Honey & Stone Events

They were great, easy to contact. They also sort of helped us with our overall planning/timing.

Good music and vibe.

Honey and Stone were amazing. Ben was super helpful and made me feel at ease.

Avoid at all costs - We had to take Ben Karsay of Honey & Stone Entertainment to court I hired Ben Karsay of Honey & Stone Entertainment to arrange live music, DJ, and saxophone services for our wedding in September 2024, and the experience was, without exaggeration, a nightmare. Just ten days before our wedding, Ben sent us a voice memo, demanding an extra $690 for the performer we had already selected and contracted - a direct breach of our agreement (which protected us from additional fees). He also offered to swap in an alternative performer and waive the additional fee, however the performer we chose was hand selected to sing while I walked down the aisle, so a random last minute bargain singer I had never heard of prior was unacceptable. This illustrated an extreme lack of judgement and care by Ben, who had conveniently chosen to spring this on us when we were most vulnerable. When we reminded him of the contractual obligations, multiple times, he eventually and reluctantly said he’d cover the additional fee for the singer we contracted. However, he then simultaneously tried to charge us another $880 for other services under the label of “audio technician” that was also already clearly included in the contract. This felt like game-playing, and we found his behaviour and tone to be deeply and extremely concerning. We did not have time to argue back and forth with our wedding now being only days away. Ben was unwilling to honour his original contract, which left us no choice but to cancel his services entirely. We no longer trusted Ben and his ability, and had found him consistently telling us things that were not truthful. His behaviour was at best, tremendously unprofessional. We sometimes even caught Ben making statements that contradicted truthful facts and written clauses in our contract, proving he was willing to just bend facts and say non-truths to suit him as he needed them to. Ben also threatened to take us to court for the remaining money left payable to him if we cancelled the contract, which also added to our stress. Thankfully, we chose to hold off on paying the now overdue balance on the contract. We did this because we were already concerned by other observations we made of Ben. From here, Ben became increasingly difficult to deal with. Despite us asking him multiple times to stop contacting us after we formally cancelled his services, the messages, calls, and emails continued to us and to others who were working for us. We found this behaviour extremely concerning and disrespectful. We considered escalating the issue further due to the frequency, but ultimately, all decided to block him until after our wedding. During the time we had to liaise with Ben, we found many inconsistencies in what Ben told us on a number of occasions, including, but not limited to, a false claim that he had booked the singer we chose (and was named in our contract). That singer later contacted us directly and told us he had never even booked her, nor did he pay the required deposit to secure the booking. Ben told us she was difficult to work with and tried to shift the blame, but it was clear to us who was difficult here. She told us she will never work with Ben again after this specific incident. Originally, Ben sent us a vague contract with no named performers. I had to specifically request those details be included - and now I understand why. In my view, this may be part of a recurring pattern - secure the booking, then swap in cheaper talent or do the gig himself so he takes a larger cut. (I have now seen another review with a similar complaint of disappointing replacement talent). At this time, given the many other untruths we had discovered, we were genuinely worried that other performers were also not booked and we could end up with him as our wedding DJ, which in my opinion and from my experience, is extremely underwhelming. Please also note, if these performers weren’t specifically named in our contract, he may have legally been able to swap in any other talent without issue. His actions ultimately breached the contract, left us scrambling to find last-minute entertainment a couple days before our wedding, and caused a tremendous amount of stress while we were now hosting family and friends from overseas. To make matters worse, he refused to return our deposit or accept ANY accountability. We could not believe that Ben truly believed that he had right to charge additional money and he continued to reiterate and argue that contracts can always be in review, are always subject to change, and that this was common practice in his industry. What is the point of having a contract then, Ben? Consequently, we took Ben to small claims court - and we won. In June 2025, the court ruled that Ben had breached his contract and ordered him to pay back our deposit, plus costs associated with taking the matter to court. Ben paid this back within the 7-day due date. This was never about the money for us, it was about getting validation and justice for the unethical treatment we had to endure during a time in our lives that should have been only joyful. And this post is about making sure our community is aware of this man and what he is capable of. I also want to note that unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. For my husband’s 40th, a completely separate booking in early 2024, Ben also requested more money just days before that event also. At the time, we paid it to keep the peace since the wedding contract had already been signed. However, I am now left to believe this was no coincidence and in my experience is possibly common practice for Ben to seek a last minute cash-grab from his clients. I should have trusted my gut then, as that was a huge warning sign. Let this be your warning. Work with literally anyone else.

Stoked to have Honey + Stone Music perform at our wedding. With what changed three times due to Covid, Ben Karsay and the team moved seamlessly with us. They were so easy-going and just took control. It was no surprise when they performed, the amazing tones of Josue and the ridiculous skill set of Ben was like having a five piece band at our disposal. Iced a magic day and could not recommend more highly!