HOUSTON – Jennifer Oliva and her husband renewed their wedding vows last week, but they had been planning the big day for over a year.
A huge hiccup with the table linens and centerpieces Oliva ordered, and paid for, prompted her to call Channel 2.
“I paid her one payment in March and another in April,” Oliva said. “Then she said she never received the payments."
The wedding vendor is a woman named Karin McLearn, who runs a business called ‘Keep it Simple Bridal.’
Oliva has receipts showing she paid $600 to McLearn’s PayPal account, but McLearn said she never received the money.
Oliva said McLearn didn’t show up to her wedding reception, and she fears she will never get her money back.
“Even if I don’t get my money back, I wanted to let others know the type of business she is doing and make others aware so they don’t fall into the same trap I did,” she said.
Sadly, Jennifer and Justin Richard say they are victims, too.
They hired McLearn to do the catering at their September nuptials, but said they didn’t get what they paid for.
They told Channel 2 they paid more than $6,000 for gourmet chicken and turkey, but that’s not what was served at their wedding.
“The food was terrible,” Richard said. “To the point some of our guests left and went to Jack in the Box and some of our guests told us they also went to Taco Bell. It was so embarrassing and hurtful to us.”
Richard said they paid for food that was worth $30 a person but were served food worth only $10 a person. They would like their money refunded.
“I would like for us to get our money back and also for her to stop doing this nasty business and ruining people’s special day,” the Richards said.
In an emailed statement Mclearn said, “I have never claimed to be perfect and have tried to be very honest with my potential clients about my experience and that no celebration goes perfectly. I have always been and remain committed to providing my very best services to every client. For every mistake in judgment we have encountered along the way, we have developed a solution to ensure that it does not happen again.” McLearn went on to say, “I have a clear conscience knowing that my staff and I have always done everything in our power and worked very hard to provide the best possible catering services under whatever circumstances we were presented with. Nonetheless, we no longer provide formal, special event catering services that could even potentially lead to these issues.“
“We just want to get the word out,” Justin Richard said. “She’s done this to several people and gotten away with it.”
Oliva reached out to the police and has filed a report.
Other couples say they have hired lawyers and are pursuing lawsuits.