Tuesday, June 24, 2008

take the key and lock her up....

Okay, so you guys are all probably thinking this inspiration board is crazy! I just had to do something special for my convict bride to be...be sure to see the letters below that inspired it all!
I was thinking we could incorporate some real fun elements like these earrings by crumpetcake






We could play the police for ambient background music..HA!
..and we definitely could thumb print everyone at the door as the guest book. Perfect! Little clocks would make excellent favors. Oh yes..I know you're following me..."Doing time", so appropriate. We would serve a fine meal of crusty breads and cute personalized labeled bottles of water of course! The stripes on this Preston + Sturgess cake just pulls it all together. For the exit...I'm thinking vintage POLICE car and handcuffs.

So, I have officially had my first wedding scam. Who knew there was such a thing? Planners beware! This is the email that I just received a couple days ago from a so called bride to be in Germany. Lot's of details in this first email as you can see...and it just got more detailed in the emails that followed.

My name is Kim Lohan, from Germany,Hamburg (Europe ).. I will be coming over to California with my Husband James Phillips who's French by nature but has actually naturalised in Germany. We'll be moving to the US to start a new life because my husband to be just got a job with the Coca-cola Co. in CA and i have made plans of opening my new kiddies fashion store in CA as soon as we are settled in. Just before then we will be getting married on the 7th of December , 2008 and we have decided to get married in THE STATES since we're moving on and we pretty know our new move would be wonderful. We will be needin' a good wedding planner to take care of our wedding event both ceremony and reception for our guests and our convenience because we require the best for the best memories fost on our wedding day. We prefer the ceremony and reception event to take place in a location and we are expecting at most 60 guests on the day of our occasion because most of our families in Europe and in the United Kingdom will be present for this wonderful occassion. Also, we would like you to know we prefer the reception and ceremony to take place in a location for the convenience of our guests and would love the ceremony to be in a garden setting and the reception in an indoor location in San Marcos ,CA or surrounding areas because the weather is unpredictable at this time of the year. We haven't made any venue reservations yet but we are sure the wedding planner can do that on on our behalf as we are looking for a customized wedding planning package that involves virtually every aspect of planning except the band which we are already making arrangements for. The total wedding budget is 25,000$US. Please let us know if you can help work with us for the success of our event and can help work within our budget as we're not opened to spending a dollar more than the above bidget? Thanks and God bless, kim

Here's the next one....

Hello Heather, Thanks for your response! We will definitely love to work with you!! Oh and we will understand if we are only able to have an indoor wedding in December because of the weather as we didn't realise this before and an evening event will be perfect indoors

Well i'm used to calling James my husband because we are getting married
and nothing's changing that fact 'cause we have come a long way together. My husband and i will be arriving Town on the 9th of November this year which is the only time we'll be available for a face to face consultation because we would like to finish our work here and also spend more time with our family and loved ones before coming as we might not be chanced to spend as much time with them.. we would like the ceremony and reception to take place in the same location.. Preferred time for ceremony is 6pm and no traditions or heritage involved. The budget is US$25000!

We are expecting nothing less than 55 guests and at most 65people..
Our preferred wedding style is formal. There'll be 3 bridesmaids including maid of honor, 3 groomsmen including the bestman and 2 flower girls. A ring bearer We don't have a color scheme yet. Six of our favorite colors are pink, orange, green, blue, violet and lemon. Hmm five colors i don't like are red, brown, grey, black and i dont know any other. We don't have any theme yet we can always make that out later. The preferred time for reception is 8:30pm. As for catering the seated/plated dinner is perfect. Our food preference is sea food. We would prefer a fruit cake with fresh or silk flowers incorporated in the design of the cake. No grooms cake required. The cake should be like 4 tiers Flowers should be included in the centrepieces.
We have a specific photography requirement but we don't know if they do such in the US that is to make every part of the wedding like a story, a story book photography. Please let us know if we can find this type of photographer? Our entertainment band will be coming in from Benin Republic , It's a french coupe de calien african band, they're marvelous.We will need the DJ to be present during the reception to provide background sounds.
An itinerary put together for the guests will help them alot for them to be able to make plans for the proper hotel rooms and costs before their arrival to the states to avoid any form of trouble with that in future. We'll be coming with the pastor of our church who will be the ceremony officiant on that day. Okay dear that's it for now, we hope you're able to make our event as wonderful as we've dreamed it would be.

The cost of your services is okay by us. We will like you to start planning as soon as possible..We'll be needing also your detailed contact information that your name to make deposit check payable and mailing instructions not a PO BOX to have it sent to you.
Have a pleasant day! Sincerely Kim

This just gets crazier!
Hello Heather

Great to read from you again! We're well pleased!! Well we are easy to get to know and as a matter of fact we are opened to be read like a book.
James and i met in Paris , in the year 1998 and that was how it all started. I travelled to Paris to see my grand ma and eventually met James in my grand ma's mansion, he was her personal accountant. To my surprise he spoke english very well unlike other french nationals around and he was the only other person i could talk to except my grand ma. He was nice enough to have me say a yes to an invitation for dinner after a few days that we've met and that was how he started getting closer to my heart and after my visit to my grand ma's i was back in Germany and James didnt stop calling me everytime to wish me well and tell me how much he missed me, he didnt give up on me even when there's so much distance between us and one day he promised to visit me in Germany which he did. This actually triggered my feelings for him and we started a relationship from there and got engaged in July 2002..
In February 2003 he got a job with the Coca-cola company in Hamburg as an Auditor and ever since we've been together as one. We share so many things in common and we love kids alot though we haven't started giving birth yet until after our marriage.
More about us, we are christians, well mannered, easy going, great sense of humour, peace loving, quite out going, we love flowers. We love to swim, dance, go out to the movies, love sports, James loves water skiing and i love skating.
We would also love to know more about you and your family, are you married, do you have any child? I hope this isn't prying though if it is then you don't have to answer.

Actually it was a friend of mine in Spain who just got married in New York that referred me to the Website i viewed your advert and eventually visited your website and to our surprise you got a great chance of working with us as your style is preferably intriguing.

Please let us know if this is pretty okay by you, we have attached a picture to this message for you to put a face with our e-mails. Have a pleasant day!

Sincerely
Kim
and here was my response after I realized what was really going on....
Dear Kim,
Oh...you sound like such a kind and honest person. To read more about me and my family go to http://www.ic3.gov/

Hopefully, you'll learn more about me there...and we can begin our journey together making plans for your wedding. Can't wait! I'm glad one of your favorite colors is orange...because I have something perfect in mind for the bridal party to wear with sparkly silver cuffs. I think it would go great with a black and white theme and we could incorporate the use of sirens. What do you think?

see you soon!

amorology

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?

My husband actually saved the day. He found out this was a scam when he googled the band. The scam is that they send a cashier's check for the deposit along with an extra $3000.00 deposit to be sent to the band in Africa. When the federal reserve discovers the check is a fraud, the "band" has been paid and I'm on the hook for the money.... I feel so bad for the other event planners that have already been taken advantage of. Has anyone heard of this?

15 comments:

Miggy said...

That took me a minute...I was like what bride wants a jailbird themed wedding? must be a great story behind that one...

Glad Troy saved the day.

Bailey said...

That is just crazy! But I must say Heather you have a talent. You can even make a jail bird theme look chic!

shelly said...

Wow! I'm so glad you guys figured this out! Crazy.

Maria @ {ritzy bee} said...

That's just down-right scary! Ugh - what is wrong with people!? I'm so glad you caught the scam before it was too late.

I do love the inspiration board...you are too funny!

Shannon said...

hello darling! yes i have actually heard of that--my friend in new zealand was renting out her vacation home and almost got snagged w/the same thing. fortunately she was in the US to deposit the check and they hadn't sent back the extra deposit and they hadn't gone far enough in the process. cops were surrounding us as she tried to cash the check. indeed--what is wrong w/people?

p.s. a black and white wedding is completely fabulous! (jailbird or not)

Joyful Weddings and Events said...

I have received emails like that numerous times! I corresponded back and forth with the first one for a short time but it just seemed odd. I figured out what was going on before it was too late.

Since then, I have received a few other variations. Luckily, theknot has picked up on it and a few other prominent planners have spoken out against it. Yikes!

I loved your response!

Alison said...

I wanted that jailbird theme to be real so badly! I LOVE IT!

Amanda Morgan said...

I love your last comment back. It doesn't get any better than that! Its too bad people really try stuff like that! I think you handled it well. :)

heather said...

I had a similar email come from Laura Clington. Different names and minor details, but it is the same scam. Beware!

Anonymous said...

Hello there! I am a wedding planner in Hawaii and I just got this same scam. It all seems like a legitimate bride until I received the check in the mail yesterday.....no return address, not letter, way over the amount requested for my services and the check just looked phony. Then came the email with the Western Union instructions which were a bit oo specific and fishy. So I called the bank and went to all of my local banks and, sure enough, it's a fraudulent check. After going to all my banks for several hours today I came home and decided to Google and came across your post. I even tried calling the local Coca-Cola to verify they had an employee starting with them but no one answered the phone. Thank you for posting this. I am now going to be contacting all of the local authorities and letting everyone I know about this too! Good job to us detailed planners who catch these things before it's too late! My emails were identical to yours except for Hawaii and instead of California!

Amorology said...

Oh, so glad I was able to help! sheesh! I'm hoping the word will spread and they will be shut down asap!

*Michelle said...

Ok - the scam is terrible. But your response is PRICELESS!! Way to go for you and your husband and picking up on the sketchy factor before getting nailed!!

The Staggs said...

I am just reading this post and I am loving your response. The funny thing is I have looked at your "Jailbird" theme pics tons of times and loved the whole concept of it. I was thinking, "Wow, Heather is always coming up with these adorable ideas." Ha ha ... and I just now took the time to read what it was really about.
Ryan gets those same type emails all of the time, but for his line of work. Those people really need to get lives.

Anonymous said...

They just reached me in California with the same story. Bewware !!! I will not post my response.

Glad I found your website.

EventsByLMG said...

This just reached me in Utah... this one doesn't look like it's going to stop! Everyone spread the word.