Wedding bartender accused of leaving brides in the lurch by ghosting clients, canceling at the last minute and withholding refunds

DAILYMAIL.COM • 2h ago

By SARA MCGIFF, US REAL ESTATE & CONSUMER REPORTER Updated: 04:14 20 Oct 2026

It began as a thriving wedding bartending business run by a personable entrepreneur serving couples across Michigan and Ohio.

But now it’s a battleground, with jilted brides banding together on Facebook to piece together how their special days were thrown into chaos by a vendor they have accused of bilking them out of thousands of dollars.

At the center of the dispute is Eden ‘Rolph’ Regula, who launched her mobile bartending business, Sip of Eden, in October 2024 with a celebratory Facebook post.

By all accounts, Regula initially ran a popular and dependable service, earning praise from grateful brides and wedding planners throughout the upper Midwest.

Glowing reviews on Facebook and online wedding message boards praised the now 26-year-old bartender for her service and snappy communication.

By the end of summer 2026, however, the tone had changed, as the groups filled with dire warnings about Sip of Eden.

Bride after bride alleged they had paid upfront for bartending services, only for Regula to stop responding, fail to show up for weddings or withhold promised refunds. Some also accused the business of accepting multiple bookings for the same day.

Regula told the Daily Mail she never intended to ‘ghost’ clients or leave weddings without bartending services.

She said she had been harassed and that details about her family and children had been shared in a private Facebook group run by the brides. She also claimed her lawyer had advised her against further direct contact.

‘I was going to be there [at the weddings] until the harassment got out of control,’ Regula told the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail has spoken to numerous women about their experiences as well as Regula and her close friend Madison Bagdonas, who worked as a bartender for the company and as Regula’s full-time nanny.

Zoe Young, then going by her maiden name Richendollar, counts herself among Regula’s alleged victims. She booked Sip of Eden for her August 22, 2026, wedding at A Cord of Three in Hanoverton, Ohio, after learning it was the venue’s preferred bartending vendor.

Their relationship began on a friendly note in October 2025, with Young describing Regula as ‘very sweet’ and a ‘good communicator.’

Young agreed to pay $450 for bartending services, after a discount for paying upfront. She sent the money via Apple Pay upon signing a contract that she said offered a full refund if the bartender’s services were canceled.

The contract the Daily Mail reviewed stated that if the bartender canceled ‘due to illness, emergency or other unforeseen circumstances,’ the company would try to find a replacement with ‘equal skill and experience.’ If no suitable replacement could be found, the client was entitled to a ‘full refund of all amounts paid, including the deposit.’

Emma Vanderwaal-Gomez also booked Sip of Eden after reading glowing reviews in a Facebook group, paying Regula $650 upfront for her September 27, 2026, wedding at Black Sheep Shelter in South Haven, Michigan.

Regula was supposed to provide nonalcoholic drinks, mixers, ice and cups, while Vanderwaal-Gomez’s brother planned to buy the alcohol.

Helaina Spoutz, meanwhile, had booked Regula for her October 3 wedding in Metamora, Michigan, paying about $650 for an eight-hour package in December 2025.

Spoutz said Regula remained in regular contact in late September about a signature drink and how much alcohol she needed.

But as Young’s wedding approached, communication began to falter.

When Young asked what mixers the couple should bring, Regula did not respond for two days before suddenly telling Young that she had been in the hospital.

Four days later, when Young followed up again, Regula replied: ‘Hey, I’m at another wedding.’

Regula later told the Daily Mail she underwent surgery in August to have her fallopian tubes removed and that cancer was discovered during the procedure. She said she continued working weddings in the days afterward despite pain and bleeding.

Young also said her venue owner had told her Regula was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer.

On August 9, she messaged Regula about the final drink menu. Regula said she would check in a week later and suggested a call, but never followed up, as seen by the Daily Mail in messages between the two.

The next communication wouldn’t happen until September 1, when Regula told Vanderwaal-Gomez she was on vacation.

‘I’m on a cruise until Friday,’ Regula wrote, according to messages Vanderwaal-Gomez shared with the Daily Mail.

By the time Vanderwaal-Gomez followed up again on September 22, just days before her wedding, she said communication had stopped.

Spoutz’s last-minute scramble began differently. Less than a week before her wedding, she received a message from a man she did not recognize asking whether Elite Bartenders LLC was still servicing her event.

Her first thought was that it was a scam text. But she soon learned Elite Bartenders had acquired Sip of Eden and was honoring existing contracts.

Regula and Bagdonas said the business was sold to Elite Bartenders on September 21 and that responsibility for outstanding refunds and future bookings had passed to the new owner, Jason Allen.

For Young, the breaking point came the day before her wedding.

On August 21, Regula told her that, due to her health, she would not be able to work ’till further notice,’ forcing Young to scramble for another bartender.

The couple found a replacement the night before the wedding.

Regula promised to return Young’s $450, later saying she had undergone surgery and that her husband would send the money by ‘this evening,’ according to text messages Young shared.

Regula told the Daily Mail that she had reimbursed brides who canceled or requested refunds for August weddings, adding that she had documentation to support the claim.

However, when the Daily Mail followed up with a request for proof of those refunds, Bagdonas said no further documentation would be provided at this time.

Young told the Daily Mail on October 13 that she had received neither a refund nor any communication from Regula indicating she would get one.

Regula also disputed responsibility for other outstanding payments, saying she no longer had access to the business’s contracts, records or finances after the sale. Bagdonas likewise said she had never handled the finances and could not authorize refunds.

Initially, Young said she had decided against pursuing the money in small claims court because she believed Regula was sick.

‘I figured, you know what? She probably needs this money, or she probably already spent it on cancer treatments,’ Young said.

But after searching Facebook, she found other brides warning people not to book Sip of Eden.

As the women compared notes, Young said she heard explanations from Regula that echoed her own, including claims that health problems had kept her from working.

She also learned that Regula had booked multiple weddings for August 22, with at least four brides coming forward to claim they had been booked for the same date.

‘I genuinely thought she had cancer,’ Young said. ‘I thought she was sick.’

Regula and Bagdonas denied that multiple bookings on the same date meant the business had overextended itself.

They said Sip of Eden had nearly 10 workers, along with other on-call staff, and had always accepted multiple events in one day. They also emphasized that customers had booked the business, rather than Regula personally, to provide the service.

Vanderwaal-Gomez had a similar realization while sitting in a nail salon shortly before her wedding.

She searched Regula’s name online and discovered the warnings.

‘I went on this Facebook page, I just searched her name, and then it was all like “Beware of Sip of Eden,”‘ she said. ‘And I’m like, “Oh f***, I’m f***ed.”‘

By September 24, the Facebook group chat had grown to more than 50 brides, according to Vanderwaal-Gomez.

That was the same group chat Bagdonas said she secretly entered alongside five other acquaintances. She claimed she spent weeks watching the brides ‘scheme to take down Regula.’

‘It seems like they’re just there to bully,’ Bagdonas told the Daily Mail.

Vanderwaal-Gomez began making contingency plans with her brother, who had a liquor license, while her family started purchasing the supplies Regula was supposed to provide.

She requested a refund, citing the lack of communication and what she described as ‘evidence suggesting the business was fraudulent.’

But the dispute escalated the following day, when Vanderwaal-Gomez received an email from Bagdonas, who described herself as Regula’s primary point of contact.

The email said Regula could still service the wedding but warned that the bar service could be shut down if there were ‘threats, safety concerns, harassment, or other issues.’

Bagdonas also got the wedding date wrong – referring to September 26 instead of September 27 – and gave Vanderwaal-Gomez until 8pm to decide whether she still wanted Regula to provide the service.

Vanderwaal-Gomez did not see the email until around 11pm because she was at her rehearsal dinner. She emailed back requesting to cancel the service and receive a refund.

She said Regula had previously told her she could cancel up to three days before the wedding and receive a full refund.

Bagdonas instead pointed to the written contract, which said customers who canceled within three days were entitled to only a 50 percent refund.

Vanderwaal-Gomez accepted that and requested the 50 percent refund, but said Bagdonas denied the request, claiming the text exchange with Regula that she provided as evidence could not be verified.

After further back and forth, Vanderwaal-Gomez said she received a cease-and-desist letter on September 29, two days after her wedding, with Bagdonas accusing her of harassment.

‘I have previously communicated to you on multiple occasions that I do not wish to have further direct communication with you,’ read the email accompanying the letter.

Bagdonas acknowledged sending cease-and-desist letters to two people connected to the dispute.

She said one person – whom she did not identify – continued contacting her after an earlier exchange and allegedly threatened to publish their conversation and her contact information online unless she received a refund.

Bagdonas also told us that she had become Regula’s point of contact after the accusations began circulating because the messages and alleged threats were taking a toll on Regula’s mental health.

She claimed people had threatened to show up at Regula’s home or physically confront her, and asserted that addresses and phone numbers of Regula’s family members – and even their children’s whereabouts – had been discussed in a private Facebook group for brides who had booked Sip of Eden.

Bagdonas also alleged that messages in the private group chat included a proposal that group members should visit Regula’s home and a proposed scheme to buy a used car Bagdonas was offering for sale with a fraudulent check, as seen in one screenshot shared with the Daily Mail.

Bagdonas denied that the cease-and-desist letters were intended to silence legitimate complaints, saying she had no control over refunds and was trying to avoid further direct confrontations while the dispute was ongoing.

By then, Vanderwaal-Gomez’s family had already stepped in to salvage the wedding.

Her brother and a friend bartended for free, while her family bought the supplies Regula had promised to provide. Vanderwaal-Gomez estimates she spent more than $200 on Amazon, with additional costs incurred by her father at Costco.

‘I was so emotionally drained, so done with this,’ she said.

Spoutz faced a similar financial bind as her wedding approached, despite having remained in contact with Regula later than the other two brides.

She began posting in Michigan brides groups and received offers from roughly 30 to 40 businesses willing to provide discounted rates or payment plans.

But with nearly $1,000 already spent on alcohol, she said she had no money to pay another bartender. Her family prepared a backup plan, relying on a friend to step in if everything fell apart.

Ultimately, Elite Bartenders honored the booking without charging Spoutz an additional fee and showed up at the wedding party.

‘It was more than I could have ever asked for,’ she said. ‘It was a beautiful day with some amazing people, and I’m excited to be married and not be planning things anymore.’

Multiple brides who spoke to the Daily Mail said they had submitted documentation to join a proposed class-action lawsuit against Sip of Eden, although no suit had been filed as of October 14.

The contract also requires both parties to try to resolve disputes through negotiation first, followed by mediation or arbitration before taking legal action.

Regula said she had no intention of resuming direct communication with the jilted brides and directed customers to contact Allen, the new owner of Sip of Eden.

‘I think that they could have handled all these disputes and all of this privately versus going out to the public like this,’ Bagdonas told us. ‘Because in the end, it’s just gonna hurt their image.’

For now, some of the brides say they are still out of pocket, left to pick up the pieces of their disrupted wedding plans and hoping their fight for accountability will finally lead to answers – and help them recover the money they say they are owed.

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