A Party House

I tried contacting them to discuss tenting/​lighting for my wedding, but was told they weren’t interested in any of our business because we were already using a different vendor for other rentals (and had paid a deposit) – they only do «complete weddings.» They suggested I rescind my contract with the other vendor and contact them if I was able to get my deposit back.
I was very disappointed in the lack of professionalism. A contract should mean something, even if it is your competition’s.

i agree with a previous poster — ann/​a party house are suffering from a few undeserved bad reviews. we used them for our wedding this past august and have nothing but nice things to say about the company/​owners. ann was professional, easy to reach, flexible and had great selections and suggestions. we used her handmade farm tables and they are absolutely GORGEOUS. we didn’t bother with tablecloths (the tables are too pretty to cover up!), just runners, and her china and our florist’s designs made the tables look simply stunning. everything went off without a hitch and aside from wanting slightly nicer wine glasses (we are wine snobs so like slightly nicer stemware), i think her products are GREAT.
will definitely use her again and highly recommend.

I think sometimes companies get the poor luck of only having a few reviews that are HORRIBLE! This company is suffering from this syndrome, but let me tell you… I had the best experience with the owner of this business. I had a horrible getting a hold of event masters less than a week before my wedding and their phone actually said that it could not connect me and my be disconnected… Not what you want to hear before a destination wedding less than 6 days away. I called «A Party House» and the owner was available to talk on Sunday morning and was willing to do whatever it took to accommodate me. I could tell that she really cared and was sweet as pie. This place has been around for over 30 years and that wouldn’t be the case if they were as bad as their Unilocal reviews… SO do yourself a favor and use them, you’ll probably same some money and a headache
:)

Do not use Ann! Plainly put, she is incompetent.
She could have ruined our wedding, but thankfully it all worked out (as far as I know, we haven’t got a copy of our wedding video yet to see if we can hear our vows).
First off, she does not have email so communicating with her is a pain. She is not good about returning phone calls. The weekend before the wedding she missed an appointment with us – I should have listened to my instincts and ran for the hills right then and there but I didn’t want to forfeit my deposit. She does not write down your order but after your meeting will send you an invoice which you have to scratch out and alter yourself then mail back to her.
We contracted her to supply our linens for our reception in Truckee, which was not a problem. Nice blue silk dupioni tablecloths and napkins. She did not have silver chargers so I just bought my own from a seller on WeddingBee. Thankfully our site provided everything else.
But oh the stress and chaos of the ceremony. We contracted her to provide ceremony chairs, a generator (so that the vows could be amplified), and glassware for our cocktail hour.
First her people were LATE setting it up. I am aware there was an accident on 89 that caused an extreme delay in traffic, but ALL other vendors were there on time and set up. My florist had to wait on them and said the people setting up the chairs were very rude and difficult to work with. Second, she did not bring the generator. And when we alerted her staff they were missing it they said it would take them over an hour to go back and pick it up from the warehouse. But since they were late arriving in the first place, there was not enough time before the ceremony started. So our vows were not amplified. Thankfully our videographer had his own mic hooked up to his equipment so the vows should be audible on our wedding video even though guests may have had a tough time hearing them at the ceremony.
Bottom line, do not work with Ann.

We got married in Tahoe recently and used A Party House to supply our tables, chairs, dishware, and the like. I would whole-​halfheartedly recommend going with another provider if you are thinking of using this company. Plain and simple: the woman who runs this company is shady. She doesn’t use anything other than faxes (no email, no snail mail), and proved on multiple occasions that she will attempt to charge more on the bill than you actually pay for (if caught, she will attempt to blow it off as simple human error, when really, she is just hoping you get tripped up in the fax nonsense. It is run entirely by one woman, who is aloof; she will try to nickle and dime you to death, and when it’s all said and done, will even try to sneak in hidden charges, or charge you for broken items that were never even broken. We are upstanding people. Our wedding was fantastic, but the aftermath of dealing with A Party House was distressing. Buyer Beware!

I can’t believe I’m reading these reviews. Or I guess I can. Obviously I’m not the only one who got completely dogged by this fraudulent company. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT give them your business. They will skimp on you, and try to rip you off for hundreds of dollars. They are as shady as they come, and will truly put a damper on your wedding. BUYER BEWARE!!!

Working with A Party House was by far the most frustrating experience of all wedding planning activities for us. For anyone who has gone through planning a wedding, you will know that this is a bold statement. I recommend with conviction that you DO NOT USE THIS VENDOR for your wedding party rentals and supplies. The business is run by one woman who is plainly incapable of doing her job successfully. Below is a letter I wrote to her after the wedding which will give you a flavor of my experience. Not only is she incompetent but obstinate as well. Even after this letter she refused to provide a reduction in cost due to customer dissatisfaction. Again, I encourage you DO NOT USE THIS VENDOR. One very important item to note is that A Party House does not deal in email. This means all conversations via phone and all invoices via fax. A Party House DOES NOT PROPERLY DOCUMENT these calls and thus you will find yourself having iterative, repetitive, and frustrating conversations to get what you want/​need. I myself am about as laid back as it gets when it comes to being a bride but was still driven to the point of absolute frustration working with this woman.
Wedding Grievances Letter:
As discussed yesterday, listed below is the inventory of issues we have encountered working with A Party House. In general your staff was accommodating, I believe the source of the problem lies in the direction (or lack thereof) given to them.
*Called for the invoice and outstanding balance 3 days before the wedding and never received a call back with details; As such, could not confirm that all requested rentals were accounted for nor have knowledge of balance due. Contrary to what A Party House stated, no incoming calls were received on our cell phone (which tracks these things) from A Party House.
*Multiple conversations during the last month leading up to the wedding were not properly documented by A Party House; as such, several details were not accounted for day of, including:
*3 heaters on reserve, however only 2 received day of the wedding; No notification of this change; 1 of the heaters burnt out mid way thru the wedding, leaving us with 1 heater for 95 people on a cold and rainy night (Again, the final Invoice never provided prior to wedding regarding this change)
*125 champagne glasses ordered, however only received 100; As such, certain guests were served champagne in wine glasses for the champagne toast
*The groom had to notify A Party House of the need for a 4-​top table; without his notification, 4 of our guests would not have had seating
*Was told by A Party House that a day of wedding coordinator would not be needed as A Party House andthe Caterer work together frequently; A Party House provided no coordination support whatsoever; As such, the Groom spent the 1.5 hours leading up to the ceremony acting in this capacity
*Was given a map by A Party House of reception table setup and based all table assignments on this drawing; Day of setup did not mimic map causing confusion and additional time and effort for attendant setup; A Party House made no mention to anyone during the set-​up that the dinner tables could not be arranged as mapped
*Requested 3 marble cocktail tables on the porch for the cocktail hour, however none were setup
*Vendor stated day of wedding that the outstanding balance was $ 180.00 (which we paid), however were then later billed for several thousand dollars (again demonstrating the inconsistency in messaging from A Party House)
*Was given the impression FOR OVER A YEAR that we could hold our cocktail hour down by the lake, including a bar setup and champagne toast; Was notified LESS THAN A WEEK a way from the wedding by the caterer that the park does not allow for this setup; A Party House never mentioned this fact, even though they purport to hold weddings at this venue recurrently
*The multitude of mistakes, made by those who are the ‘professionals’ in this business, added additional stress to the bride and groom day of the wedding
In addition, the current invoice erroneously includes a 30″ cocktail table for the ‘DJ by Lake’ as well as the associated linens; please remove these items as we did not have the DJ setup by the lake at any point in time.
In general, we were continually unimpressed with A Party House’s customer service; Requests were often forgotten or not properly documented causing repetitive and frustrating interactions; Stories changed constantly and it was often difficult to get a straight answer regarding services/​rentals available. Clear direction was not given to A Party House’s staff for day of setup. These many factors resulted in our continual dissatisfaction with level of service provided.
Given the multiple issues encountered, frustration, energy and time spent wasted in dealing with your company, we request a good faith reduction in fees prior to payment due to our dissatisfaction with your services.

Please, please heed my warning. Please do not use this fraudulant and terrible vendor. She supplied our dishes, silverware and linen for our wedding in Lake Tahoe this July. She did not have all the supplies we needed and she has the worst customer service. She has no email, cell phone and doesn’t accept credit cards. In today’s business, these are a given. But that’s not why I’m writing this review. She fraudulently charged more than twice the amount to us on our credit card. Note above, she said she doesn’t take credit card. However, we wrote her a check payment in the full amount and she proceeded to find away to charge our credit card plus 20% anyway. I’m incredulous, mortified and am on a 2+month bill dispute process with my credit card. Vendor choices are limited in Tahoe, but please don’t do what I did and settle on this vendor. There are others in Tahoe and around that are better to use. I’ve recently found out that she’s had these issues before. If you’ve had a bad experience, please upload a review to protect others. Please email me if you need more information. Please don’t use this vendor.