman ganun ang na experience namin. We have transactions with them kasi about our wedding which will be held this November. So far wala naman kami problem kasi sila din Coordinator, Photobooth and Photo & Video namin. Our prenup pictorial is scheduled on the 30th of this month. It is ok to react naman pero we also have to be cautious and responsible lalo na if hearsay ang isusulat. The owner herself kasi is a lawyer and when we had our 2nd meeting, she showed us demand letters that they wrote to those people who wrote things over the net. One already had a court decision and was subjected to pay them P 70,000 for damages. Slunder ang case and there was one case na malapit na matapos. And sila mismo may mga clients, suppliers and coordinators na hinahabol until now kasi di nagsettle sa kanila ng obligations like sa tent rental nila which was held 2 weeks ago sa QC na di nagbayad and sa gowns na natapos na ang kasal na may balance pa sa kanila.
I would still recommend them pero syempre everybody has to decide on their own. The 1st transaction that we had with them was really suntok sa buwan kasi syempre we don’t know them yet and read things about them pero this 2nd transaction, our very own wedding, kampante na kami. Di rin siguro sila tatagal sa business if ganun ang issue sa kanila di ba?
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