I should have known that this was not the wedding planner for me when after giving her the deposit for wedding planning services she refused to go to my first choice wedding venue with me and my fiance for a tour.
I planned a large and expensive semi-destination wedding in Miami while working full-time and living in New York for a little over a year. During this time, Alice Villar provided little to no guidance with respect to invitations, decor, design, timing issues (we had a gap period issue that dragged on for months until my sister came up with a solution), favors, negotiating with vendors (I often went back after she gave me a price and negotiated a better one) and she generally left all of the details and planning to me and my family. The only items she handled on her own was ordering the dance floor and stage as I did not know the customary sizes for these items at my venue. I swept these pre-planning issues under the rug, hoping that she would really shine and step-up on my wedding day so that I could enjoy my wedding stress-free. Unfortunately, I could enumerate several things that we had gone over several times, for over a year, that were carelessly left undone or sloppily put together at the last minute, but I will just name the two major issues that bring me to this review. 1) She told me she would not be at the bridal prep so she could go to my venue and oversee the set-up. I later found out, she did not go to the venue, and the dance floor and stage she ordered were too small to accommodate the guests and $11,000 band, but it was too late (or she just didn't want) to fix these issues when she arrived at the venue after my ceremony. 2) Envelopes with cash gifts from trusted family friends that were given to her assistant with specific instructions for safekeeping were missing from the cards we received on the wedding day.
Several of the other wedding vendors told me after the wedding that they would not have recommended her to me. Only one of the vendors warned me about her about 2 weeks before the wedding and at that stressful point I didn't have the time to give this potential issue the attention I should have and I never thought the issues would rise to this level.
Thankfully, because of the love and work of my friends and family, I had a beautiful and memorable wedding that I will cherish forever, but it is extremely hurtful when you let someone into your special, initimate wedding day and they treat you and your family so dishonestly and disrespectfully.
If you have already hired her, I recommend double-checking anything and everything she has handled herself and go over where and when she will be at your wedding events.
If you haven't hired her, I would not recommend it. You'll be better off on your own or going with someone else.
Good luck brides, it's tough out there, but your wedding will be worth it!