Et Cetera Event Company

Wanted to let folks know about my experience with Jerica Dziki, owner of Et Cetera Event Company, which she claims is a “professional” company on her home page (https://www.etceteraeventco.com). I will be following up with a formal complaint against her, the “wedding coordinator” as she did not follow through on her obligations at our daughter's wedding on June 9, 2018. I must say my daughter had a great wedding but for me, due to Jerica’s company not following through on the "event break down and clean up to venue standards" as described per Addendum A of the contract, I was charged a $1050 fee on June 24, 2018 for lost merchandise (napkins) from Borrowed Blu, LLC. In having a “wedding planner”, it is customary for the client to obtain services for caterers, rental agencies, wedding officiants, ministers, musicians, bands, DJ’s, entertainment, photographers and cinematographers, pastry chefs, hotels, lodges and private estate properties. The job of the “wedding coordinator” is to plan out all the details of the event. Among many things for the wedding, we needed items for the dinner, i.e., all tabletop needs such as napkins, dishes, glassware, silverware, etc. Borrowed Blu is a company on her "list of preferred rental agencies” and Jerica requested I used them so I did. Jerica obtained the items she needed from Borrowed Blu as I paid for the rental of the items. Jerica was also responsible for the return of these items but the napkins were never returned per Borrowed Blu. A month after the wedding, I noticed a charge of $1050 on my credit card and I disputed the charge with my credit card company. I had no idea why I had this charge and thought this must be an issue between Jerica and Borrowed Blu. Shortly after, I got in touch with Jerica and discussed this issue where she admitted it was her company’s fault for the charge. Jerica explained that she was also charged the $1050 fee and that she'd take care of the matter. I thought that was strange that one of preferred companies was trying to get two payments for the lost merchandise. I asked that she send me a receipt of some kind showing that she paid the fee so I could show my credit card company that Borrowed Blu had collected the required fee and then my credit card company would relieve me of the charge. Several months passed and I never received a statement from Jerica. I contacted her several times about sending me a receipt and she finally let us know that she mistakenly thought she had paid the lost merchandise fee. Meanwhile the charge went through on my credit card. So she agreed to pay me back the $1050 but asked for a payment plan as she was having some life changing issues. I liked her at the time and she did a great job for my daughter’s wedding, so I agreed that she could pay me back $100 a month via Venmo, at the beginning of each month, starting in August. Her first payment finally arrived on August 22nd ($200) which was for both August and September. The beginning of October came and went. My wife and I texted her and called her several times reminding her of our agreement. She finally Venmo’ed me $100 on October 22nd and then again on October 29th (for November’s payment). At this point, I had collected a total of $400. December 1st came and went. Again my wife and I texted her multiple times and I finally got reply’s from her telling me to stop harassing her and claiming that I probably threw the napkins away. She became very unprofessional as a business woman and her attitude pissed me off. In her last text, she told me to sue her for the money she owes and now will not respond to any text messages or phone calls. Needless to say, it’s unfortunate that I have had to take the time to write this up but I felt the need to warn all potential clients that it’d be best to find another wedding/event coordinator as Jerica is not as great as her website makes her out to be. Be warned!!!