Central Coast Party Helpers

We had Brigitte and her staff for our rehearsal dinner and they were wonderful. We could have not done it without them. We had about 80 people and central coast party helpers were very professional and attentive to all of our guest. I would recommend them and use them again for all of my future events. Thank you again Brigitte.

I’ve decided to go with two stars because my day ran somewhat smoothly (**I planned and organized my entire wedding, CCPH was only given instructions and directions) and the bartending staff was very kind and got great reviews from my guests.
Based on what I’ve experienced and heard from guests, this company is best served as bar tenders or servers for catering. I believe they misrepresented themselves by saying they were day-​of-​Coordinators.
I do not enjoy having to address unsatisfactory items and would normally brush them under the rug, but a wedding day is a very important date and I feel as though any bride looking for a company should know upfront what they may be getting themselves into.
With that being said, here is what I experienced, heard from my guests, and should be taken into consideration before hiring CCPH:
1.) I paid upfront for a 20% gratuity for the entire bill. When we arrived at the reception after taking pictures, I was a bit appalled to see tip cups at both bars. I understand most guests would like to tip the bartenders but they should have kindly replied with «Your tip was already covered by the Bride and Groom.» All of my guests had to travel quite a ways to attend the wedding and I did not want them thinking they needed to pay any additional money for their drinks at the wedding.
2.) I provided multiple bottles of liquor for the bar, enough so that I knew we wouldn’t run out. Apparently towards the end of the night, my guests were being told that there was no more vodka, and we had run out. I was more than prepared to not run out of anything! We found 10+ FULL bottles of vodka the next morning. I understand there was concern about guests getting back to their hotels after the wedding, but all of our guests who were drinking called taxis for a pickup.
3.) We did run out of ice, which was a little shocking considering we ordered 800 pounds, but ok. My catering staff ran to the store for more, Not CCPH. My father paid the catering company for the ice trip, since they were the ones that went into town for it. Apparently, coordination followed up with my father to get paid for running to town for ice when it was in fact the catering that went into town and had already been paid. Coordination stated that they should’ve been given the money to pay the difference of the catering ice trip. I just found that very, very interesting, almost as if something fishy was being attempted.
4.) I paid $ 95/​hr. for 12 hours of day-​of-​coordination. Coordination was there Thursday for 1 hour for my rental deliveries, Friday for 1 hour for my rehearsal dinner, and arrived at 3 pm to 11 pm for the wedding. That is 10 hours. So at this point, it is what it is, but technically, maybe coordination should’ve been there a little earlier the day of the wedding to make sure anything out of place was taken care of.
5.) I’ve worked multiple catering jobs before and understand that the staff gets to enjoy the meal AFTER all the guests have had the chance to eat. According to guests, coordination was going through the Appetizer bar ahead of guests, eating items as they went along. Now, I am not sure if this was to organize a plate for an elderly guest or not, but according to my catering past, the staff eats afterwards and is out of sight, in order to not offend any on-​lookers.
6.) The one thing that probably bothered me the most is that I provided an itinerary for the day with a strict timeline of events. Now I understand when things fall behind and I was very clear that the two things that needed to start on time was the ceremony and dinner. Everything else could be adjusted. So when toasts began, we were a tad behind schedule and that is fine. My father got on the microphone for his speech, and I won’t lie, it was a little long winded, but my Godmother overheard coordination say, «This speech is going way too long. We are completely off-​schedule.» What nerve! And I say this because, I never saw coordination the whole night letting us know what time is was or letting us know if we were behind schedule and how we could correct it. I am his only daughter and if he wanted to speak for an hour, then we would’ve just adjusted elsewhere. My advice, next time, you should talk about people where no one can hear you.
Other small things occurred but I think stuff like that happens at weddings and aren’t as important to address because you just have to go with the flow sometimes and that’s okay. Brigitte is a very nice woman and we never had any issues prior to the event, nor do I have any malice towards her now. She was engaged and is organized on her own and I give her compliments for that. I think her staff is wonderful and they did a great job, but again, it was just a misrepresentation of what they do. Hire them as bar staff, Great! Hire them as catering staff, Great! But I do not recommend hiring as day-​of-​coordination. It’s just not what they do.

Brigitte is so helpful in making sure everything runs smoothly! She is thorough making sure every detail from waitstaff, catering, day of coordination, bartending and most importantly her knowledge with finding a venue! Thank you Brigitte!

I had the pleasure of working with Brigitte and her team on a wedding at the Cayucos Vet’s Hall. It was so wonderful to show up with my cake and dessert delivery and be greeted by a professional, and well-​informed staff. If you are looking for staff for an event, large or small, I highly recommend their services!

We used them for my daughters 1^st birthday party and received exceptional service. The bartender was great, everyone loved the service and they stayed until everything was cleaned up and put away. Well worth it to have the extra help and enjoy the party!

So I gotta say. I had a very private and upscale… Soirée at my home, and can I just say it couldn’t have been executed any more smoothly, nor made me look better. All my friends were jealous and asked how thy could acquire such excellent event staff and help! Highly recommend!

In some cases services at Central Coast Party Helpers were satisfactory, in other ways, not even close. Instead of one star, we marked 2 since things were smooth during the day for us. My wife and I’s reception went smoothly, however we heard from many guests of issues.
Some Staff did not have close to a professional appearance.
MANY guests plates were retrieved before they finished eating (it’s called look out the window to see photos going on).
Even though proper hours were discussed, we were invoiced incorrectly. Owner made a stink about applying discount we had already received for additional hours. She did apply the discount.
Owner asked for balance that night by interrupting a conversation with family. Thought that should be better «coordinated.»
We had 60 bottles of wine ready for 120 adult guests (not counting champagne), of which barely anyone had wine. We realized the next day that there were ZERO bottles leftover. At the end of the night around 9:30PM, my wife went to the back kitchen and saw the staff handling 7 bottles of wine. She graciously offered that they take a few bottles.
However…we were informed by our caterer that he saw one of Central Coast Party Helper’s staff taking at least 4 bottles of wine to their car earlier in the day! UNACCEPTABLE. This is THEFT. Our trust was violated. The owner of the company refused to take responsibility. Her conversations with my wife bordered the edge of silliness.
The owner attempted to reconcile the situation. She offered to return the four bottles of wine we gave her, and then cut us a check for the four bottles our caterer saw be stolen ($ 120). (NOTE: We felt this inadequate for having our trust violated and being stolen from, but we were exhausted-​We also requested that we be compensated for leftover time as her staff left before 10PM with the agreement being 10:30PM — We were not granted that request).
My wife and I put a stop payment on the $ 930 check we wrote, with the understanding we would release it once she dropped off the check for $ 120 at the home of my wife’s family. Soon, she reaches out that she «found» 2 more wine bottles. She returned those and without notice, changed our refund amount from $ 120 to $ 60. Unbelievable. She dropped the wine and check on my wife’s family’s doorstep (rather than knock & deliver personally).
We called to discuss the changed refund. My wife got frustrated and asked to discuss it later. Moments later, the owner called/​text my wife saying that leaving a bad review online would be unfair (and threatened to «rebuttal» a negative review), and they put out small fires for us, all the same stuff we went in circles with earlier. The owner was texting my wife long messages that she wanted her happy, then re-​argued. Unprofessional behavior. Conversations should be by phone call, or email for archival purposes. The owner offered to still send the remaining $ 60 of the agreed refund, and my wife told her to go ahead and send it. That check was received a week later.
The owner informed us (repeatedly) about fixing small fires for us (surprise lack of appetizer silverware and lack of coffee). We appreciate that, as from our perspective things went smoothly (however I don’t find «expected» things to be «special»). Earlier in the week, my wife told the owner that we would provide 40 pounds of ice in case the venue’s ice machine couldn’t keep up. My wife and I forgot, so the owner and her team took care of that. On our invoice she billed us for 80 pounds, and repeatedly told us all of it was necessary. The manager of the venue told us that was nowhere near the case. We were also informed the venue’s recycling bin was nowhere near as full as it should have been (regarding the wine/​bottles).
Learning that we were stolen from, and behavior from the owner are cause for great concern. It was difficult watching my wife deal with the situation, (being able to hear the phone conversations). I am shocked. I expect a small local business to at the very least, take responsibility for the actions of their staff, let alone offer better resolutions. A business owner is accountable for the actions of their staff, and completely ignoring an issue like THEFT is inexcusable. We are unable to recommend Central Coast Party Helpers.
I hope this review is helps others that may come across it. We see that they do get primarily good reviews, and like we said the day of was very smooth for us. We truly hope our experience is out of the norm, and that the company will take this opportunity to clean up and improve.
Thank you for taking the time to read our experience.
(PS: On August 27^th, a month after our wedding, we still received a marketing email from them. We were stunned they didn’t have the presence of mind to remove our information from their marketing list considering our lack of satisfaction with their services). This is in addition to receiving a «Thank You,» card asking for referrals… unbelievable.

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in Brigitte’s staff the day of our wedding (6÷28÷2014). The bar was directly behind our ceremony area, and I had requested during my consultation with Brigitte that during the ceremony the bartenders go elsewhere so they were not in the bar during that time and I am so sad to say one of the first images I had walking down the aisle was her staff STILL setting up. During my consultation Brigitte reassured me that they would stand somewhere with their hands behind their backs out of the way during this time and was very understanding of the situation. I added time to our original invoice (1 hour and a half early) to ensure set up would be complete by then.
The bar looked very messy the entire night which I was sad about because I pay close attention to detail (i.e. there were boxes on the side of the bar– seen in the back of our ceremony photos).
We had a signature drink with a special straw and strawberry garnish and it was rarely done right. Some people’s drinks were missing strawberries or had a silly plastic brightly colored straw the staff brought with them.
I got several complaints from family and friends that Rob was not friendly and often gave them drinks in the wrong cup (i.e I was given beer in a short wine cup).
The staff was also responsible for setting wine out on the tables during dinner, it was done too far in advance and due to the heat all the wine got too hot and had to be poured out (hundreds of dollars of red and white wine).
I was most appalled to find out there was a tip jar out in the beginning of the night when I paid 20% gratuity in advance (included on the invoice).
In my opinion we were over promised and under delivered, Brigitte told my husband and I she would be there that day and did not come– the biggest problem with this is that I had communicate solely with her and she knew the plan for the evening for her staff. I emailed Brigitte to let her know how I felt and she responded with an apology, but ultimately blamed everything aside from the messy-​looking bar on my wedding coordinator. This tells me that her staff is not able to think for themselves in a highly stressful and busy event. A day-​of-​coordinator has a lot to juggle and I hired Brigitte and her team because I felt very confident in their ability to only better assist and help out my coordinator.
Brigitte mentioned in her reply that I was under staffed in her opinion but I had added staff members on after our consultation per her request and I was given the impression that although one more staff member would be ideal (but not in the budget) that with my wedding size and buffet style dinner we would be fine with the amount of help we had. We had worked out the logistics of where her staff would be to maximize the help but like mentioned early without Brigitte there (the person I had communicate details with) this was not carried out. If I would have known in advance she was not going to be able to make it to the event I would have relayed a lot of the information her and I had discussed to my coordinator or even written out detailed plans for the staff to receive.
I hired Brigitte and her team because her Unilocal reviews were so great, and I am still so sad today that I did not have the same experience as all the other reviewers did. All of my other wedding vendors were flawless so it’s disheartening to leave such a detailed negative review. My hope would be that no other bride experiences disappointment after months of budgeting, planning, and thoughtfully hiring vendors. And that my, probably, far too abundant criticism here is some how helpful in preventing future confusion and mistakes on such an important day.

Well done Brigitte! Your staff and your ideas made our party a memory that will last forever! The staff showed up on time, were very friendly, attentive and went over and above. We were celebrating my 50^th birthday and I just wanted to be a guest at my party, not have to worry about anything and that is what happened. I recommend Central Coast Party Helpers for sure.

Just had a Great experience with Central Coast Party Helpers! They were prompt, professional, friendly and very very helpful. Made our event a big success! Highly recommend Bridget and her team!

As a previous Catering manager/​party planner, I feel I am in a good place to write this review.
My wife and I got married in early May in Solvang, CA — Our caterer had wonderful food, but they did not offer service — so we hired Central Coast Party planners to help execute the wedding.
I met with Bridgette about a month before the wedding, and went over all my thoughts with her, and she offered some great advice on how the event could be managed. We knocked out the little details during the site visit, and then I left to deal with the other pieces of planning a wedding.
Fast Forward — Day of Wedding. Quite simply — everything went off perfect, without a hitch.
Bridgette’s team was on time, and setup the party exactly like we discussed. The tables were set perfectly, and my Wife was over joyed by how beautiful everything looked amazing.
There were no hiccups the entire evening, and the guests had only great things to say.
5 Stars… Great all around!

I’m not going to go into detail regarding the service that we experienced at our wedding, as my mother taught me that if I don’t have anything nice to say, DON’T SAY ANYTHING.
WE DO NOT RECOMMEND!
PS…
1) Didn’t put out our guest book until 1 hour before the end of the reception,
2) Didn’t put any of our 125 votive candles out (let alone take them out of the box) and arrange on the reception tables,
3) Set up our ceremony chairs (70+) in the wrong location and then the groom and 2 friends had to move them 30 minutes before our wedding,
4) Put the final payment through on my credit card without asking for authorization (this is a credit card I had provided for a previous payment, but didn’t authorize it for any other payment),
5) Was very unorganized and not detail oriented — had to have a 1.5 hour call with her during the planning as she didn’t remember (or had them wrong) particular details of the arrangements we agreed upon in our first face-​to-​face meeting.
And these are just a few of the issues we experienced at our wedding…

Our local Toastmasters club has used Central Coast party Helpers twice now for our annual dinner, and I thought it was finaly time to say how easy they make it for us. We pretty much call them with a date and location. They make all the arrangements and we just relax and dine. I show up all dressed and ready for the dinner, not having to bring work clothes to set up and then try and find a place to change into dinner clothes. HIghly recommended.

Wow! Bridgette’s motto of be a guest at your own party is so true. Our son’s wedding at home went off without a hitch. Several guests commented on what a wonderful job that they did. They set up, presented, and cleaned up the food wonderfully. I was able to relax and enjoy the occasion. Bridgette truly made me feel like a guest at my own party.

Be a guest at your own party? CC Party Helpers actually makes it happen.
This group of pros, led by former caterer Brigitte Faulker, knows exactly what you need… even if you don’t.
Important — If Brigitte makes a suggestion, go with it. She’s honest and knowledgeable about literally every aspect it takes to make an event go smoothly. She’ll leaves no stone unturned.
CC Party Helpers waitstaff & bartenders are friendly, capable and are genuinely committed to your event, no matter the size: Wedding (they’ll work directly with you or your wedding planner), a grand opening, a baby shower, a retirement party.
I’d recommend them to anyone, in a heartbeat. — mms

Brigitte and her staff helped to make our event run smoothly. Our patrons were made to feel cared for and attended to. Many thanks, Denise

Brigitte and her staff sure know how to plan a party! Central Coast Party Helpers has tons of creative ways to turn what could be a stressful situation into an evening/​day of fun, smiles and laughter! Thank you for the Lady’s Night Out!
P. S. She likes a challenge too so don’t be afraid to ask…

Having been a guest at a party where CC Party Helpers were working their magic behind the scenes was an epiphany. The hostess commented with gratitude that she had «never been a guest at her own party». Everytime she visited the kitchen to do something, Brigitte had already taken care of it… and with a smile and festive attitude. Brig has developed a great team and is a one of a kind when it comes to giving a party.
Affordable and dependable. My days of last minute worry are over. Great concept Brig, and you are doing it so well. Let’s have a party.
nancy fiske

Brigitte and her staff are very easy to work with and very friendly. They made it very easy to plan the catering and hosting for several events for our company over the last few years. I would highly recommend using them for any small or large event you are planning. The food is presented beautifully, and they are very professional. The ease of working with them is priceless too!

Brigitte was there when I needed her! As a business owner my time can be very limited and with an upcoming wedding, I was stressed about getting everything done. Brigitte helped me for the bridal shower giving me time to visit with family & friends.
She assisted at the wedding venue as well, picking up the slack in several ways.
Thanks Brig!:)