Austin Area Weddings — Local services in Round Rock

I was really excited to work with Austin Area Weddings. He was kind and professional on the phone and was very willing to plan everything out with me. However, when it actually came to the rehearsal and the wedding, it was a complete mess. The day before the wedding and just before the rehearsal, I get a voicemail saying that he can't wait any longer and has to leave. Well, he apparently double booked and showed up an hour early. Aside from leaving a voicemail, it didn't seem like he made any attempt to ask the staff at the venue where we were. I actually have no idea where he went or if he was actually on the property because he said the building was locked.... Well the main building is always open with a wine bar and cafe so I'm not sure how that works. So that left us scrambling to try and plan out and practice the vows, processional, and recessional with the bridal party during dinner. Oh, and I had left a voicemail for him after but never received a call or text back about the rehearsal.

The next day - the wedding day - I'm thinking, stuff happens just blow it off. So I send him a text with the time of the wedding - just to be sure he shows up. All I get is a "thank you" reply back. Ok. So after I get ready and finish taking bridal pictures we are all lined up to start the wedding. Well 10 minutes before the official time and we have no pastor. So we send my father to hurry and grab an iPad with the vows on it so an uncle can stand in and do it. Great. At the official start time, the venue gets a call from the pastor saying that he'll be about 15 to 20 minutes late because his previous wedding ran long. He eventually showed up and we got the wedding going. All this I can handle but here is the kicker - I had asked that he tell people to put away cell phones before the ceremony. Wasn't mentioned. We had written our own vows, it was like he hadn't read through them before. Parts were slightly changed. Our photographer was forced to work around people with phones, and because he was so late we couldn't do all of our wedding portraits after the vows because we there wasn't enough light.

I know stuff happens, but dang.

ALSO, I asked for a refund back for the rehearsal because the service wasn't performed. After the book keeper asked me to send my receipt in because they couldn't find a record of me paying for it - I got it back - but with the Paypal fee deducted from it. Which was really just the last straw. He did genuinely seem nice and I'm sorry I even have to write this - but during the stress of a wedding, the last thing you should be worried about is if you have an...

If I could give negative stars I would. James simmons doesn’t deserve even a one star. We will start with how I booked him and his company for numerous items. We booked him to officiate our wedding, do wedding music, photography and videography for our wedding. Paid in full months before wedding even took place. On our visit with him in person I asked him if he could in fact do our rehearsal the day before the wedding. He said yes. A few weeks before the wedding I reached out to him and asked him about the rehearsal time and date and he said he would be doing it because “his daughter was getting married that day” but he NEVER mentioned a daughter or her getting married on our rehearsal date. Day of wedding I got ready and the photographer came in and did her job. I asked James simmons where the videographer was and he told me he was “setting up his equipment in the trees” which I thought was weird but okay. Walking down the isle, no videographer. So my husband asked where the videographer was and James simmons said “he must have just left from the trees without saying goodbye”. Seriously? A month goes by and I get my pictures but no video. I reached out to Mr simmons multiple times and he ignored me. Finally I asked the photographer to reach out to him since they work together. She did and he finally gets back to me. The photographer gave me screenshots of Mr simmons and her conversation before my wedding took place where he stated he never hired a videographer for me wedding and there wouldn’t be one for my day but never told me and kept my money. I requested a refund and he gives me back a little refund and I had to fight him for even part of that back. Horrible service. Horrible company. Funny how this man says he’s “a man of god and a revered” but screws people out of their wedding day. Disgusting and he needs his title stripped from him.

In response to owners comment: We did ask you to stay around for a tip then after a discussion with groom about where the videographer was that you never hired in the first place ( we have text message proof you didn’t hire one because you were texting another vendor of mine to ask where you could find someone to video my wedding) we decided it was best to not tip you since you lied to ours faces on the day of the wedding saying the videographer was in the trees taping the wedding. I had to FORCE you to give me refund. You sir are a scam and con artist and your criminal record proves it. You’ve been criminally charged multiple times for theft of checks and other charges and that is...

Beware! We booked James 4 months prior to our wedding. After multiple emails and finally meeting with him in person to iron out details, we were really looking forward to having him officiate our wedding.

Fast forward two weeks prior to our wedding, our wedding planner called us to let us know she had been hearing some disturbing chatter about James. She had been hearing he was either canceling on people a few days before their wedding or no showing the day of the wedding. Rather than jumping ship, we decided to book a follow up call with James to make sure he was committed to our date and time. We had a pleasant call with him and he confirmed our date/time and details for the ceremony. He never gave any indication that he would not be able to officiate our wedding.

Two days before our wedding I got a call from James stating that he "accidentally double booked" another wedding at the same time as ours. He said he would not be able to officiate our wedding but had a stand in he could connect us with. This was the very thing our wedding planner had warned us about. Just two days before our wedding! We felt so foolish for not heeding the red flags our planner had raised.

From the sound of it and the reviews I've been reading here and other places, it sounds like this is something he's made a habit of doing. The fact that he flat out lied to my fiancé and I more than once about being available for our wedding and pulled out so close to our wedding is horrible. It was a complete lack of professionalism and regard for us on our very special day. If you're considering booking James, I would highly recommend going with someone else. Someone you won't have to worry about bailing on you last minute. We didn't think it would happen to...