Social Circles

I don’t typically write reviews, but I had such a terrible experience with Gigi at Social Circles for my wedding that I just HAD to write a review and prevent other brides from making the same mistake. I am not a mean and spiteful person, so I hope others will read this and learn and if they did decide to go ahead and hire Gigi, they can at least address the issues I had.
First, let me explain why I needed a wedding coordinator. I had a super long day planned. It was a typical ceremony during the day and chinese banquet at night, with a little over 300 guests. I decided to pay for a day-​of coordinator because I am a very anal person and I needed someone just as detail-​oriented to help pull off my requests. I also did not want to put any of my guests or bridesmaids to work because I wanted them to be guests. I had already done all the planning so Gigi’s main tasks, with her assistant, was to make sure everything was going smoothly as we had planned, to be on top of the other vendors, to help set up things like the guest sign in table, the candles and wine at the ceremony, the favor table, the reception tables (lay out favors, menu cards, etc.).
I hired Gigi because she impressed me. She was warm, mild-​mannered, and seemed super organized as a behind the scenes type of person. Sure, she was more affordable than others and that played a big factor too, but she really seemed on top of all the details at each of our many meetings. I felt really good about the situation all the way up to the rehearsal the night before.
The day of the wedding, she showed up over an hour late. If you are planning your own wedding, you know that being an hour late is DEVASTATING to the schedule. Our groomsmen had to pitch in and get everything set up — thank goodness we left all the stuff at the ceremony site and Gigi wasn’t the one bringing it! My husband was IRATE (and he never gets mad) and I didn’t even know about this because I was busy getting ready. When she finally arrived she apologized for being late but never offered any explanation. Most of everything was already set up. We barely needed her at that point.
We had a wine ceremony, using a brand new bottle of Hillside Select, a $ 100+ bottle that was given by one of our groomsmen. My husband wanted to handle all the wine items (he’s very protective of his wine and his wine glasses) so I told Gigi to leave the wine stuff for us to pack up. The wine ceremony only required two sips for show and we looked for the wine afterward to save the rest for later. The bottle and decanter were empty! Gigi said they were empty when she found it to pack away but a few of our party said they saw Gigi pouring the wine down the drain! I addressed this with her later and she finally admitted she poured the wine away, not knowing we wanted to save it. The worst part, was that she lied about doing it, saying she «found it empty», until I confronted her a second time.
During the photo shoot she was no where to be found. I really needed her at that point to assist the photographer in getting the long list of formal shots done. Our families are huge and needed to be rounded up.
During our break my entire wedding party was nagging me to call Gigi to complain. They told me to fire her on the spot and they would help me with the reception needs. I kept making excuses for Gigi, I think I was the least angry and tried to defend her, but I finally agreed to give her a call to tell her how disappointed I was. Gigi seemed to listen well and promised to be better for the reception.
I heard she was late again at the reception (I didn’t arrive until later). She didn’t show up until after the cake and flowers made it there. .. and she was supposed to coordinate all of it! The rest of it did go more smoothly. She finally had an assistant to help, and the tables were set up on time. She was helpful in keeping us on schedule.
When her duties were over, she left and said goodbye, but I never heard from her after that. I think she knew she messed up big time, and didn’t bother trying to keep a relationship with me since then. I’ve kept in touch with all other vendors except her — the other vendors I had were amazing, and I was happy to give them all glowing reviews on Unilocal.
To this day, my closest friends and family remind me of how awful Gigi was and what an incredible waste of money it was. I tried to do a good thing by hiring a day of coordinator to save my friends/​family from working at my wedding, and they all say they wish I didn’t — it would have turned out so much better!
I think Gigi’s a nice person, but this is not the right line of work for her. Good luck if you decide to hire her!