Joanne STOLE $5342.50 from me and my husband. We hired Joanne a year and a month before our wedding. I was told the earlier the better. Me an my husband lived out of state at the time we hired her so wanted to get a jump start. We would be moving to Texas at least 5 moths before the wedding so we could do any hands on stuff with Joanne than. We signed the contract with Joanne January 25th, 2012 for our April 20th, 2013 wedding. We went over the details of the wedding and we both went our ways. We moved to Texas in October of 2012 and had yet to hear anything from Joanne even though she promised to keep in touch. I was not worried at this time because our wedding was going to be simple and she made me think she had it all covered. Once we got to Texas i called Joanne and let her know we finally made the Move to and how was everything coming along. Keep in mind all Joanne had to do for our wedding was, book the venue and set up things on the day of our event. We were making our own center pieces, we made our own aisle decorations and even built and decorated our own arch. We hired our own caterer, and our own DJ/Photographer, she literally had very little to do. After many e-mails and phone calls Joanne finally contacted us and apologized for not getting back to us sooner, she was planning her own wedding. I understood, and was ready to start on my wedding now since she had no other distractions. Joanne called me in the middle of December to inform me of how things were moving along. She informed me that the hall we were to have our reception in was double booked and she would get to the bottom of it because she knows she booked it for us right after we paid her. She explained to me she gave them HALF the deposit and the never cashed her check. Now i wasn't born yesterday and i know if a business gets a check they will cash it and what business only takes half the deposit? NONE that i know of especially when the deposit in FULL was only $200. Joanne blamed the hall for double booking the event and not cashing her check for half the deposit but was quick to offer up other venues. I told my husband what was going on and we decided to give her another chance to make it right. Now me and my husband and our families are nothing but military and Law Enforcement, so we are not the fancy type. The hall we wanted was Paws-N-Taws in Rockport. Look it up, its a simple hall on the beach for $600 for 12 hours and can fit around 400 people. We wanted something like that. Joanne knew this, so when she got back to us with her alternate choices for us she gave us 3 yacht clubs. Now our family and friends at a yacht club just doesn't fit and to be honest we didn't want that. We told Joanne no, that is not what we wanted find something else. Joanne was offended i suppose and told us she didn't know if she could work with us and would let us know. Me and my husband had enough of her lies and told her she was fired due to her inability to fulfill her contractual obligation to us, and we wanted a full refund of the deposit we gave her. Joanne Wouldn't return any of our phone calls or E-mails for a while and when she did she agreed to give us half our deposit back, even though it wasn't company policy and she would have to consult with the other owners over this. She also said we should have gotten wedding insurance to ""recover the remaining amount"". We said NO of course, we wanted the $5342.50 since she did nothing for us but loose our hall and cause nothing but pain 4 moths before the wedding. January 9th, 2013 she said she would give us 1/2 the package price of the package, which was the full amount of the deposit and would have to ask the other owners since it wasn't policy and she would have it to us in a month. Same thing she said to me over the phone, it was just now in writing and it was the full refund amount we wanted. Months went by and she didn't answer any phone calls or e-mails and till this day April 26th 2014 nothing. We had to reschedule our wedding and the ladies at MANSION BY THE SEA in Aransas Pass did a wonderful job on our wedding which did get moved to April 26th, 2013. They also knew about Joanne and her ways of doing this to brides. JOANNE SOWARD- STOLE OUR MONEY AND LIED TO US, and now because of statue of limitations and waiting around for answers from lawyers and lack of money to continue to pay lawyers she has gotten away with stealing our money and robbing us of our wedding day. DONT USE PORT A WEDDINGS AND DO NOT HIRE JOANNE SOWARD!!!!!!
Joanne Soward- Port A Weddings Reviews
Joanne Soward and Port A Weddings
Joanne STOLE $5342.50 from me and my husband. We hired Joanne a year and a month before our wedding. I was told the earlier the better. Me an my husband lived out of state at the time we hired her so wanted to get a jump start. We would be moving to Texas at least 5 moths before the wedding so we could do any hands on stuff with Joanne than. We signed the contract with Joanne January 25th, 2012 for our April 20th, 2013 wedding. We went over the details of the wedding and we both went our ways. We moved to Texas in October of 2012 and had yet to hear anything from Joanne even though she promised to keep in touch. I was not worried at this time because our wedding was going to be simple and she made me think she had it all covered. Once we got to Texas i called Joanne and let her know we finally made the Move to and how was everything coming along. Keep in mind all Joanne had to do for our wedding was, book the venue and set up things on the day of our event. We were making our own center pieces, we made our own aisle decorations and even built and decorated our own arch. We hired our own caterer, and our own DJ/Photographer, she literally had very little to do. After many e-mails and phone calls Joanne finally contacted us and apologized for not getting back to us sooner, she was planning her own wedding. I understood, and was ready to start on my wedding now since she had no other distractions. Joanne called me in the middle of December to inform me of how things were moving along. She informed me that the hall we were to have our reception in was double booked and she would get to the bottom of it because she knows she booked it for us right after we paid her. She explained to me she gave them HALF the deposit and the never cashed her check. Now i wasn't born yesterday and i know if a business gets a check they will cash it and what business only takes half the deposit? NONE that i know of especially when the deposit in FULL was only $200. Joanne blamed the hall for double booking the event and not cashing her check for half the deposit but was quick to offer up other venues. I told my husband what was going on and we decided to give her another chance to make it right. Now me and my husband and our families are nothing but military and Law Enforcement, so we are not the fancy type. The hall we wanted was Paws-N-Taws in Rockport. Look it up, its a simple hall on the beach for $600 for 12 hours and can fit around 400 people. We wanted something like that. Joanne knew this, so when she got back to us with her alternate choices for us she gave us 3 yacht clubs. Now our family and friends at a yacht club just doesn't fit and to be honest we didn't want that. We told Joanne no, that is not what we wanted find something else. Joanne was offended i suppose and told us she didn't know if she could work with us and would let us know. Me and my husband had enough of her lies and told her she was fired due to her inability to fulfill her contractual obligation to us, and we wanted a full refund of the deposit we gave her. Joanne Wouldn't return any of our phone calls or E-mails for a while and when she did she agreed to give us half our deposit back, even though it wasn't company policy and she would have to consult with the other owners over this. She also said we should have gotten wedding insurance to ""recover the remaining amount"". We said NO of course, we wanted the $5342.50 since she did nothing for us but loose our hall and cause nothing but pain 4 moths before the wedding. January 9th, 2013 she said she would give us 1/2 the package price of the package, which was the full amount of the deposit and would have to ask the other owners since it wasn't policy and she would have it to us in a month. Same thing she said to me over the phone, it was just now in writing and it was the full refund amount we wanted. Months went by and she didn't answer any phone calls or e-mails and till this day April 26th 2014 nothing. We had to reschedule our wedding and the ladies at MANSION BY THE SEA in Aransas Pass did a wonderful job on our wedding which did get moved to April 26th, 2013. They also knew about Joanne and her ways of doing this to brides. JOANNE SOWARD- STOLE OUR MONEY AND LIED TO US, and now because of statue of limitations and waiting around for answers from lawyers and lack of money to continue to pay lawyers she has gotten away with stealing our money and robbing us of our wedding day. DONT USE PORT A WEDDINGS AND DO NOT HIRE JOANNE SOWARD!!!!!!