I had the pleasure of hiring Marcella to provide open bar services for my bridal shower. From the moment we started communication, she never left me hanging. She was prompt, professional and created the most delicious & beautiful cocktails that wowed each and every guest!
She even went above and beyond the bar, and helped clear used plates & empty glassware from the tables as my guests finished. Not to mention, she emptied & packed up all of our hotel pans for us- without us even having to ask. She let us take home whatever liquor had been opened & left over, which was an unexpected but pleasant surprise! I would definitely recommend her for all of your bartending/party planning needs. We truly couldn’t have pulled this off without her!
If I could give this business zero stars, I would. They lied, stole our money, broke contract, and now won’t respond to us.
We booked them in December of 2022 after they confirmed via email (I still have it) that they have a liquor license. This was required by our venue, and they are strict so I made a big deal about it.
Marcella seemed friendly and very excited to work with us. We gave a deposit, and in January 2023, she reached out saying if we pay the balance we can take advantage of a 10% liquor discount from their wholesaler so we did it. We were paid in full according to our contract 9 months before our wedding.
In April of 2023, Marcella said she needed to add an additional staff member in order to be in compliance with her insurance… so we paid the extra fee (even though she should have known this to begin with).
At this point I had asked several times for their liquor license info. The story started changing… they have a temporary but the permanent one is coming through, then the date kept changing for when they would have it… this continued for months.
We did a walk through of our venue with Marcella and Jeff in June. She said her liquor license info would be in the folder with all the other paperwork she was giving to our venue (it was not). The walk through made me nervous and our venue owner even said she didn’t feel good about it. They were rushing, preoccupied, not really paying attention and scattered. But we chalked it up to the fact that they had their young daughter with them and it was probably a long day for her.
We spoke over the summer of 2023 about signature drinks, cups, etc. our phone calls were usually rescheduled or cut short, but again I chalked it up to having a young child at home and gave her the benefit of the doubt.
September 2023, 30 days before our wedding Marcella told us she had been having issues with other clients and needed to make an amendment to our contract. She told us we had to pay an extra $800+ and we told her that we couldn’t. We already paid them the amount in the contract PLUS the extra money they asked for in April (over $400).
At this point she became combative and manic. Paragraph after paragraph of text messages that were often difficult to follow. She even reached out to our venue to tell them I was being difficult and started a fight with our venue owner. She became very nasty overall. I have documentation of all of this.
At this point, I started doing some digging on the internet. Several bad reviews on Google and the Knot had appeared, and a Reddit forum was started that other clients she had screwed over were on. The biggest lesson I learned from this is to Google people’s names for criminal history… I would have never hired them if I had done that.
On September 30th, 2023 she called and said they could not do our wedding. She admitted to not actually having a liquor license but that they were in the process and they were being “backed” by a restaurant in the meantime.
I called the CT liquor authority and they not only confirmed that this business had no license, but they had no record of any applications from them at all.
So 2 weeks before our wedding, they canceled on us with over $5,800 of our money in their pocket. They promised a refund, and 5 months later we have had excuse after excuse, but no refund. She has officially stopped responding to us, and she probably thinks we are just going to go away.
Marcella and Couple of Bartenders CT should be avoided at all costs. Check the Reddit thread on them, and a simple Google search about criminal history will give you all the answers you need. I wish I had done that before hiring a company that stole my money and left us in a panic 2 weeks before our wedding.
I hope that no other couple has to go through the anxiety and stress that they put us through. Fortunately we found a replacement bartending service that did an amazing job, and our wedding night was perfect, but the amount of time spent dealing with them is time I can never get back.
I recently had the pleasure of working with Marcella on a baby shower event. She was extremely responsive to my inquiry and to all of my questions. Marcella was very informative and very pleasant to work with. Unfortunately due to a complication with the event hall, I was unable to utilize her company. I would not hesitate to recommend A Couple Of Bartenders for any event you be planning. I sincerely hope to be able to use their services in the future.
My husband and I loved having Jeff and Marcella bartend for our wedding! Not only did they support mine and my husband's silly visions, but they supported us with everything regarding the wedding and all the stress that come with planning. I 1 million percent recommended Couple of Bartenders!! Thank you Jeff and Marcella for everything.
So we booked these guys for our September wedding. They texted a week out saying she couldn't make it and sent another team. Then after reviewing our preferred beverages. The team that did show up had nothing that we requested and double charged for drinks. Example 16 instead of 6 per drink. Several people were upset over this as we were considering we trusted them for our wedding. We later found out that even her team didn't pay her either. When I requested money back. I was told only 400 out of 1400 I would get. Even tho we had to go get our own beverages due to their mistakes and ripping us off. And then at the end of the evening we had to stay till almost 1 scooping out all the ice from a metal cooler they were cold no ice in. So that almost got broken as well, at the venue we used. t's several months later and I'm still waiting for the last payment of the 400. Which I should honestly be fully refunded the 1400. Because I didn't get anything I was promised. It really hurts since I trusted her and talked to her for months before our day. I tried to not write this review but I don't want someone else getting the treatment I got.
***tl;dr Good mocktails, egregious lack of professionalism, theft***
We hired Couple of Bartenders CT in March for an October 15 wedding. At the time, they required 100% payment up front. In July, they started sending requests for more money for "unexpected expenses." When we explained that was a violation of the contract, they backed down with a wordy, nonsensical apology. Fast forward to the wedding. Only one of the two we had paid for showed up, and the other didn't send any word until the day after the wedding. They refused to refund any of the total cost, despite us having paid for 2 bartenders. Additionally, all the sparkling wine and white wine we had purchased disappeared with the bartender--over $250 worth of wine.
The one bartender who showed up made good mocktails, which is why we gave 2 stars instead of 1, but working with this business was a terrible experience.
UPDATE 11/14: A few days after posting this review, Marcella reached out to say that while all the wine that they had taken was already gone, just days after our wedding, she would reimburse us the cost. Since then, she has given us the runaround, alternating between promising to pay in a matter of days and taunting that she'll use a lawyer to make sure she never pays. I'm still in shock that such a business continues to function, and I urge others to reconsider hiring Couple of Bartenders.
A True Connection
Our wedding was full of obstacles from the very beginning between venues, vendors, legal boundaries etc. Marcella was so kind & supportive through everything, we instantly connected and she made me feel very comfortable with the whole process. We had some complications with liquor laws which had pushed us toward an open bar adding a lot to our original estimate, but Marcella & Jeff tried their best to make it worth every penny with extra care, emotional support and a personable attitude. Marcella especially helped guide me through wedding things I never even thought of, introduced me to our day of coordinator and leant a shoulder to cry on. By the end of the day, our guests had a great time, drank a lot of wine and enjoyed the open bar and everything looked beautiful!!
Marcella and Jeff donated their time and bartending services to us at the 2023 Eversource Hartford Marathon. They both were very courteous and professional with our guests. They arrived on time and set-up the bar area of our outdoor venue as we requested. They had to leave our event earlier than we expected, which was not communicated previously and meant that our team needed to step in for the final half hour of service and clean-up.
