Brides ‘heartbroken’ after booking no-show singing waiters from Wigan firm | Manchester News

A company which provided waiters for weddings who would burst into song as a surprise to guests failed to fulfil its contracts leaving brides “devastated, stressed and heartbroken”.

Solfan1 Limited, run by married couple Claire and Jamie Reeves in Wigan, traded under the name The Best Singing Waiters and worked with about 70 self-employed performers nationwide.

They blended in with other catering staff, before suddenly starting to sing during an agreed time on the wedding day.

Radio 4’s You and Yours programme has been contacted by people from across the UK who have lost thousands of pounds to the firm after paying in advance for singing waiters who never turned up.

Brides and performers have accused The Best Singing Waiters of trading while it was in serious financial trouble.

The has seen evidence the firm sold contracts to brides days before The High Court ordered the company to be wound up on 1 March.

Mr and Mrs Reeves have been contacted for a response.

Mother-of-the-bride Claire Yates booked a pair of singing waiters as a surprise for her daughter’s wedding in September, two years in advance.

She paid Solfan1 Limited £1,500 in monthly instalments of £70 after signing a contract.

But Ms Yates said she had heard nothing from the firm as her daughter’s wedding drew closer.

She said she was expecting them to be in touch about “what songs I wanted them to do, timings, and things like that”.

She said she sent an email that bounced back, and then saw on Facebook that the The Best Singing Waiters were going through bankruptcy.

Solfan1 Limited was closed down by the High Court four months before her Ms Yates’s wedding, on 1 May.

Ms Yates has been told she would not get her money back because of the way she paid via direct debit.

On 29 April, she received an email from The Best Singing Waiters asking her to pay the final two direct debit payments to a completely different company, called Decameron Events Ltd.

The only contract she held with The Best Singing Waiters was with the company, Solfan1 Limited.

“I was asked to set up a change of payment. It was to a company that I hadn’t heard of before,” she said.

“They told me that my old direct debit had been cancelled.

“I had no idea what was going on. I panicked really, that if I didn’t do this, anything that I’d [already] sorted was going to disappear.

“It was all done in a rush.”

The has traced Decameron Events Ltd back to the husband of the director of Solfan1 Limited, which traded as The Best Singing Waiters.

Once the High Court ordered Solfan1 Limited to be shut down, its bank accounts were frozen.

Tax authority, HM Revenue & Customs, launched a petition to wind up the company in February because the company owed its creditors more than £630,000.

That includes singing waiters who were not paid for their performances, brides who had paid in full, as well as its tax bills.

There had been previous court action against Solfan1 Limited for unpaid debts back in 2019 and 2022.

The has seen records that show those debts were never paid, but despite this, those behind The Best Singing Waiters continued to sell contracts to customers.

One bride who spoke to the provided evidence to show that she was encouraged to pay £850 for a pair of singing waiters the day before the company was wound up by the courts.

She was also asked to send the payment to the other company, Decameron Events Ltd.

Solfan1 Limited’s sole director, Claire Reeves, and her husband Jamie Reeves have been based in Wigan for two decades.

The has seen evidence that Mr Reeves, whose real name is Frederick Stanley Reeves, was the guiding hand behind the company.

He describes himself as owner of Solfan1 Limited on LinkedIn and had published videos in which he said he was heavily involved in The Best Singing Waiters.

In correspondence with customers, he is described as “the boss”.

Mr Reeves talked about running The Best Singing Waiters in a social media video posted in 2022, when the firm was already in serious financial trouble according to its accounts.

The year before, another singing waiters company that he was director of went under, after racking up debts of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Bride Lisa Marsay booked performers from the firm for her wedding to husband Tom in November 2024, and paid over the phone with her debit card the full amount of £1400.

“We booked the waiters because Tom’s [late] mum was always singing when she was doing the housework,” she said.

“It was something that he wanted on the day, so it felt like his mum was there with us.”

When she realised The Best Singing Waiters had gone bust, Ms Marsay said she was “devastated”.

“It was a lot of money and it spoilt [the wedding] quite a lot. It wasn’t just us that it impacted,” she said.

“Our family had to go through all of the heartbreak and stress that we went through.

“It got to the point where we just thought, we don’t even want to go ahead with the wedding now.

“It was only people telling us, ‘don’t let it spoilt your day’, that we went ahead.”

Ms Marsay is negotiating with her bank for a refund of the £1,400 she paid Solfan1 Limited.

Some of the self-employed performers who signed contracts with The Best Singing Waiters contacted the to say they were still owed wages.

Gareth James said he was owed about £500 for two unpaid gigs.

He now runs his own business called The Real Singing Waiters, and has offered deals to some of those who were left without performers.

He said it’s been “really difficult” recovering trade and regaining people’s trust.

“There was an issue with people thinking, ‘it’s Jamie in a different hat’,” he said.

“A lot of people said, ‘we don’t want anything to do with you’. We were just trying to recover what we could.

“I’ve spent the last six months doing reduced-priced gigs and getting the recommendations and testimonials, Mr James said.

“It’s been a hard sell.”

The contacted Mr and Mrs Reeves, both by email and by hand-delivered letter, with no response.

Mr Reeves has published an apology on the Facebook page of his new business venture, which offers marketing agency services.

He said: “To all the old customers and staff of The Best Singing Waiters, I’m truly sorry.”

There is an ongoing investigation into Solfan1 Limited by the Official Receiver, an officer of the government’s Insolvency Service.