Amber888's reviews

We hired Gene for 3 dance lessons. We wanted someone who could give us some confidence so that we could dance more elegantly. Gene came up with a simple routine for our song and gave us the confidence to be graceful and comfortable. He’s very patient and easy to work with. He worked with my husband a bunch more (I’m the less self-conscious one), and I thought he was great! Gene also does group lessons, but we were running out of time so we opted for the private lessons. Cost = $70 per lesson (each lesson is 1 hour). Group lessons are much cheaper, however, if you have more time before your wedding.

As I described with Yank Sing, it cost a lot to buy their wine, so we ran the numbers and found three wines that were cheaper than what it cost to buy theirs (even with their ridiculous corkage fees). My husband and I decided not to have hard liquor (we didn’t want crazy drunkenness at our classy event), so bought wine and some champagne from Bev Mo, and then we just bought the beer and soft drinks from Yank Sing. The greatest thing about this Bev Mo was that they let us return unopened bottles of wine (but if you ice them and the labels come off, its yours). Other Bev Mos will not let you return your wine after your event. Another good thing about them is that they will deliver your wine chilled to your event, although there is a $75 delivery charge, I think.

The manager and asst manager at that branch area also very knowledgeable about wines so they helped direct us to affordable but great tasting wines. You’d be surprised how many of our guests (many wine connoisseurs, in fact) were pleased with our wine. To go cheaper but not sacrifice the taste, Id go with Australian whites, and Chilean or Australian Reds. Overall cost for wine and champaign = $500 (but we also spent about that much on beer and soft drinks at Yank Sing). I think we probably saved about $1000 or so by doing this.

This is a huge secret and adding this will make your event so much more dramatic. Two weeks before my wedding day I returned to the Rincon Center and Yank Sing and realized that the space was DARK. So I scrambled to find someone who could do lighting. I called Classic Party Rentals and they were going to charge me $500+, and I was going to pay that much at a lot of other places. Then, through a bit of searching and a lot of good luck, I found Da Vinci. They rent out theatrical lights to theater companies and to movie makers. I rented 8 uplights from them and they also lent me the amber filters. It definitely makes a difference, gals (this is something that all the professional wedding planners do for their weddings and many of us just dont think about it Go to www.haleevents.com, who is hot events planner in the Bay Area, and who my cousin used for his wedding. She charges about 5-7K for her services, and she ALWAYS ALWAYS uses theatrical lights. See also my DOCs site, www.eventswithflair.com. Mylinh, too, uses lighting, and it is always more dramatic (Mylinh (who is GREAT), if you go with her, has some contacts too, who will charge a lot less for coming in and doing the lighting setup work. I tried them but they were booked.)). The uplights make the room more warm and your guests will feel like they’re in a different space. Do note, if you go with a place like Da Vinci, you will have to set it up yourself, which can be a little tricky. They showed me how to use the lights but you have to be careful b/c if you plug too many lights into one socket, itll blow a fuse (and I’m sure that cant be pleasant on your wedding day to have the lights and electricity all turn off!). So anyway, be aware of that. Mylinh and her fiance set up the lights for me. You can see the warmth from the lights in my Reception pics above. There’s a warm amber, red glow that would have been absent otherwise. Cost = $126 (that is CHEAP compared to what Classic charges).

They were close to us, did their job, and I can’t say much more than that. We rented 100 chairs for the ceremony, a table for food and a red table cloth. Their prices compared well with classic party rentals and they dropped off the chairs and picked them up. So Id recommend them overall. Cost = about $ 415 to rent the chairs, table, and table cloth (BTW, Id recommend the plastic resin chairs, over the cheapest chairs available). I changed my order right before my wedding to more quality chairs and I’m glad I did.

I learned from a friend who got married before me that you can save a lot of money on the cake. I know some folks NEED to have the most fantastic cake ever, and that is up to them, but for me, I figured after 10 courses of food, and a dessert (mango pudding), my guests wouldn’t care as much for the cake. If you are having your wedding in a less elaborate venue, having the cake be the centerpiece of the wedding may not be such a bad idea. But b/c I had my wedding at the Rincon, and there were so many other elaborate details already, I just decided to go simple with the cake. I needed it to taste good, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune. So the cake was a simple yellow cake with strawberries and kiwi inside. If you shop around, you will see that most fancy cake places will charge about 5.00 per piece. Well, I ended up paying about $1.50 or so per person on the cake. This is how I did it. First, I went to a cheaper bakery in Chinatown (yeah, girls, its pretty ghetto inside, and pretty uninspiring, but you do save lots of $$$ in the end), then I ordered a three tier cake, and 2 half sheets. The half sheets will be stored in the back and your restaurant vendor will end up slicing that up and serving that to your guests. They will never know that their cake didn’t come from the 3 tiers. It would have cost a lot to have more than 3 tiers. So now you know my secret. Anyway, in my view, I thought my cake looked pretty good. I ordered it white with a couple of small details and then my florist, Nicole Ha, decorated it. Overall cost = $471 (that includes delivery, I think). They were also very reliable and easy to work with.

I went with them b/c they were cheap and some brides had gone with them. Do not order your truffles with them if you have a big wedding. They wont be able to handle it. I ordered my truffles way in advance and was assured that everything would be fine. Each guest was to receive two truffles in a nice box tied with a red ribbon. One truffle would have my initial, and one truffle would have my husbands initial written on. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, this is what happened. I asked for the truffles to be delivered on Wednesday (my wedding was on Saturday). When they didn’t show up on Wed., I ended up making a call on Wednesday night and leaving a message. No one called me back. They are based in Arizona which makes it even worse. Anyway, I ended up trying to chase down the box of chocolates all day on Thursday and Friday. I bet what happened was that they couldn’t get everything done in time and couldn’t get it out until Friday. Well, I pretty much gave up on it until they somehow miraculously arrived at my house on Friday at 4, right before my rehearsal dinner. I was pretty peeved, but by then I had already given up on them. I paid about $1.25 or $1.35 for each box, or about $529 total. Our initials were also written messily on the truffles. So I really can’t recommend them. My word of advice to you: stay local. I should have just gone with Sees or Godivas or something. The stress was not worth it.

Mylinh was a godsend. I brought her in for DOC work three months before my wedding, so I had already booked most of my vendors. I am pretty organized and only needed someone to help me execute on the day of. She was organized, professional, and went above and beyond her call of duty. I know many of you may be thinking you don’t need a DOC. I thought I could do everything myself too, but in the end, I went with a DOC b/c I wanted to enjoy my wedding day. And I’m so glad I did. I did not worry at all on my wedding day, knowing that Mylinh would keep me on schedule, and would handle all the little problems that come up (and believe something will come up). Also, your vendors need someone to contact in case they run into problems. Believe me, you need a point person. Although you may be tempted to ask a family member or friend, there are a couple of problems with this: 1. they have no experience and may botch it up, and 2. they will probably want to enjoy your wedding day. So I do think a DOC is the way to go. If you’re already spending a ton on your wedding, you might as well spend a little more to make sure your vision is executed to a tee.

Mylinh is also good friends with Nicole Ha, so if you hire them together, they will work together on your wedding day to make sure every detail is taken care of. She is very detail-oriented and will meet with you about 3 or 4 times before your wedding day and will remind you of things that you will inevitably forget. She also has impeccable taste so if you are unsure of what you want, she will have great ideas for you. She came to my house in Berkeley first to set up while I was at the tea ceremony, and then the plan was that she would go over to SF to set up for the reception. Well, her car broke down in Berkeley. She found a way to get over to SF and get her job done, and her professionalism is reflected in the way she didn’t even mention to me her car troubles until a week later. She can take care of business like no other and she will treat your wedding day like her own (she even has walkie talkies so she can communicate to your d.j. when she is running around, to make sure he is on task too). You will need to provide her with one or two helpers, however, b/c she will only be there by herself (and if you are lucky, her fiance, Billy, will also be there to help her out). Cost = $500 for all services (though my mom gave her an additional $200 for her excellent services). I have heard that her rates have gone up slightly (around $750 or so for day of coordination, $3500 for a full wedding – still a bargain, in my book!).

Many people have e-mailed me about Mylinh, and I’ve responded in kind to all of the e-mails because I really did appreciate Mylinh’s help and am happy to refer clients to her. To help you decide whether Mylinh is right for you, here are some questions that have been asked of me and my honest answers. I would note that I’ve noticed one or two aberrant people who were displeased with her services. I think they are in the slim minority (probably bridezillas who would have been unhappy with their day no matter what!). As with all vendors, meet with Mylinh to make sure you hit it off. Without further delay, here are some Q & A’s regarding Mylinh:

1) How many guests were at your wedding? (so I can get a feel for the size of the weddings she's coordinated)

There were 332 guests at my wedding (reception), about 100 guests at my ceremony in Berkeley, and there were three events that day in three different cities! Talk about complicated. Mylinh is able to handle large numbers of guests and she will not get overwhelmed because of chaos, details, pushy Asian folks (as I know our family members can get!)

2) What type of activities was Mylinh involved in? (wedding ceremony, tea ceremony, reception/banquet, etc.)

Mylinh was involved in the wedding ceremony and the reception/banquet. She helped me set up for the ceremony in Berkeley (meeting vendors, making sure everything was ready for when we arrived (from San Jose, which was where the tea ceremony was held)). After that, she set up everything in San Francisco for my reception and stayed there the entire evening to make sure that everything was perfect. If you read my bio, you'll see that there are ENDLESS details that needed to be managed, and she thought of everything - down to the last details of how the chopsticks should be arranged. I already had a timeline, but she will help you come up with a timeline to make sure that things happen smoothly. I confess I am very organized myself, but that speaks all the more to her skills because I would not have put up with incompetent, disorganized people, especially with something as important as my own wedding. Also, she helped me with a bunch of stuff beforehand - calling vendors, meeting with me several times to discuss details, exchanging emails, etc. I'd say that she spent about 30-40 hours on my event (including the day of activities). So what she charges you is CHEAP for what you get - we gave her around $700. In my view, she is underpaid, if you do the hours calculation.

3) What did you like about working with Mylinh?

I liked everything about Mylinh - she was very organized, very detail-oriented, and also gave some good suggestions that were key to my vision (e.g., bringing in the lighting, candles, etc.). And to top all of that off, she does not stress you out and will not impose her vision on you. She supports your ideas, makes them better, and will treat your wedding like her own. She is also very responsive via e-mail and/or phone. But, as I noted with Nicole Ha, Mylinh is currently also fully employed during the day, so I usually gave her a day or so. She always came through, however, because she is very responsible.

4) What did you dislike about working with Mylinh?

I know that this sounds almost unbelievable, but I didn't dislike any aspect of working with her. She is the ultimate professional, and despite the fact that her car broke down on the day of my wedding, I had no clue. She gets the job done. Really, you can't ask for more than that. My husband and I are both attorneys (litigators, at that), and we have extremely high standards. She was a total joy to work with. She is also very sweet and nice, but do not mistake that for being less than assertive. She is able to be all at once nice, helpful, and competent, so tasks will get done.

5) Looking back, was hiring a DOC worth it?

YES. I can't stress this enough. For as organized as I was (spreadsheets, timelines, etc.), I was so relieved that I could hand over the reins to someone as responsible and organized as I am (if not more). Totally worth it. I would pay her twice or three times what I did if I knew, in retrospect, how great she is.

6) If you were to grade her for her work, what would you give her? (A, B, C, D, or F) A+.

7) Any other comments?

Be realistic when hiring a DOC. I sometimes see brides who are just unrealistic about what they can expect from their DOC. If you are hiring a “day of coordinator,” you can only expect that person to help you take care of details for the “day of.” Remember, in terms of a hours breakdown, a DOC will spend approximately 30-40 hours on your wedding – meeting with you, going through the details, and then finally making sure everything comes together. You cannot hire a DOC and expect someone to plan your entire wedding for you. If you are someone who has already worked out the details but who needs a responsible individual to help you make the details come together on your wedding day, a DOC is the way to go. If, on the other hand, you need someone to help pick everything out for you, including table linens, a wedding dress, etc., then you need full coordination (btw, Mylinh does full weddings now too – for somewhere around $3500-$4000, which is mucho mucho cheap)! Finally, as with all of your vendors, do NOT expect your DOC to be your emotional strength/best friend – not that Mylinh or any other DOC is not nice or is capable of that – you are simply not paying for that! As noted below in my “advice” section, be a professional and you will get professional services in return. Be a bridezilla and you will get unhappy vendors and a wedding day that is miserable and less than memorable!

I write my review here in case you do come across this name. I gave her a terrible grade because of my experience with her, although my hair does look superb. I thought long and hard about whether to do this review, but figured you could learn from my mistake. Our trial went fine and she did a lot of styles for me, up dos and half updos. I ended up deciding that I wanted to have a half updo. Anyway, I remember after the trial that I contacted her and told her the date, time, and that I wanted to book her. She agreed and we agreed on a price. This is what I remember. I told her I wanted to sign a contract and she said that for such a small job, she wouldn’t need that. So, I left it at that. THAT WAS A MISTAKE. ALWAYS SIGN A CONTRACT WITH YOUR VENDORS! I am an attorney, and I should have known better, but for some reason I got complacent and figured that I could trust my vendors. I had good results everywhere else. However, four days before my wedding, when my day-of-coordinator called her to confirm, she acted like she had amnesia. She said I didn’t book her, etc. Anyway, when I spoke to her, I was not going apeshit. That would have made things worse. So I stayed calm and handled the situation like an attorney would. Maybe its just that I’ve been through a lot of stress before, but I didn’t freak out and took care of it the best I could. I just needed to make sure that she could do it, and if she refused to, Id have to quickly sort through my options. I basically said, look, can you do it or not. I’m 3 days away from my wedding and I need to take care of business. Otherwise, I will quickly look for someone else. Anyway, she ended up doing it, but she was a total b**ch about it. In the end, I am sure we had verbally agreed to it. And even if we hadn’t I didn’t appreciate her treatment of me three days before my wedding. Luckily, she came through on my wedding day and was professional the day of, but this was pretty stressful for me. This was my little disaster, but everything turned out fine. So, that is my review of her. If you end up hearing about her, you might want to think twice. At the very least, I would recommend that you sign a contract. If any vendor does not have a contract, you should draft one up. Just make sure it contains all the material terms (date, time, services provided, etc.). Word to the wise. Its better to be safe than sorry, and you definitely dont want to get into a situation like mine where its a battle of words between you and the vendor. It just gets sticky. And itll cause you unnecessary stress. Cost = Hair Trial $100; Hair on wedding day = $225.

I really enjoyed working with Nam. She has a lot experience and will work with you to bring out the best of your features. The truth is that I wanted to make sure that I didn’t look too made up, and I wanted to make sure that my makeup lasted all day without having to touch up a lot of times. I also didn’t want to look shiny in my photos, and from the pics, you can see that she did a great job. The truth is that I have pretty clear skin, so she didn’t put on a lot of powder or foundation. However, I give her a rave review because she gave me lots of makeup tips and executed what I wanted exactly (nice eyes, long lashes, and red lips). She also suggested some products that I now include in my daily regimen. She may be a little pricier than others, but I really loved working with her. She also did my mothers makeup, and I thought my mom looked great. But do note that she books way in advance, so you probably wont be able to book her if you end up waiting too long before your date. I definitely recommend doing the trial, even though you think its more costs because it is at that point that you can have her play around with your makeup until you are satisfied. Cost = $75 for trial, $250 for brides makeup, $75 for mother of bride. Also, do note that she charges more if you have her do the airbrushed makeup (I think I’ve heard that this is good coverage if you have blemishes you want to cover up, or if you are going for a dewey look). Finally, if you go with Nam, she does not do hair, so you’ll have to hire a separate hair person.

We needed music for our ceremony, and I always envisioned having a harpist, so I checked a couple of places and went with Diana, who also lives in Berkeley. We figured it’d be easier for her to do it since she lived within 5 minutes of our house, where we were holding our ceremony. She did a great job, is very professional, and was able to improvise the day of our wedding because my family got caught in traffic driving up to our house from the tea ceremony, so she played a lot more music than she thought she would be. She charges about as much as others charge, so her rates were fair. Also, we needed a microphone and two small speakers for our ceremony (which I highly recommend if you are having an outdoor ceremony because sound is hard to gauge depending on the weather, etc.) and so she charged us $50 more for her husband to come and set up speakers and a microphone. Cost = $380 for about 3.5 hours (I think that includes the mic and speakers too).