So as if planning a wedding in 4 months time on no budget (mind you, anything less than 30k in California is “no budget”!!!!) with no wedding dress (yet) & all the lunacy & gymnastics that go into any stressful-large scaled event weren’t enough…on top of EVERYTHING ELSE, our caterer for our after ceremony “elixir soiree” has just flown the coup!!!

Yes, you read right. She became all unglued when she learned that the ceremony venue, in BH, requires her to have a City of Beverly Hills Business license. (From what I have learned, this is PAR FOR THE COURSE for every event professional who works in Bev Hills, costs $91 & is good for a year. Apparently, she told VeganGroom at the venue walk-through that we should pay for her business license! When he requested that she look further into it to see if it was solely for a one-time use, or a general benefit for her company, she came back w/the concern (irrational) that doing our event & getting the BH business license would cause her to have to pay approx. $1,000 in taxes, which “wasn’t worth it” for an event where she’d be making “so little”. (Mind you, she claimed to be “charging us rock bottom rates” but was, in actuality charging VERY INFLATED rates for the amount & quality of food we were talking… (much of it looked microwaved, I’ll post pics soon…however we were overwhelmed, had not much time & were desperate) 4 small appetizers, 2 fruit drinks, small tray of fruit & water, for 75 people, totaling nearly $1,000 w/all said & done. As an aside….whoever heard of paying $1,000 in taxes for an event where you didn’t even make $1,000 BEFORE expenses?..hmmm, shady macgrady sounding if you ask me…)

However the larger problem, besides the sheer lunacy of not being prepared to have a business license for the city you’re working in & refusing to do a job for “fear of taxes”…is leaving a bride & groom HANGING – 4 days before the event, 2 tastings & 1,000 phone calls & emails later (though she has ceased to return our calls & completely stood us up for the last tasting)! …Her most email included an attempt that we see as nothing less than extortion, in the form of “I will not do your event for less than $500 added to the agreed upon amount”.

However her flakiness & total disregard for the stress this puts us under speakes greater volume, than even trying to squeeze an extra $500 out for no more food, & much lesser service! How could we trust such an individual to even show up the day of?!

Woe is me…if anyone knows of any slammin’ vegan-friendly caterers who can whip up some appetizers & non-alcoholic drinks in 3 days, please let us know on the jiffy!!!!!!

C