Melissa Amato Events

We hired Melissa for our DIYish destination wedding. Working with Melissa was stressful to say the least. I ended up doing things myself, and found myself being overwhelmed, and frustrated. I felt like Melissa did not take the time to try to understand what we were looking for, so her suggestions were off the mark and not a good fit with what we wanted. Furthermore, she had a very small network of vendors. The few times I asked for help in identifying vendors (hair&mu, videographer, ceremony musician), she came up short…
I was also disappointed about Melissa’s availability. When we came to New Orleans for our tasting, she was able to meet once for one hour to do a walkthrough of the wedding venue with us, but that was it. Here are a few instances that made the process stressful for me:
1. When I was purchasing linens, she suggested the wrong size linen (90 inch linens for a 60 inch table– which would only be a 15 inch drop). When I followed up with her, she got really defensive and responded that it was what the rental company said (not true).
2. We really wanted a Second Line, and Melissa tried to steer us away from applying for a permit and suggested we parade on the sidewalk to save money. When I checked with the NOPD, I found that the practice was illegal! I had to do the permit myself… but later found out that this is something that wedding planners/​event producers often do for their clients.
3. We got wine (7 cases) shipped to her house, and found out that she put it in her garage in the NOLA summer heat. I asked her to please move it inside, and she said there was no room. When I found a friend who (also horrified that the wine was going to get ruined) offered to take the wine, Melissa ‘suddenly’ found room at her house.
4. Melissa convinced us to go with her alcohol distributor. We told her repeatedly that our two biggest priorities were to have it be cost-​effective, and to have the ability to return the alcohol that was unused. Instead of suggesting sizes based on the number of guests we were having, and her distributor’s stock, Melissa left it to me to try to figure it out. I asked for liters, which are not cost-​effective and, most importantly, not refundable, and, rather than attempting to steer me in the direction of what we told her we needed, Melissa just went ahead and forwarded the email to her distributor. Thankfully, we caught the error… when confronted, Melissa was again defensive.
By the time our wedding grew near, me, my future mother in law, and my caterer were EXTEREMELY concerned about Melissa’s ability to execute the wedding day and ultimately terminated our contract. We asked Melissa to refund the day of fee only (which would still give her ³⁄₅ of the fee!) but she refused to do so– which is so disappointing because she really did make wedding planning more difficult, rather than easier.
I guess you get what you pay for… but PLEASE do yourself a favor and go with someone else.