This woman is a scam artist!!!! If you cherish your sanity, want to remain stress free and want to keep money in your pocket, stay away. My wedding is in July, not in March as reported on this site, but I can't allow her to do to others what she has done to me. She took my money and disappeared. she has done nothing a wedding planner is supposed to do. She has lied over and over again about why she was unable to complete tasks. She eventually disappeared with my money. She will not return any calls or emails. I even went to her place of business, I thought it was her place of business, instead it was her poor grandmothers home. Had I known it was this elderly womans home, i would never have gone. Now i see she has changed the name as of March 8, 2012 to EW Corp and deleted the name elite-weddings and events, changed her number and the business address...Joan Cummings you are not fooling anyone anymore!!!!! This woman Joan Cummings or Joanne Gallo which ever one she is today is a scam artist..please be very cautious of her....she deserves a negative -5 as her overall rating.

Okay so my wedding is not February!!!!! however I felt the urgency to write this post to prevent other couples from experiencing the mess that my fiance and I are now dealing with.

I made the decision to hire Ms. Joanna Gallo based on the reviews that I read on this site. I seat here today and ask my self if she herself wrote these reviews, or did she just become unprofessional when she signed my contract.

To make a long story short, I was forced to terminated my contract with Ms. Gallo 3 months before my wedding due to her lack of providing services. We signed our contract in July 2011. From July- December Ms. Gallo failed to meet as planned. She forgot about most of our meeting or canceled due to emergencies.

When I expressed my concerns about her lack of service she assured me that her services will be delivered. I contacted vendors which she listed under the vendor section on "my wedding work book" and they had no deposits for my event. When I asked Joanna about this she indicated that those vendors were only for "referrals"-- Now why would I need referrals if you are in charge of booking these vendors???.. I requested receipts and contact numbers of other people in her team as she seemed unreliable. She provided a phone number for her "business partner" Edwin-- which til this day I call and he never answers (oh I left several of messages). After this incident she continued to forget about our meetings thus I decided to withhold payment until we met in person.

On January 8, 2012 my fiance and I met with Ms. Gallo across the street from her home which she claims is her office. (Let me not forget she was never available to meet outside of Astoria because it was more convenient for her. she only met with meet once in the city-- mind u!! this was a rescheduled meeting, because of course she forgot about the original meeting). On 1/8/12 yet another emergency occurred with Ms. Gallo she came to the meeting looking disheveled and unprepared. No receipts, No vendor list, No vendor contact info. While I understand that emergencies happen this seemed to be pattern with Joanna.

Is obvious that she failed to carry her contractual duties. On 1/8/12 I requested for Ms. Gallo to refund me a total 2,100.00 which was paid to her from July- November 2011. HAVE NOT HEARD FROM HER SINCE. I sent her emails, text messages, called her, facebooked and reported her to the BBB (No caLL NO SHOW).. I finally received a TEXT MESSAGE from her on FEB 6, 2012 indicating that she mailed out termination contract.. Today is FEB 18 and I have yet received anything from Ms. Gallo. Perhaps, because she had until 2/20/12 to get in touch to avoid a civil suit.

While I am not questioning her work(because I have not seen it) is apparent that Joanna Gallo is unprofessional, thus not the appropriate person to run such business. She had no empathy as in one of her emails she indicated that she was booked for 22 events. In addition that she worked with brides with budgets of 150,000. So my wedding budget is not 150,000 but as a customer I still should had been treated with professionalism. 3 Months before my wedding I am left with 2100.00 less from my budget.

So if these are not enough reasons NOT TO HIRE ELITE WEDDINGS.... GOOD LUCK!!!

NOTE:: RATINGS ARE 0 because she doesn't deserve close to 1