Elena-


I don't usually bother complaining about something that's over and done but this was our six year olds first and only birthday party and it was $325+tip for your company's services.

I went with your party because your website represents experience with little girls and the photos you show appear to depict kids having fun.


Maybe all of your other hosts are top notch, high energy, party entertainers who have a true rapport with children and the experience to read a situation, but Kate was not one of those.


She was a nice girl, can't say anything derogatory about her personally.

She mentioned she was studying acting and theater but she had no ability to project, engage or even present herself as Hannah Montana in any way. The kids had NO idea who she was because not only didn't say say she was to anyone that I heard, but she didn't act like her in any way.


I can tell you that if the weather was not gorgeous out today (even with wet ground and wind) and the if the kids had been unable to play outside after Kate's 'entertainment' the entire party would've been an awkward, tense, uncomfortable, sad, unfun failure.

If a party entertainer is aware of tip versus performance ratio then Kate simply didn't care.


When you spend $325 you expect a company representative to come in, take over, have high energy, engage with the children via humor, eye contact and empathy. You expect someone to do everything you hired them to do so you don't have to provide entertainment and you can enjoy the party yourself.


I'm 44, and I've been to dozens of childrens parties. I've thrown two extremely fun parties for my oldest daughter and hired a clown who did magic, games, face painting, a pinata and who had a special activity aimed at the birthday girl. I hired a bubble man at another party. In both cases, I didn't have to involve myself in ANY of their business. THey did a great job, the kids were thrilled and I was happy to pay and tip super graciously.


I've seen a dozen hosts at other establishments like BeBop, Gymboree, Ocean Gymnastics, Jump, and many more. They too were young people. But they were young people who really sold it, gave the kids high energy, eye contact, laughs, they had a sense of the kids in the room, engaged with them and basically had the kids following along and eating out of their hands and it was a big deal when they left for the day.


Fairy Tale Home's party today was worse than a Chucky Cheese party. At least if you do a CC Party you get pizza, smarmy goody bags, drinks and some tokens and a room for of crazy stand alone activity.

At a birthday party ALL of the entertainment is on the peformer/host and Kate was slow, robotic, boring, awkward, alienated the birthday girl many times over, had ZERO energy, didn't explain anything that was going to happen, didn't have any bits or jokes to punctuate or sell any of the games, she didn't listen absorbe or incorporate anything from our discussion of how things were set up and how we'd like to work the order (we had a basement disco room set up for the make up, games, dancing, etc. The dress-up trunk and the backdrop were also upstairs-very simple-nothing that should impact her being able to do her thing as you, she and I discussed at different times.)


The worst thing of all was that she barely lifted a finger and had no rapport with ANY of the children and this didn't seem like an 'off day'. She just doesn't have a talent for working with children.


1. She arrived about when I thought she should to set-up. But she didn't not get out of her car for at least ten minutes. As I ran downstairs to ask my husband to see if it was an early guest out there, Kate called to say she was here and she needed help bringing the party stuff in. She should've knocked on the door said, "I'm here and I'm going to bring in my trunk, games and backdrop and set up." But instead she wouldn't get out of the car until we came out to help her essentially. Nothing in her car was too heavy for her to lift and someone who's moving fast and hustling could do this no problem. We would've helped anyway but it was an awkward start and she failed to take charge and be what she was supposed to be from the start.

2. I told her my daughter and I would do make up while she played games with the kids and her response wasn't, "Awesome, things will go faster and be more fun if I have help." Instead she said, "Oh. Well. I'm used to a process that I have..." She was low key, flat, monotone and didn't seem worried OR excited about anything. Just flat and blah. Nice, but not a host. I was unclear if she was going to go with the plan as we requested.


3. Girls started arriving and it was ME who was tryign to excitedly direct the girls to the trunk, telling them to pick an outfit and go for it and have fun! Mix and match and try things on! I couldn't tell you WHAT Kate was doing because she was virtually invisible. I told her my daughters name and Kate did not introduce herself and say hi or make the birthday girl feel comfortable or special or excited about the big day as a party entertainer should.


4. She didn't do anything remotely like Hannah Montana so she was just a girl in a mini dress with a blon wig and there was no rhyme or reason. We went downstairs to start make up and Kate seemed like she needed to do her own 'process'. It took sooooo long for her to get around to finishing the make up on my daughter (I don't know why nails were done when that takes SO long and could get on your costumes but she did nails. When I asked if maybe my daughter and I should do make up, she said, 'no I just spend extra time on the birthday girl..." She failed to notice a room full of little girls WITH NOTHING TO DO AND WHO WERE PLAYING AROUND MY HOUSE AND STARING AT MY KID GETTING MAKE UP PUT ON.


She also asked if I had anything for a headache. One of the parents said, 'Maybe she's hungover'. Whatever it was, I got her Aleve and cold water and nothing in her energy level improved at any point despite the Aleve.


5. Kate asked me to get her kareoke machine it was upstairs. IT was the dinkiest tinniest boombox I ever saw. She did no demonstration as to how kareoke works, did nothing to get the girls excited and she only had about 5 or 6 songs to choose from. One of them was a totally inappropriate song for kids of that age. I knew that NONE of the there knew ANY of the words to these songs so I suggested the song that seemed most easy to bluff your way through and she did NOT put that song on. I went upstairs in a complete on edge fury to get away from her because now I have 7 parents staring at my party which is NOTHING happening at all. I have videotape from one of the parents to prove it. I could've gotten in Kate's face and micromanaged everything she did but she didn't seem to think it was important that the person paying for the party said, "Play THAT song because..." among so many other suggestions and requests.


I asked my husband to go down for a minute and he coudln't figure out what was going on. Kate was mute and did nothign to engage ANY of the kids while she SLOWLY did make up and some hair extensions and laboriously applied nail polish. THe kareoke machine was playing but NO one was singing. She wasn't leading anything, she wasn't asking for our help if she needed it and the kareoke machine was a dud and failure on every level. A fun host would start the ball rolling, get on their knees to be on the kids level, do a funny song and then do a song with a kid and then find the most outgoing kid to sing first and that would fuel the desire for others to do it. A real kareoke set up allows the kids to choose from a LOT of songs so they can take part in it. I unplugged the player and stood there freaking out in my head as NOTHING happened and NO energy was going on while she slowly, quietly and boring-ly did make up> I could take it no longer after a very long time, cracked open my make up and did the last girl.


Had we not blown up literally about 120 balloons last night the girls would've had NOTHING to do during all this down time. I felt angry and out of my mind that this is her idea of a $325 party.


I can also tell you that we had two tall and big girls and they barely found anything to wear that would fit them. It seemed like most of hte clothes were the same size fits all-if you're not tall or chubby.


6.After make up was finally done she said okay everyone get in a circle. She had the girls sit on the cold concrete basement floor even though i had a whole area decorated with carpeting underneath it. Carpeting and a RED RUNWAY RUNNER RUG. I told her to move the kids to the carpet. More awkwardness and totally amazing that she wouldn't think the kids would be cold when she told me that she was freezing in the basement when I asked her if she was comfortable (because she was wearing a skimpy outfit) .


She then tossed a bunch of very small very cheap white purses on the floor in the middle of the girls and a zip lock baggie of old blunt faded markers and told them to decorate. There were some stickers and foam stickers too. Overall the purse activity again was low energy, boring, the markers were old and had few colors and not enough for so many little girls all at once. I was incredulous watching them make these 'purses' while parents watched with stony but polite faces.


WHen the kids were getting done she very lazily told them to put their purses on the dresser where her radio was. Most did it. I hit the floor and quickly started scooping up markers. She showed more energy and focus in trying to find the caps for two dull magic markers than just moving on with party which was at this point mostly dead in the water.


She lost all the girls every time she stopped to do something else.

7. She initiated a dancing games.
First she played the ENTIRE 3 minute Hokey Pokey ( the original 1950's version no less) and didn't sing a long, didn't explain to the kids what to do. The tinny small tape player was so low that no one made a truly fun sound the entire, torturous 3 minutes of the entire Hokey Pokey song. Some kids did the dance but it was uncomfortable. About half the kids, including my daughter sat in chairs bored out of hteir skulls too shy to join the awkward fest and Kate had no apparent awareness of half the girls pretty much not being into the song and she went on with the whole track.

Then she played the ENTIRE chicken dance song. Only 2 of the kids knew the dance. Again, kate didn't open her mouth to instruct, make it fun or even liven the boring old wedding song. She just played the tinny little cd player and the kids had to listen to the tinny instructions and try to follow while she limply did the chicken dance, barely engaging with the kids, just dancing on her own, occasionally saying something lame like, 'come on, wanna dance?'


A friend of mine said, 'It's okay, some of them are laughing and having fun, it's different from their perspective." but it was not fun and only some of them were laughing as hse played the ENTIRE chicken dance song and lost more kids by the minute.


Then before she started to play the freeze dance I brought a potato to her and insisted that she play hot potato. Instead she went forward with the freeze dance, punctuating the 'freeze' moments by having everyone scream 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY FAYE" over and over...again playing a boring song ALL the way through.


She took the potato I gave her and made a confusing announcement about no one loses even though the person with the hot potato has to step out and everyone wins even so...


We started to play. One girl said, 'ooh i love this game'. Kate sat behind the girls on a chair near her tinny radio, at some points I coudln't tell when she was stopping the music and she actually corrected me once. This only mattered because every time the music stopped I tried to interject energy and go "OH!!! you got burned!" She had them pass the potato the same direction the whole time. Boring. An egg timer would've been smarter because then kids hear and see the time running out. This was a nebulous boring game and once the first girl was told to sit out, she nearly cried so i announced that no one should sit out and just keep passing it. This caused Kate to be even LESS involved in the game.


8. I asked her what was next and she said, 'goody bags upstairs and then the fashion show' and pictures. THe girls scattered the second the boring game was over and I corralled them all, as I did most of the day. They went up stairs. She had left her music downstairs and the deal was to do the run way show on the red carpet downstairs. When the girls first saw teh set up they did their own runway walks, i efven had a mirror set upa nd chairs lined up along the runway on one side and a couch on the other.

She was so out of it and disorganized that rather than bring the goody bags down stairs she has ALL the kids go UP. Then she started the runway show upstairs. A leather couch was in the way, i had to mvoe the bucket of drinks and ice and her trunk of clothes. This was pretty much the last straw. At one point my husband was downstairs and saw her dancing the hokey pokey limply and silently and had to leave the room he was so angry. Now she was doing the runway show upstairs even though i said we'd do it downstairs where it was obviously set up for it. Only four the girls felt comfortable enough to do the runway. I took tons of pix of them. My daughter was nervous and shy and her failure to even be a cheerleader in this and walk with them or do whatever it takes to make it fun ensured this.


By then the girls were dying for cake and the goody bags that I made in addition to yours. Then because Kate was doing nothing really to run, take charge of or happily organize the party she interruped the happy flow of about to have cake time by saying she had to get the gowns back now! I don't have a problem with this but why not announce before the runway and tell the kids what they'll do. Runway then pictures and then undress and then you go have cake! NOTHING like that so it was again, awkward to have to pull hte girls off their chairs to undress.


Kate asked if I wanted her to stay for the cake and I said NO.


She slowly got her invoice together and while i was busy, trying to make something happen quickly before i lost the kids again, no thanks to her, she handed me the invoice and I told her my husband was taking care of that. We were going to tip nothing because this was really really upsetting, inferior and unbelievable. This girl had NO rapport, NO charm, NO ability to organize, energize or deal with little girls. 5 songs for kareoke? No demo? Entire ancient party/preschool song and dance routines? Slow disorganized pace igorning the big picture? Sitting in my drive way waiting for us to come out and help her??? Putting kids on a cold floor? Taking at least a half hour or more to do boring make up in silence? Not being fun or funny? Not even acting like Hannah Montana a little bit??? No hugs, shtick, jokes or warmth or connection to anyone, especially the birthday girl? You woudln't have known it was my daughter's birthday at all from her performance except for the one mention in the freeze dance. It would've been cheaper to hire BeBop and food would be included in the entertainment and the hosts would be young happy high energy kid-friendly, kid-experienced young people who had some knowledge of what little girls are like, what they listen to and how to organize and corral focus at a party that they are in charge of entertaining.


I wanted to tip her nothing and tell her why but she probably thinks she did fine or great. Besides, you're the person we hired-she's an extension and representative of you. Again, it wasn't the time so we gave her $25.


I wanted to call you and insist on a discount but I had guests here who could hear anything I said and it was already awkward enough.


I wanted to make her carry her own stuff to her car but I just wanted her to be gone so I helped her.


The kids ran outside, some kids had to leave and they didn't get to stay long enough to enjoy the fun portion of my daughter's party-running around and playing and laughing and smiling outside. I could've done that for free. This was embarrassing and I plan on telling everyone I know about this party and how much it cost.

Of course, the jacket that my friend couldn't find has not turned-up which means it had to have gotten packed away by accident. It was hot pink with some fleece. It looked very much like some of the stuff in your chest. Please take another look because now one of my guests has another reason to regret coming here today.


I'm so disappointed that I spent my daughter's one and only first birthday party flipping out inside, putting on a strained face and trying to fight through the horribly bad boring party entertainment and worst of all my husband's rage for having paid $325 plust tip for this.


I wish there was a way you could make this up to me and frankly partial reimbursement would help. If you would like to see the videotape my friend took, my daughter took, and some of the photos I took when they're all processed, you can . But this was really the worst decision I ever made and I can't believe the testimony on your site based on today's experience.


I thanked the heavens for the blue sky, and moderate weather because it saved the party that you were supposed to be the star of.


Regretfully,
Viki Londis


I will tell you how things went.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Fairytale Home Parties [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 12:22 PM
To: 'Viki Reed'
Subject: RE: didn't get the invites

Please see my answers bellow:


Elena


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Viki Reed [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 11:48 AM
To: 'Fairytale Home Parties'
Subject: RE: didn't get the invites


Hi Elena


We can live with the trunk, or we can use the rack myhusband has downstairs and set it up in lieu of your host having to do that. We can do this if you would like. You would have to provide the rack and hangers. But, it would not be a problem.

I can do the make up with my 12 year old (which she likes that idea so she can be involved anyway). If we do make up and your girl does Hair that could be fun (what does your host do in terms of hair styling?) . We give the girls a choice from different colored hair extensions. They are pre-styled and come with braids. She would then style it into their hair. This is about a minute per child hair style.


Magic would be great, hot potato is great. Please confirm these activities, along with the hair, or any other activity or requirement of your choice when we finalize all of the party details.


Let me know what she does in terms of hair so I can decide that. Please refer above.

Thanks!
Viki


The dress up rack would be $30 to set up.


We typically do not calculate the dress up party with a certain amount of activities as in our character parties because we do not know exactly how long it will take to dress the kids. This duration of time varies from party to party. We will adjust the activities at the end of the party to make sure that you will have 1 1/2 hours of pure entertainment and keep adding activities if needed.


And, if you would like to do the make up on your own, then we can certainly do an additional activity instead of that. Again, this is something we will have to go over when we finalize all of the party details. You can have hair instead of the make-up, or magic or another game of your choice. Hot potato is fine.


Elena


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Viki Reed [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 11:28 AM
To: 'Fairytale Home Parties'
Subject: RE: didn't get the invites

That’s right!

Okay on the trunk, that’s fine. (out of curiosity how much extra is the rack?)


You mentioned that if I did the make up, that your girl could do an additional game since she would be free from that duty.

So far we have karaoke the fashion show, craft, and dance routine (excellent!) what games get played-I saw you listed hot potato which is perfect. Does that leave two more games to pick from if my math and understanding is rigt?

J

Viki


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Fairytale Home Parties [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 11:21 AM
To: 'Viki Reed'
Subject: RE: didn't get the invites


Hi,

Is this address correct? If so, I will get another batch out to you. If you happen to get extras, just return them to the entertainer.

Name: Dino Londis

Address: 165 Swimming River Rd

City, State Zip: Tinton Falls, NJ 07724

I can give you a better idea of the break down of activities when we finalize all of the party details. Because via email is not always the easiest thing. Basically we have the set up time and activities all down to a science. It takes about 15 to 20 min to set everything up. We do not usually do a dress up rack unless the client request that and pays an extra fee to have us bring the rack in and hang everything. The package includes a dress up trunk. And she will open it and drape some dresses over the top so that the kids can see them. But essentially they are selecting the costumes from a trunk.

Once she is done setting up, she is going to do dress up, followed by the combo(make-up, nails, or Hair). While the combo is taking place the kids do karaoke and a craft. After the craft they will do the fashion show, and a dance routine to

conclude the party.


Elena


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Viki Reed [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 10:57 AM
To: 'Viki Reed'; [email protected]
Subject: didn't get the invites
Importance: High

Elena, I need the invitations to make sure I get the notice out in time. I called the most impt few girls my daughter knows but not all the parents because I was hoping to give them invites instead.

If you mail within New Jersey it takes one day to get to any destination within NJ. I know because I’m a photographer and I mail out my client’s packages all the time to all parts central and north Jersey.
I have to get those invites tomorrow so please mail them now so I get them tomorrow.


Also can you please give me a breakdown of how the host will do the party in specifics.
In order to plan my cake time and anything else and fill in the parents, I want to know what will happen.

You said to just call a few days before the party but this makes me nervous especially since I haven’t gotten the invites.


I have a photobackdrop stand and I would think it’s going to take at least 15 minutes just to walk that backdrop in and set up the stand and backdrop.

Then she’s got a boom box for karaoke, a costumes in a trunk which then get hung on a rack (looking at your site pix that’s what it looks like).

I have a red runner rug we can use for the fashion show. I just want an idea of how early the party host shows up, how long for set up and if there are any requirements for the set up that I won’t know until she gets here.

We’re setting the party for 1 pm so will the host arrive at 12:30 so we can for sure be ready to go when the kids get here at 1? I need to set that in stone to be on schedule.


My daughter and I can do make up on the girls so I wanted to know what games and activities other than karaoke and the runway show and photos in front of the backdrop she’ll do with the silver glamour girl package.
Since we know that’s what we’re doing can you verify the activities too please?


You can see in the enclosed photo how your 'host' stands there, arms closed, not talking, not helping or playign with the girls. The MOMS are getting the girls dressed.