Couples across the state say a Bangor-based wedding caterer has failed to follow through on her promises, leaving them out thousands of dollars and scrambling to find food and drinks on their big day.

Bethany Marie Gregory, doing business as Simply Catered by Bethany and more recently Vistas and Vows, has over the past few months been the subject of an outpouring of complaints from brides, their families and vendors.

The Office of the Maine Attorney General confirmed that 19 complaints have been filed against Gregory since 2024. Nine were filed last month and another eight so far this month.

The office said it could not comment further, nor confirm the existence of an investigation.

On Sept. 5, Gregory canceled her remaining weddings through an email to clients, some of whom had weddings planned for this month.

“The last few months we have had very poor performance by our company in several events and as such it has hit social media in a very voracious way,” the email starts. It continues with a mention of sleepless nights, staffing issues, and then what nobody wanted to hear.

“With the current situation I am unable to make any refunds at this time due to the vast number of chargebacks that have occurred with my accounts, I have been advised that people contact their card carriers and get chargebacks where possible.”

The Sun Journal reached out to Gregory, offering her an opportunity to explain her actions and to address the many complaints about her. A response from “Admin at Simply Catered” reads in part, “This loss of something Bethany created with love has destroyed her mental health and continues to do so on a daily basis. … Bethany has stepped away to take care of herself, she has not cancelled all contracts. She will reply in time.”

GOOD RATINGS, BAD EXPERIENCE

That sudden cancellation notice at the height of wedding season in Maine was especially hard on people like Madison Cyr and her fiancé, Connor Cronin, who live in North Yarmouth. Their wedding date of Saturday, Sept. 13, was less than two weeks away when Cyr said they got confirmation that Simply Catered by Bethany would not uphold its contract and would not show up.

They booked and paid for the caterer nearly two years ago, meaning a chargeback was unlikely; most credit card companies have a limited window from 30 to 120 days.

“I checked in with my bank, and they’re like, ‘It’s past 18 months, even with an exception, you’re screwed, basically,'” Cyr said in an interview Tuesday.

After consulting with several lawyers, they were told the chances of getting back the $10,000 they prepaid were not good. Maine Small Claims Court has a $6,000 limit and the costs for an attorney for a civil lawsuit would exceed what they had paid. Her wedding coordinator pulled through, as did her family, and they booked new vendors, but are still out a considerable amount of money, as are many others.

Maine Brides/Grooms to Be, a private Facebook page, is littered with horror stories about Simply Catered by Bethany and how she cast a dark shadow on what should have been a very special day for couples.

Complaints include lack of communication, substitution of foods with inferior products, showing up hours late or not at all, insufficient food and drink for the contracted amounts, insufficient staff, food service violations and failure to refund money paid in advance when contractual obligations were not met. The online comments and accusations go much deeper.

The Knot, an online wedding planning platform that is considered the most widely used site in the United States, still listed Vistas and Vows as an active caterer in Maine with a 4.1 rating out 5, as of Sept. 12 — a week after the cancellation email.

Six of the seven most recent comments about Vistas and Vows offered complaints similar to this one from Nicole B.: “I strongly caution anyone considering this caterer for a wedding or major event. What we experienced was deeply unprofessional, disorganized, and fell far below the standard we were promised — especially given the nearly $35,000 cost.”

Nicole B. is Nicole Bowman, who spoke with the Sun Journal about her experience. She and her husband, Bailey Brann, live in Rhode Island, but Brann’s mother has a lake house in the Kennebec County town of Fayette.

“She had really stellar reviews. I didn’t see anything that was negative. Everything looked beautiful. Her menu looked wonderful, her website was wonderful,” Bowman said.

The contract they agreed to in August 2023 was for 150 guests for a sit-down, family-style dinner and a brunch the next morning for 110 people.

“Bethany’s responsibility was supposed to be to pack us a picnic basket … just a little sampling of the food that was supposed to be served at cocktail hour. Because she was so late, that didn’t happen.”

Nicole Bowman

Bowman said the Simply Catered by Bethany team of three showed up more than four hours late, in a non-refrigerated U-Haul trailer in 80-degree weather on July 26. Gregory was not there to oversee the service.

“She told us that she was not coming to our wedding because she had another event,” Bowman added.

That’s something that repeatedly comes up in other complaints, with some saying Gregory would have as many as four weddings booked in a day.

The catering team showed up unprepared, Bowman said, which sent her mother-in-law and others scrambling behind the scenes to find a tent and tables to prepare the food, which was served three hours late.

Bowman said less than half the food they paid for was provided, with no plant-based entrees, leaving vegan and vegetarian guests with very little to eat. A nonalcohol beverage station never materialized and there was no water provided for guests.

One of the special things Bowman and Brann planned for their wedding day was a private paddle on the lake after the ceremony. Gregory’s team was supposed to put together a picnic basket for the newlyweds. That didn’t happen.

Fortunately for the couple, the wedding coordinator threw together some snacks from Bowman’s mother-in-law’s kitchen at the last minute.

‘I HAD TO … FIGHT OFF TEARS’

Couples planning a wedding are frequently admonished to plan way ahead and secure venues and vendors — caterers, wedding planners and photographers. But there’s a downside: Paying in full that far out can come back to haunt you.

Kayla Cannon and her husband, Chase, got married in the Bangor area on Oct. 5, 2024. They are originally from the New York metropolitan area but now live in Boston. They said they are out $18,000 after hiring Simply Catered by Bethany to cater their wedding.

But the Cannons bought event insurance, and are hopeful they’ll get their money back.

“This was a really special day for us, and what we received was very poorly executed food,” Cannon said. She, like others interviewed, said there was a shortage of food. Two days before the wedding, as they were driving to the wedding venue, she said Gregory informed her they were completely out of a third of the dinner options they were expecting to serve their guests.

It was halibut, ordered weeks in advance, Cannon recalled. “Almost half of our wedding RSVP’d with that dish,” she said, and in a text message was told she had to pick something else.

“The day of (the wedding), we ran out of the orders for cocktail hour within 20 minutes,” Cannon said. “My family actually had to go out in the middle of our wedding to a local liquor store. I just purchased as many canned cocktails and beers as they could, because they were out behind the bar, and they didn’t have enough staff to leave.”

The wedding was contracted for 140 guests, but ended up being around 100. “By the time I got to the cocktail hour, I was already horrified. There’s actually a professional photo of me receiving my dinner on my wedding day and grimacing.”

Things only got worse for the Cannons. “The food was egregious,” Cannon said. “Our sides were, one of them was risotto. It was just dry, wild rice. I was just kind of seeing black at that point, and I had to excuse myself from my own wedding to fight off tears.”

She continued: “She had sliders and French fries brought out as our evening snack. I had paid for those to have hollandaise sauce on them — they did not — because burgers with hollandaise was me and my husband’s meal on our first date. I might as well have gotten White Castle and would have enjoyed it better.”

The Cannons paid a total of $22,000 to Simply Catered by Bethany. Cannon said Gregory agreed to give them a 50% refund. They received only $4,000, and a year later have heard nothing further from Gregory.

Cannon calls the venue owner her angel, because she advised them to buy event insurance — at a cost of about $200 — a small price to pay for a little peace of mind.

HARD LESSONS LEARNED

The attorney general’s office is encouraging people to file a complaint with its Consumer Protection Division.

A class action lawsuit is also a distinct possibility, with at least one person offering to help victims get pointed in the right direction.

Rebecca Pinkham-Stevenson is a professional wedding photographer and founder of the Beaux and Arrows Collective. In an email, she calls herself a resource and advocate for the Maine wedding industry.

She said a class action suit is “inevitable,” adding, “There are a lot of young couples, their extended families, and even friends being financially blindsided by what seems to be intentionally repetitive choice.”

Pinkham-Stevenson also said a number of Gregory’s employees have stepped up to claim they have not been paid, something that has been repeated in online forums.

Despite the shock of losing their caterer less than two weeks before their wedding, as of late last week Madison Cyr and Connor Cronin were all set to be married Saturday, with relatives flying in from Ireland.

Asked if there is anything she would have done differently, she responded, “(The) biggest thing I would say is always make sure that the contract is definitely ironclad, (that) there’s no little loopholes that people can get out of. And if you see red flags, definitely pay attention.”

Kayla Cannon added this: “You know, I don’t think that Bethany is a terrible person. I think what she’s doing to people is terrible.”

She continued, “I’m hopeful that these people can rectify their situation, and everyone comes away from it whole. I’m heartbroken for the fellow couples who have had experiences similar to me and my husband. I’m thankful that I had event insurance, and we’re still exploring our claim now. You know, it’s a hard business, it’s taxing, but don’t get into it if you don’t have the right headspace.”