The Cocktail Concierge — Local services in Orange

For a business that boasts that they "strive for excellence" and their "customers always come first", I'm disappointed with the customer service provided throughout our booking process, the days leading up to our wedding, and the wedding day itself. For an owner who explained he has 15 years of wedding experience and 600+ weddings, I'm surprised at the quality of beverages served during our reception and the overall communication/service I experienced with Chad.

Unfortunately, we had no option but to book The Cocktail Concierge (TCC) as it was the only preferred beverage vendor of our wedding venue. With our wedding in August 2018, I initially contacted Chad in October 2017 to get this checked off our to-do list. It typically took Chad a few days to week to respond to my emails. Overwhelmed with the passing of my grandma and other unfortunate family events put a hold on my wedding planning. I reconnected with Chad in January 2018 to secure our wedding date and pay our deposit. Luckily, I reviewed the invoice/contract before paying the deposit and noticed our quote was priced higher than their price book list. With the updated invoice, we finally secured TCC in late February 2018. Chad confirmed receipt of our deposit early March 2018 and stated he was our main point of contact throughout our wedding planning, which ended being to our dismay.

Between October 2017 and June 2018, there was no communication of any requirements or special requests from TCC of logistical matters for our reception.

I did reach out to Chad to update our contract in July 2018, and even then, no mention of any logistics required by this vendor.

With my day-of coordinator sending timelines to all the vendors 2 weeks prior to our wedding on August 25th, it wasn't until the week of our wedding, which was THREE DAYS before the big day, that Chad realized he had an issue with our timeline. Smooth move, Chad.

Pretty much, my husband and I wanted the open bar to be from 6-10pm. That's it. I am not sure if it was in the best interests of the venue or TCC that this disagreement arose. Either way, there was no consideration of what the bride and groom wanted for THEIR WEDDING. My wedding coordinator was helpful in considering alternatives for our timeline to accommodate both the bride/groom and the vendors. Unfortunately, there was no budging with TCC (and/or the venue) as Chad wasn't willing to agree with our planned bar time of 6-10pm. This took me by surprise because I had many months of communication with Chad and it was never expressed that the open bar hours were to be predetermined by the vendor though this was our wedding and we were paying for their services.

Being a few days before the wedding, I asked our coordinator to work with the venue and TCC on the best option for the open bar. Ultimately, it came down to me making phone call with Chad the Thursday before our Saturday wedding. I expressed my reasons for having the open bar from 6-10pm. I listened to Chad's concerns and ensured him that our guests will not be disappointed with the open bar at 6-10pm as I personally communicated the timeline to most of our guests and made a sign displaying the time of the bar on our wedding day. Long story short, Chad hung up on our call.

Our guests mentioned the beverages were mediocre. In comparison with our second wedding reception (yes, we had two weddings), TCC's service was by far the worst and their beverages lacked "TCC Difference", but it was definitely an unforgettable experience...and never ever again!

It seems some vendors are more concerned with their own reputation over ensuring excellent service to their customers (update your website, Chad). For someone with 600+ weddings under his belt, he presented himself in the most unprofessional manner and I would NOT recommend this vendor to my engaged...

We cannot say enough nice things about Cocktail Concerige and Justin who we worked with to make our cocktail wedding dreams come true! My now husband and I both work in demanding fields and Justin made the entire process to easy. He was so accommodating and SO communicative and so kind. Planning a wedding with many many vendors can be stressful but the beverage service was something we never had to worry about. The bartenders were very professional and friendly. The entire service from early stages of planning to the wedding day was reliable and very high quality!! If we could do it all again we wouldn’t change a thing! And to add, the cocktails were amazing. We went with old fashioned and monitored and the guests are still telling us how...

Honestly, I didn't drink almost at all at our wedding, so I don't have a lot of firsthand experience, but I did hear that the bartenders were dismissive and a bit rude to some of our guests. It could have been rooted in poor coordination and some other bad vendors on site, but nonetheless I don't think that stress should spill over onto the guests. Apparently, they complained about having to clear some drinks during happy hour, didn't want to give a sober guest a full glass of club soda because they might run out, and they didn't know the names of the drinks they had been making all night. The service was totally fine and the drinks were tasty, but the experience did leave a sour taste in some...