Bad Wedding Experience at Vacation Beach Fales in Manase, Savai'i, Samoa

We organized our wedding, over the internet, to take place on Feb. 14/09 at Vacation Beach Fales in Manase on the island of Savai'i in Samoa. We heard much praise about this particular fale from various websites and our communication over the internet in the months leading to our trip was good. We spoke with one person from the fales who provided us with information on how to obtain a marriage licence once we arrived in Samoa and we agreed on a price of 300 Tala for the organization, decorations and food related to our wedding. Once we arrived in Samoa on Feb. 1/09, we discovered that the licencing process is more complex than we were lead to believe, but we had a contact number for the fales. The lady we had been dealing with met us in the capital city of Apia to collect our paperwork, copies of our birth certificates and passports and 60 Tala for the associated processing fees. She was then to take all these items to the pastor in Manase who would take it through the proper channels to get us a licence to marry. When we arrived at the fales in Manase on Feb. 10/09 we were shocked to discover that the lady who met us in Apia was no longer and employee of the fales and it was unclear as to when she left the company (potentially before she met us and took our documents and money). The other staff at the fales knew we were there to get married on the 14th (4 days away) but there were no preparations and no licence. We sat down with the manager, our newly appointed contact person, the night of the 10th and described our vision for our wedding and the previously agreed upon price of 300 Tala. The price was okayed by the manager and he agreed to obtain our paperwork and money from the employee who took it, get us some quotes for local photographers, arrange flowers and other decorations and a meal including a cake. After this conversation with the manager, we were upset at the events that had transpired, but our nerves were calmed by their promises. We waited for 2 days to hear from them with an update on the marriage licence situation only to discover that in that time no one had contacted the ex-employee to obtain our documents. At that point, we took the matter into our own hands and called the ex-employee ourselves. We had the documents back within 24 hours; however, the money (60 Tala) that we gave her was never returned. Once we received the documents, they were given to the local pastor and we were able to get the marriage licence in time; however, we discovered that the manager forgot to obtain quotes/availability for any photographers. This meant that the day before the wedding we were running around to find a photographer, but luckily a local amateur photographer agreed to take the pictures and we averted another problem. At this point we sat down with the owner of the fales to discuss our frustration with the planning of our wedding and to negotiate a reduced cost for the wedding due to all the work we were forced to do on our own. The owner apologized and agreed to a lower cost - he quoted us 150-200 Tala for the wedding, down from 300 Tala. The day of the wedding went well in spite of all the previous problems; however, the day after the manager approached us at dinner time in front of other guests and informed us that the cost of our wedding went up from the 150-200 Tala discussed 2 nights previous to 800 Tala. Not only had their ex-employee stole 60 Tala from us at the beginning, they were now attempting to steal 600 Tala from us after the fact. At this point we decided to cut our losses and leave the fales 3 days early. With much argument from the manager (the owner was no where in sight), we paid the 300 Tala we originally agreed upon and with tears of frustration we left Vacation Beach Fales. I would never recommend anyone to get married there, or even vacation there; it is quite clear to us that they are used to taking advantage of tourists. We felt that their treatment of us was abusive and close to criminal and it is very disappointing that a number of problems interfered with our plan to have a quiet, stress-free wedding in paradise.

Thanks for posting this story.
However, please, if you post again, could you break the story into paragraphs, to make it easier to read?

You beat me to it about using paragraphs. Sad news though about the wedding.
Wonder how many tourists get married in Samoa? What a nightmare, too bad, it could be a money maker for Samoa.

It is a shame indeed. Completely unprofessional behaviour on Vacation's part from the beginning to the end of the matter. That kind of incompetence and greed raises the suspicion that maybe some employees tried to make a deal on their own. It would unfortunately not be that uncommon. Because 300 Tala (about US$100) might be a lot of money for an average Samoan employee but it is by far not enough for a wedding, especially when including meal and such. With 300 Tala one can just cover the most basic expenses, like the registration and the celebrant services. No flowers, no decoration, no food, nothing else. And they should have known that at the resort because it is definitely not the first wedding they do.

I organized quite a few weddings of very different size and style here in Samoa, some at Vacations too, and the least what had to be spent was around 1,000 Tala altogether (approx. 350 USD). Vacation asked a minimum of 300 Tala for the registration and the celebrant plus 500 Tala for decoration, special meal, music and such. And that was in 2007. However at that time they had a different management. It appears that things have changed there, unfortunately.

Sorry about the lack of paragraphs in the initial post. Here is the story again with easier readability:

We organized our wedding, over the internet, to take place on Feb. 14/09 at Vacation Beach Fales in Manase on the island of Savai'i in Samoa. We heard much praise about this particular fale from various websites and our communication over the internet in the months leading to our trip was good.

We spoke with one person from the fales who provided us with information on how to obtain a marriage licence once we arrived in Samoa and we agreed on a price of 300 Tala for the organization, decorations and food related to our wedding. Once we arrived in Samoa on Feb. 1/09, we discovered that the licencing process is more complex than we were lead to believe, but we had a contact number for the fales. The lady we had been dealing with met us in the capital city of Apia to collect our paperwork, copies of our birth certificates and passports and 60 Tala for the associated processing fees. She was then to take all these items to the pastor in Manase who would take it through the proper channels to get us a licence to marry.

When we arrived at the fales in Manase on Feb. 10/09 we were shocked to discover that the lady who met us in Apia was no longer and employee of the fales and it was unclear as to when she left the company (potentially before she met us and took our documents and money). The other staff at the fales knew we were there to get married on the 14th (4 days away) but there were no preparations and no licence. We sat down with the manager, our newly appointed contact person, the night of the 10th and described our vision for our wedding and the previously agreed upon price of 300 Tala. The price was okayed by the manager and he agreed to obtain our paperwork and money from the employee who took it, get us some quotes for local photographers, arrange flowers and other decorations and a meal including a cake. After this conversation with the manager, we were upset at the events that had transpired, but our nerves were calmed by their promises.

We waited for 2 days to hear from them with an update on the marriage licence situation only to discover that in that time no one had contacted the ex-employee to obtain our documents. At that point, we took the matter into our own hands and called the ex-employee ourselves. We had the documents back within 24 hours; however, the money (60 Tala) that we gave her was never returned. Once we received the documents, they were given to the local pastor and we were able to get the marriage licence in time; however, we discovered that the manager forgot to obtain quotes/availability for any photographers. This meant that the day before the wedding we were running around to find a photographer, but luckily a local amateur photographer agreed to take the pictures and we averted another problem.

At this point we sat down with the owner of the fales to discuss our frustration with the planning of our wedding and to negotiate a reduced cost for the wedding due to all the work we were forced to do on our own. The owner apologized and agreed to a lower cost - he quoted us 150-200 Tala for the wedding, down from 300 Tala.

The day of the wedding went well in spite of all the previous problems; however, the day after the manager approached us at dinner time in front of other guests and informed us that the cost of our wedding went up from the 150-200 Tala discussed 2 nights previous to 800 Tala. Not only had their ex-employee stole 60 Tala from us at the beginning, they were now attempting to steal 600 Tala from us after the fact. At this point we decided to cut our losses and leave the fales 3 days early. With much argument from the manager (the owner was no where in sight), we paid the 300 Tala we originally agreed upon and with tears of frustration we left Vacation Beach Fales.

I would never recommend anyone to get married there, or even vacation there; it is quite clear to us that they are used to taking advantage of tourists. We felt that their treatment of us was abusive and close to criminal and it is very disappointing that a number of problems interfered with our plan to have a quiet, stress-free wedding in paradise.

The 300 Tala that we expected to pay Vacation Beach Fales for the ceremony details, did not include the following:
- a "gift" for the pastor to conduct our ceremony (we paid him 500 Tala separately)
- alcohol (we brought our own)
- photographer (we just asked Vacations to obtain quotes for local photographers, but we paid separately
- dinner was included in our accommodation cost of 160 Tala per night (but we recognize a special meal has some added expense)

Aside from this issue of money, we had a number of items stolen from our room over the duration of our stay, including shoes and food. Items went missing after our discussions with the manager about the lack of organization for our wedding. We don't know who took the items, but we certainly felt unsafe staying there.

Aside from this issue of money, we had a number of items stolen from our room over the duration of our stay, including shoes and food.

Theft is nothing new in Samoa, or even specifically in Manase!
Must say that if shoes and food were the most valuable things stolen, you might still consider yourselves lucky! ;-)

I guess we were lucky living in Pago, none of us had anything stolen. We all had very honest and hard working house girls.

Vacation's used to be a really safe place before. I organized tours in Samoa since some time ago and had far more than a hundred different people staying there over some years. And I stayed there myself quite often too. Never we had any theft issue at that resort, not even food or cigarettes. Unfortunately this obviously has changed.
Very poor management now, as I see it.

It might also be the case that the staff working at any place at a certain time is more of a factor determining risk of theft than the management?
Or has the management in Samoa normally has a good control of their staff?

Your are right to ask - with management I mean the owner of the resort. In most places the owner does the management too (and it was like that at Vacation's for many years as well), but now the manager seems to be an employee too.

Because, yes, the owners usually have a very firm grip on things in the resorts. You must consider that the employees are most often not just some people working there, but often family members or at least fellow villagers. When one of them is caught stealing, the whole wrath of Samoan punishment might come down on them, much worse than the slap on the hand that a judge may impose. The family beats them up, the parents get heavily fined - there are quite a few cases that a whole family was banned and had to leave the village because of some youngsters bringing shame on them. And the owner might be fined by the village too because of things happening in the resort.

But - and that is why I nodded when I read in the OP's report: "(the owner was no where in sight)" and that is exactly the point. It does not work when the owner is not there to have an eye on it. While the cat's away, the mice will play ...

And - of course - it does not work either, when the owner is a crook himself, like with your own unfortunate experience some years ago.

Details of he said/she said aside if someone quoted me a rock bottom price as per OP I would expecty some hitch somewhere-this is my years in the catering business telling me things have to paid for one way or the other.

Anywhere on earth it's Caveat Emptor Buyer Beware.

To complain publicly about such a dodgy deal really is poor form.

@ #11 - "To complain publicly about such a dodgy deal really is poor form."

Because so many marriages fail anyway so why don't those guys just get over it?

Please elaborate a bit on your point. Maybe you can include details on how you calculate offers to your catering customers. Maybe even a process for further honeymooners (obtain three offers and take the middle one?).

Sorry to hear about your special day but what you experience on your wedding day does worth 300 tala!!

Hey, you should be greatful & thankful these people still ended up helpin g you with your wedding. You have been conned by an ex-employee not these people. Why didn't you go to the police?
You used them as much as they used you! Running around do everything for your wedding for 300tala?? you're joking!!
That's what you get for been CHEAP ASS!!