What was supposed to be the happiest day of a couple’s life turned out to be a disaster after their wedding planner failed to deliver.
Shaun Booysen, 37, originally from Gqeberha, says he was scammed by Vicky Davids.
Davids previously appeared in the Daily Voice on 16 September 2022 after she failed to provide food and decor, forcing couple Othneil and Nikita Niemand from Wynberg to buy Nando’s for their 100 guests.
Shaun says he met Davids, the owner of Second Bite Catering, after he took to Facebook looking for a wedding planner and she inboxed him.
He tells the Daily Voice: “We met in Canal Walk for a meeting alongside her husband and she blew me away with her ideas and what she can bring to the table. She showed me a stunning venue in Bishopscourt. I paid her over a period of five months.
“My friends and I booked a house in Retreat through her for Christmas Day.
“On Christmas morning, she said that the home owner died and we can’t go. I asked for a refund and she blue ticked me. When we went to the house in Retreat, we were told that the owner did not die and that people are constantly looking for money that Vicky claimed they book.”
Shaun says he paid Vicky R43 800 for his wedding but on the big day on 30 December, they were shocked to discover that the venue was double booked.
He says the owner told them that Vicky never booked, and they were forced to reroute guests to a venue in Muizenberg.
He adds: “She got a priest on the day who she did not pay, my bouquet of flowers was dead, the set-up was crap.”
Shaun says there weren’t even chairs and when the renting place heard Vicky was involved, he had to beg them to help him out.“
The food looked like Christmas leftovers, the starter was rice with sausage which was supposed to be seafood.
“My wedding was a mockery and my honeymoon was never booked. She never paid the DJ and commissioner and now I can’t get my marriage certificate,” a furious Shaun says.
Adiel, the owner of Bishopscourt venue, says Vicky still owes him R25 000 from three previous functions.
He says: “People come to the venue claiming that they paid for the venue, but it’s all a scam.
When Daily Voice visited at Vicky at her home in Retreat, she and her husband Gerald claimed “she was on antidepressants and suicidal” and that they had a pending restraining order against Shaun.
She says: “It is all lies. Shaun paid me R35 000. The only thing that was not delivered was the venue which was double booked. That is why my husband was going to do them a favour by booking them a honeymoon at the hotel.