A New York couple is suing their wedding planner for turning their happy day into a nightmare when, among other things, the ceremony date was changed without their knowledge, a series of logistical screw-ups left guests stranded and the groom’s father was burned during a sacred Hindu fire ritual.
Jasmine Lau and Ashwin Kaja had hoped for a once-in-a-lifetime marriage in Myanmar, but claim “numerous and significant failures” by bridal consultant Sojourner Auguste ruined everything — and now allege they waited more than five years for a promised refund that never came.
Auguste, an Ivy League-trained architect whose destination weddings have been written up in The New York Times, Vogue and Glamour, is “regarded as an international tastemaker, designing meaningful and impeccably executed events for multicultural couples,” according to her marketing materials. “For close to two decades, she has earned a widespread reputation for honoring her couple’s unique heritage with the utmost thoughtfulness.”
Events organized by Auguste, are “miles from the ordinary, hosted in private estates, A-list hotels to one-of-a-kind architectural landmarks,” her company’s website says.
But Lau and Kaja contend otherwise, and blame Auguste for their purportedly botched nuptials.
Attorney Ed Keenan, who is representing Lau and Kaja in their lawsuit against Auguste, declined to discuss the case, telling The Independent, “We’d prefer to keep our comments confined to the court filings.”
Auguste did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
When Lau, a Hong Kong-born social entrepreneur with an economics degree from Yale, and Kaja, a Fishkill, New York, native and Harvard-trained lawyer, got engaged, they dreamed of tying the knot in Bagan, the historical center of Burmese culture and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Myanmar’s Mandalay Region.
The two set a date of December 31, 2017, and hired Auguste to plan the perfect destination wedding.
But, when the time came to get married, Lau and Kaja “would see the fruits of [Auguste’s] failed planning,” according to a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.
For starters, Lau and Kaja were shocked to discover that Auguste had “unilaterally changed the date of the ceremony just days before the wedding — without notifying the bride and groom and prior to the arrival of several guests,” the complaint states.
Scrambling to accommodate friends and family coming in from abroad, the couple, luckily, was able to move the date back to the original schedule, the complaint continues.
The next setback occurred at the pre-wedding reception dinner, when the hired videographers and photographers “were dismissed prematurely… resulting in memories of the event not being documented,” according to the complaint.
On the big day, Lau and Kaja assert they found the event site, a seemingly limitless savanna surrounded by ancient Buddhist temples and pagodas, to be “unprepared and in a disastrous state.”
Further, according to the complaint, “Guest logistics, including transportation, housing, meal preparation and dietary preferences, were handled poorly, creating chaos.”
Things took another turn for the worse once the Indian portion of the ceremony began, the complaint goes on.
“Mr. Kaja is Hindu, and Hindu religious ceremonies traditionally involve a small open fire, which requires safe handling,” it says. “The holder for the traditional fire ceremony was not brought, leading to burns on Mr. Kaja’s father.”
The guests wrote personal notes to Lau and Kaja, and some never made it back to the couple, the complaint alleges.
According to the complaint, the post-wedding reception Auguste arranged was also highly problematic, which claims she “neglected to place a cap on fees… resulting in the couple incurring thousands of dollars in additional costs.”
When all was said and done, Lau and Kaja “confronted” Auguste about her “numerous and significant failures” regarding their wedding, the complaint states. It says Auguste “acknowledged the shortcomings and pledged to take full responsibility.” So, after negotiating for nearly an entire year, the two sides signed a settlement agreement on December 6, 2018, the complaint explains.
Auguste was to reimburse the newlyweds a total of $20,000, between $5,000 and $6,000 of which would compensate Lau and Kaja for costs Auguste allegedly authorized without their approval.
The first payment would be due on December 22, 2018, and the final payment was to be made the week of April 2019, according to the complaint.
But, the complaint says, although Auguste told Lau and Kaja that she had wired them the first payment, the two never got it. After subsequently “ghosting” Lau and Kaja, Auguste “finally got back in touch and promised to make the past-due payments, and possibly all future-due payments, by the first week of March 2019,” according to the complaint. It says Lau and Kaja agreed, as long as Auguste promised to pay an extra $1,704 for the delays, along with an additional $100 to $200 a day if she missed any coming payments, the complaint states.
“[O]nce again, [Auguste] continued to miss all payments,” the complaint alleges.
Lau and Kaja again contacted Auguste, who “continued to make excuses,” according to the complaint.
“At one point, [Auguste] told [Lau and Kaja] to watch their bank account for a payment to arrive, and that window passed with no payments,” the complaint concludes. “On or about April 3, 2019, [Auguste] said [she] would send an email update on April 5, 2019. To date — more than five years later — [Auguste has] still not provided any update.”
The pair is suing Auguste and her company, Erganic Design, for breach of contract, demanding compensatory and liquidated damages to be determined at trial, along with attorneys’ fees and pre- and post-judgment interest from the date of default, at an annual rate of 9 percent.
