Hi all,

I’m going to share this story for the sole reason to encourage people to come forward and share reviews on services they have received from business men/ women /company’s/ organisations in Nigeria. We cannot underestimate the power of reviews especially in this era where there’s so much media presence and internet facilities. This will ensure that we eradicate fraudsters from our midst and certainly out of business. It will also help promote the good ones amongst us and ensure they stay in business, and ultimately help promote the[b] “NIGERIAN NAME”[/b].

My wedding was last year November in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. I was over the moon with excitement as I was getting married to the man of my dreams. We deliberated over where the wedding should hold as we both reside in the UK. Doing the wedding in the UK would mean I had more control over the planning. Doing it in Nigeria would mean we could get our parents fully involved and give them the pleasure of inviting their friends. Ultimately we decided we’d go home and have the wedding. I knew it’d be tasking and time consuming planning a wedding from a distance but I braced myself for it. I included money for call cards to our wedding budget so I was able to make calls to everyone involved one day every week to catch up on progress of things.
My husband’s family and mine were extremely supportive and with their help we had a beautiful ceremony. The weather was just beautiful, and God was there.
There were some people whose services we sought, who worked very hard to make our day very beautiful. There were also some people whose services we sought who went out of their way to totally embarrass and disgrace themselves and their business name.

I’m going to start with the lady that I paid a huge sum to do my reception hall decoration for me. Her name is Josephine and her company name is J’s event and gift concept. My husband’s cousin got her contact from a friend and started speaking to her for me. I’m quite a realistic person, so I stated how much I was willing to spend for my decoration and asked my husband’s cousin to work around that. She came to an agreement with the lady. Cool! The lady insisted that everything should be paid before the 2weeks leading to the wedding and gave us a breakdown of how she wanted her money. Since I don’t live in the country, I’m not too sure how these things work anymore, so I went along with it. I called her intermittently in the months leading to my wedding, just to make sure we were all on the same page and she wasn’t struggling with anything. I even offered to purchase anything she didn’t have, but she insisted she was a professional and had everything sorted. I came into Nigeria and made an appointment to see her with my husband’s cousin. We went to her house; she looked very responsible, husband, kids, and generally comfortable folks. Fair enough! We went through everything again; last minute questions and all. She told me to contact the venue and tell them she’ll start decorating the evening before, which I did and got back to her saying it was OK. So everything was supposed to be sorted at her end.
On my wedding morning, I was at the hotel, getting ready and I got a call from my brother saying no one had come to decorate the cars! The décor lady was supposed to send someone to the house by half 8 to sort the cars! I tried to reach her immediately, her number wasn’t going through. I called my husbands cousin and told her what was happening. She assured me she’ll get to the woman. At 10am there was still no word from her. At that point I knew the cars won’t be decorated for the wedding. Fair enough! I had other issues to deal with so decided I won’t get worked up! Back at home and back in my husband’s hotel, they kept waiting for the decorator. I was 1hr late for my wedding because everyone kept waiting for the woman hoping someone would turn up. By the time we realised no one was coming, we knew we were going to be late! Thank God my best mate was with me, I probably would have lost it!

Fast forward to 12pm. The church service was over. We had planned not to spend time taking pictures in the church because we had a red carpet and back drop for photos at the reception venue. So we were getting ready to go to the reception when my brother called to say we should waste some time at the church as the reception decoration was hardly DONE YET!!!!This was half 12!!!! The woman sent 2 people to decorate a hall of 1000 capacity; the charger plates were not the number we discussed. There were no table numbers as we discussed! No hanging balls from the ceiling, some part of the ceiling was to be covered, that wasn’t done; no petals, crystals; the couch that was kept for the couple was so dirty and worn, it was disgraceful! I had asked for reserved seats for my bridal party, none of that was done! Simply put, the decoration was HORRIBLE!!!!! One saving grace was my colours of the day, Fuchsia pink and Turquoise blue. The colours were so bright; they toned down how bad the decoration was. IMAGINE I USED GREY!!!! My brother was at the reception hall during the church service, trying to help the much he could. He was so upset, he asked the little girl she sent, “WHERE IS YOUR MADAM?” WHY SHE NO DEY HERE” The girl replied and said, MY MADAM DEY PRESIDENTIAL HOTEL, SHE GET ANOTHER JOB THERE.

So this woman knew she wouldn’t have been able to do the job or took on the job and took the second one in presidential, when she knew she didn’t have enough resources to take on both jobs and decided to use me as THE SACRIFICAL LAMB ON MY BIG DAY!!! WHAT A BIG SHAME!!!SHAME ON HER!!!!
The person I felt sorry for the most was my husband’s cousin, she was totally embarrassed and too shocked at the woman’s conduct.

Fast forward after the wedding, she didn’t have the decency to take the blame! She rather blamed it on her workers who didn’t listen to instructions! And I ask did I pay your workers? Do I know your workers? Who is the face of your “so called J’s events and gift concept” Again “APPROPRIARTE DAMAGE” CONTROL would have helped salvage her name, but nothing of that sort!!!!
Again being married doesn’t make one responsible, neither does having kids, neither does having “Amazing grace” as your ring tone make you any better than the Boko haram out there or the OGA AT THE TOP dude! If I still lived in Nigeria, I’d have sued this woman for FRAUD! That in my opinion is what she is!
Beware also she has a fantastic looking facebook page! Having a facebook page isn’t a review. Anyone can have a facebook page and upload whatever they damn please on it!

DJ AND MC

We got a[b] DJ (DJ DX OF LOVE FM)[/b] for the occasion. At the time I wanted a live band for my traditional and a dj for my white. It didn’t quite work out as I planned. My mum said she hadn’t come across something she liked. So to keep it safe, I settled for the same dj for both trad and white. Again, I scheduled an appointment to meet with him. My husband and I met with him and his so called manager at Kilimanjaro. Typically we were kept waiting and it was put down to traffic! We talked through what I expected that day and all. After the meeting he requested for some money. I told him I didn’t expect to give him any money so didn’t come with cash. I rummaged through my bag and had a decent sum to give him. (This was a mistake as he and my mum had agreed on a payment plan and the second advance wasn’t due yet! I found out about this when I got home). DJ DX went on to ask us (my husband and I) who the MC was going to be for the white. I told him someone my family has known for a while now. But I was still talking with him. He started to say he had a guy he worked with, who was a fantastic MC, they have worked together for a long time, he also works in Love FM (his name is SLOW ICE), I would like him…bla..bla…bla..We told him we had a budget for MC and that that wasn’t an area we would be willing to spend too much on. He said we shouldn’t decide yet let him speak to the guy first, that the guy will go with our price and so much nonsense… SLOW ICE agreed to be our MC. He asked me to deposit the money in his account, which I agreed to do. I wanted to meet with him before the wedding because I had to run through the programme with him. But there was so much to do, I decided that since he was a radio presenter, he’d manage fine and I’ll just have to speak with him before the reception started. Fast-forward to my wedding reception. I was sat in the car, waiting for the party to start. I asked someone to call the MC OUT and he came. As soon as the guy came to me, I knew he wasn’t “SLOW ICE”! I knew this because I already had a visual description of slow ice from the DJDX guy. So I said to him, where is slow ice? He looked shocked and was about to lie. And I Said, you’re not slow ice. Where is he? The guy said oh, there’s traffic on the way, he’s on his way, we’re colleagues and he asked me to start up for him and he’ll take over. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. At that point I decided I won’t get mad, I’ll calm down, smile and have fun. Meanwhile this stranger had already introduced himself inside as[b] “SLOW ICE”,[/b] thereby impersonating the real guy. Fast forward 2hrs later SLOW ICE didn’t show up. Towards the end, the “SLOW ICE” impersonator left without a word to anyone and handed over to another strange looking guy that was totally not even dressed for the occasion to take over from him! This second person was still not SLOW ICE and thankfully everyone was dancing and wasn’t interested in hearing what he was saying!
[b]Now let me give the first guy that was the MC some credit. He did a great job. I’d have been happy to pay for him from the start. If SLOW ICE had said I’m sorry I can’t make it, but I’ll give you someone else’s number that is equally good, then it’d have been my call. The guy should have used his original name to introduce him and not use someone else’s ID as he was asked to.
SLOW ICE himself is a disgrace and an embarrassment in my opinion.
You don’t do things that way especially if you value your integrity more than money. But I guess INTEGRITY is a big word! I sent him a text after the wedding, and he never responded! VERY RUDE AND DISGUSTING ATTITUDE! I spoke to DJDX after the wedding, and told him he knew right from the start that that guy won’t show up, and convinced me to use him. SHAME ON THEM BOTH! Again If I had the time, I would have sued “THE SO CALLED SLOW ICE” for FRAUD!!!! That in my opinion is what he is. I would derive the satisfaction of watching him spend the money he’s earned through defrauding people on lawyer’s fees and other related cost.[/b]

Everyday we complain about our leaders, everyone is so quick to crucify people in power. We’ve helped to get the “OGA AT THE TOP DUDE” out of his seat; yet on our own level, we do nothing to curb the corruption in our midst! The same people pointing fingers have a mirror in front of them and have failed to look at their own reflection!!!!

While some people were working so hard to ruin my day, some folks were working so hard to make me smile.

I’d like to recommend the lady that did my cake, CHIOMA. She did both my traditional and white cake. The cakes tasted heavenly and looked even better. Simple and classy! She was always on the phone with me asking what I wanted and all. She was very professional, her view and her general approach. And her price was very decent. I’d certainly recommend this lady for[b] CAKES[/b] and[b] SMALL CHOPS.[/b]

Also the lady that catered for the white wedding, MARY, was absolutely amazing. She was very honest with her prices and feedback. She was an absolute Angel. People like her make me believe there’s hope for a better future for Nigeria. She was so good to me, like I was always meeting with her to add something or increase the number. She took it on very calmly. On the day, she and her crew looked very smart in their uniform. The food was fantastic and on point. Very presentable and everyone had something to eat. I’d totally recommend MARY.

The lady that did my traditional decoration needs an award. I was blown away when I came outside my house. Her name is FAVOUR. Her and her team did a fantastic job, more than words can describe. She also did the cup cakes for my white wedding and they were heavenly!!!This lady made me smile. She was very professional and kind; always asking if I’m resting and eating well. I don’t blame her! I had lost 6kg body weight in less than 2 weeks!

If anyone requires the contacts of these persons, please don’t hesitate to ask.

My wedding experience, if I wanted to write it all, wouldn’t end here. But again the reason why I’m writing this is to encourage people to write reviews. In this age, you should be able to Google a company’s name and see reviews managed by INDEPENDENT BODIES. I checked out J’S EVENT AND GIFT CONCEPT on the internet and all that came back was her facebook page which is MOST HIGHLY INSUFFICIENT!!!!

Too bad.