Passive, Unresponsive and Preoccupied
Cherelle presented herself very well to us, and we were excited to work with her due to her experience with African weddings and relevant contacts. We chose the 'Partial Planning' option after a brief conversation due to the fact our wedding was in less than four months and we weren't in the country at the time.
Within three weeks, we downgraded to 'Month-of' planning. Cherelle's unresponsiveness to our queries about suppliers and unwillingness to engage with with suppliers directly to discuss options and negotiate led to my wife and I finding all of the suppliers ourselves (except hair and makeup) and managing all discussions and negotiations with these suppliers from Canada on a different timezone. We were recommended far more suitable suppliers for free from our wedding photographer (Carla Thomas - Amazing!) and the events manager at our venue.
Cut to the month-of, we had hoped this would be Cherelle's time to shine - taking control of the whole ordeal and letting us prepare ourselves for the arriving family and friends. No such luck. Cherelle's responsiveness barely improved - in the week of our wedding she took over 12 hours to respond to simple queries and was only available for a phone call once. She told us that she had a 'manic' day, clearly preoccupied with her other work. We did not feel this was acceptable in the week leading up to our wedding, and it caused us considerable stress. Such was our frustration that we considered dismissing her three days before the wedding, but we held on as we needed her and her assistant to help set-up and tear-down the venue.
On the day, things weren't much better. Cherelle was sheepish, unavailable and passive. Her assistant Nadia set up the venue nicely and coordinated the caterer's arrival well, but never did we see Cherelle take charge, despite numerous small-to-medium-sized hiccups.
To summarise, though we have tried both Cherelle's available planning packages, we are still unclear on exactly what planning services she actually provides, she and her assistant were helpful enough on the day, but we really wish we had gone with someone else.