Orcas Weddings & Events

Time has passed and I am now able to write a review for this company without emotion. When everything first happened a few years ago I was a wreck and all attempts to write a review were just not going to be helpful. Wedding can be so stressful and so I waited. But, now I can and so I shall.
I had the misfortune of working with Veronica when trying to plan my wedding at Rosario (when she was still the wedding planner for Rosario). I ended up canceling the wedding with her and relocating it to another venue.
I had many reasons for canceling my wedding and changing all our plans, but the main, over ridding issue is that Veronica just seems to not give a hoot about her clients’ big day. A wedding is a BIG deal for the bride, groom and their families. You want someone who can help you and views your wedding as a priority. I never got the feeling from her that that was the case. There was a lot of misinformation, misleading representation of services and general incompetence which made me VERY nervous.
Overall, I’d stay far away from this company for anything other than the most basic rentals.

It’s our 5 year anniversary tomorrow, and one of the details that is still top of mind is how horrible Veronica was. She had my now wife in tears several times including the day before the wedding. She definitely plays upon the captive audience that you are on Orcas. Veronica, honestly, 5 years later I’m shocked you’re still in business. Good riddance.

Run. Run as far as you can from this place. Run from Veronica’s fake happiness and excitement. Rent from Friday Harbor. Rent from Anacortes. Rent from Seattle if you have to, but DO NOT rent from Orcas Events.
I got married on Orcas Island a couple of weeks ago. My now-​husband grew up on the island and we got married in his parent’s backyard. It was the most amazing, spectacular day of my life. The only thing that soured it was Veronica at Orcas Events.
From the beginning, my husband and I had concerns with Veronica. We first met with her 11 months before the wedding, and she seemed fake and a little rude, but we also didn’t know anyone else on the island who did rentals. We went home to Los Angeles and I had intended on researching other places in Anacortes and Friday Harbor, but I’m a bit of a procrastinator, so we figured we’d just go with Veronica.
We started emailing with her. Well, actually AT her. Because she was very slow to respond. And when she did, she would only answer one of our three or four questions. We’ve never planned a wedding before. We were looking for advice for how much to rent for an 80 person wedding. *Crickets* We did our best to figure it out ourselves.
Flash forward to 6 weeks before the wedding. Our number had gone down to 70 and according to our contract we had to notify her of any changes 4 weeks in advance. I changed around the invoice, but it’s like she didn’t even take the time to look at the thing. She sent it back incorrect and took 2 or 3 times for her to finally get it right. But on a positive note, the day of the wedding, everything we ordered was delivered and nothing was forgotten. Oh and by the way, her contract says «We reserve the right to make changes to our policies and procedures without notice.» So then what’s the point of having a contract?
The absolute WORST part was Veronica’s unprofessionalism. The day of the drop-​off, she was upset that we didn’t have a tent to cover her outdoor dance floor that we rented. I explained that even if we did have a tent, it wouldn’t have walls. She claimed that it would keep the dance floor from getting wet from dew. I don’t know how long she’s lived on Orcas Island but I’ve only been there 5 or 6 times and even I know a dance floor is gonna get wet from dew if it’s not indoors. A tent without walls isn’t gonna do shit. Which is why we rented the OUTDOOR dance floor. In any case, we promised to keep the floor covered by a tarp at night.
She delivered us 4 outdoor heaters. One didn’t work and when guests tried to turn it on, it cracked. She claimed we broke it. Even though her guys working for her took no care taking it out of the pick-​up truck and were banging it all over when they were moving it. She finally relented and apologized for the heater but she only gave us a $ 25 equipment discount when she should have refunded us the full $ 100. After the wedding, she tried to charge us for a mandap that we didn’t order (I didn’t even know what that was until now) and in general tried to squeeze as much money as she possibly could out of us.
Veronica is greedy, manipulative, and a horrible business woman. I’m not sure how she stays in business. It’s not through referrals so it must just be for all the one-​off clients that plan a destination wedding on Orcas. If you can’t find anyone else, and I mean absolutely anyone else in the entire world that fits in your budget, be really really careful and do not expect an easy transaction.

Veronica was great for the rentals for our wedding. We did shop around and didn’t do ALL of our rentals from them to avoid «island prices», but we did do all of our large rental items through them. Table cloths, plates, etc. In my opinion, it was worth the few extra dollars to avoid the hassle of taking them back to Seattle. She dropped the items off at the time we had chosen and picked up the dirty items the next day. We had curry and Indian food and it is never an easy clean up, but she didn’t charge us for the inconvenience. I highly recommend Orcas Events.

I should have listened to all of you!!! Veronica was deceptive in her charging, extremely rude and unprofessional, and an overall nightmare to deal with. She tacked on false charges and was horrible!
I want everyone to know that you are much better off doing ANYTHING other than using her services. She was really the very worst part of a wonderful event!

Same here! One star might be too much. Veronica’s staff and Veronica herself provided contradictory information to me that resulted in a service charge after our event. Because she was so rude and unpleasant, I just paid the fee rather than argue about $ 75 and create an unpleasant memory from our wedding. She was also abrupt with my friend who served as our day-​of-​wedding coordinator. Get your linens, glassware through your caterer and save yourself the hassle!

My wife and I had similar exeriences as listed in Beth G.‘s review, and we were very displeased with our dealings with Veronica.

We had hired Orcas Events/​Veronica San Martin both for our rentals and as our day-​of wedding coordinator.
The rentals were extremely overpriced, and I consistently felt like she was trying to squeeze another dollar out of us for unnecessary items. She also only picked up the rentals 5 days after the event itself (which took place at a residence). This rentals, though, were unmemorable.
What was memorable was the terrible experience we had with the day-​of-​coordination. Leading up to the event, Veronica was less than responsive, often did not respond to emails or calls, and lacked attention to detail. On the day preceding the event, she refused to collaborate at all with the caterer, even when the caterer was standing several feet away from her, and forced us to position ourselves as mediators when trying to negotiate who was going to do what. On the day of the event, she was nowhere to be found halfway through the reception, we had to manage on our own the timing of events, and she simply made our lives more stressful.
These are just a couple of examples of a really disappointing service provider. I am not one to write reviews, but we just had such a terrible experience that we felt we should warn people to not waste their money on her services.