Julia Winters

It has been a month since our wedding, & I have held off on writing this review to see if my thoughts have changed on the performance Julia did. Sadly, it has only gotten worse by her lack of any accountability, or care of anything. We wrote her an email after the wedding stating our disappointment, & she pointed fingers & made excuse after excuse & made it personal.I like Julia as a person, but from a business standpoint I sadly have to recommend you stay away. I don’t want this happening to another bride. I was very excited to work with Julia when we hired her. She seemed to understand my style, and she seemed to know what she was talking about. When my mom & I met Julia at her office, everything seemed to be going to plan- I was really happy having Julia. I even told her I was overwhelmed choosing HAMU for me and the bridesmaids - she said “I do this for a living, I will send you who to use.” I never received anything from her. I found the company on my own and Thank God I did (Grand Slam Glam is amazing) because all the ones Julia “found” (her lighting guy in particular) was terrible. She never followed up to even confirm I booked a HAMU group, she didn’t care to ask. Julia worked mostly with my mom, But it seemed like Julia had her own agenda to have us get things that weren’t my husband and my style - and would frankly just look good for her portfolio. It was about 2 months into working with her that I realized I was getting weary of it. I would tell her decisions my husband and I made (like a party bus w/ the wedding party to leave the reception instead of a car for just the two of us) - and she tried pushing me to get an old fashioned rolls Royce, I told her I think those are cool but that really isn’t our style and this is what we want. She then 2 days later went to my mom saying she thinks we want the car- t was then I realized she didn’t care about what we wanted at all. About 1-2 weeks before the wedding, we were communicating with the band coordinator, and Julia was very adamant about her timeline of everything, which is completely understandable. But I simply wanted to clarify with her that everything will be okay if we go off schedule. I sent her an email just saying after the entrance to the reception, we had our first dance, father daughter, mother son dance, and welcome speech - all I was saying was that we don’t need EXACT times after each, if a speech runs over or under that is okay - we just have to be flexible. I told her the timeline was perfect but we just need to do one after the other in that section and the exact times don’t have to be followed perfectly. It was after this I knew not to trust her - 3 days before the wedding our wedding party’s flights had been canceled from the weather, and I was working on getting them all on new flights, I also was taking the programs to get folded and printed - and she asked to have a call - I texted her telling her what was going on, and how overwhelmed and stressed I was and I would call her that afternoon - all she replies is “oh my” not “what can I take off your plate to help?” Or anything. I THEN get an email forwarded to me by the band coordinator, that Julia had told them to throw out the entire timeline, that the bride and groom wanted it, and she didn’t know if we wanted speeches or dances or anything we had originally planned and she was “waiting for me to have time for her”. I was running around like a madman and got no help from her. The band coordinator then called me and we realized that all of her questions should come to me instead of Julia. My husband couldn’t stand her - he says she caused more stress than anything. He saw me struggling with what to do - he wanted me to fire her, I said that wasn’t right and we needed to have a little more faith. Then, the Rehearsal was on Friday, we got there a little late and the entire wedding party was already there. They asked me if the planner was coming, I told them she is over there, and pointed to her. She had not said a word apparently to them or introduced herself. They thought she was a parishioner not having anything to do with the wedding. Later into the rehearsal, she comes up to me and introduces her self to me. I have met her in person, I was so confused - she really didn’t remember meeting the bride? Then at the end she comes up to me and asks if I want to say hi and points to her purse. I was naturally confused because we were in a Greek Orthodox Church - she had her dog that entire time in the church. In what world is that appropriate? Sadly, my bridesmaids realized during the rehearsal that Julia was not a person to go to for help. She couldn’t remember the lineup for them, consistently kept forgetting a groomsman we added about 2 weeks before (we all told her consistently even that entire week of the wedding, the rehearsal multiple times, and even waiting to go into the reception). She never asked if we needed anything, she didn’t even talk to me the day of the wedding until it was time for my dad and I to go down the aisle. She just walked right past me every time. And before my dad and I were getting ready to go down the aisle, there was a band music issue and I was stressed out trying to fix it, one of my bridesmaids walked over by us to help and Julia apparently yelled at her. She was checking on the stressed out bride - something Julia should have done. I hate leaving a bad review, I know life happens and people have off days, or weeks - which is why we emailed her first. She tried to turn everything on us and make excuses or just say “I don’t know what to tell you” or made excuses about her personal life, even implying she was a widow which she is not. She replied discussing her financial problems, and how this was so personal if someone didn’t like her - this is a business not a friendship, and she tried to turn it on my mom every single time - which makes me think she doesn’t know customer service or business. Even a simple email to me would’ve been fine, it would have gone a long way. Sadly, we didn’t get that from Julia. I don’t want this happening to another bride, I almost didn’t write this much but our entire wedding party told me I had to so this doesn’t happen to someone else.