This review is for Day-of / week-of coordination only. I hired Ashley to help primarily with timeline and vendor coordination and didn't have the opportunity to have a full-service planner help with all the details.

I was one of those brides who thought for sure that I could do it all on my own and that I didn't need a wedding coordinator. But after my mom saw countless episodes of "Who's Wedding Is It Anyway" and saw how the planners saved the day time and again, she convinced me to hire at least a day of coordinator.

Fast forward to the week before my wedding - I can't imagine what I would have done without Ashley. She gave me organization and perspective when there just weren't enough hours in the day to get everything done that I needed to do. She handled all the vendor confirmations (and trust me, there are more vendors than one busy bride can keep straight), put together a clear, step-by-step timeline, and my favorite part - she sent an email out about a day or two before the wedding to all my vendors saying that "from this point forward, the bride and groom request that all questions go through Ashley".

On my wedding day, I didn't have sight of a clock at any point in the day. Ashley sweetly but firmly (which is important with a coordinator) kept everything on track, made sure my hubby and I ate (or at least tasted) each course, paid our vendors, and dealt with any problem - if there were any.

I initially thought that day-of coordinators were a luxury or an unnecessary expense but now, after it is all said and done, I can easily say that having Ashley's help and expertise was priceless!

Belletristics was an awesome find! I was trying to do all my design work on my own but I eventually just started running out of time. I found Sarah on etsy.com and had her create a beachy monogram to use on our welcome to town packages. I loved it so much I followed up with orders for two different water bottle labels, and a coordinating Congratulations banner that was displayed at our beachside rehearsal dinner. She was quick to respond, very reasonably priced, and created some truly amazing designs that gave a stylish and cohesive look to our pre-wedding events. (I even printed the monogram on napkin wraps - such an awesome touch!) I highly recommend Belletristics.

My fiance and I first met Joe when we took an Intro to Ballroom class at a local community college. The intro definitely wasn't enough for us though and we decided to go for a choreographed first dance just a couple of months before our wedding. I have to say that taking dance lessons and working with Joe has to be one of the absolute best wedding decisions that we made - Joe was awesome to work with, the lessons were a fun escape from hectic planning, and our guests were completely wowed with our performance on the big day!

We ended up going above OC Wedding Dance's usual two-lesson package and we learned a super impressive Viennese Waltz in 5 lessons. Although my hubby and I did mess up a few times during our grand performance, we have so many spectacular photos that we look like real pros!

If you have even the slightest desire to learn a great first dance - BOOK JOE (or his wife) NOW - you will be nothing but happy!

I found Flower Allie on The Knot message boards - she was very highly recommended by other So Cal brides. Flowers were very important to me and I shopped around a lot (I met with 5 other florists prior). But Allison had a great personality and was reasonably priced and I booked her immediately after our first meeting. I wouldn't say that she made the planning process super easy, I usually had to follow up with her to remind her what we discussed at meetings and she rarely returned emails. On two separate occasions, I showed up at what I thought was our "final meeting" only to find out that Allison was only expecting to show me a candelabra or get my input on something. In the end, I was very, very pleased with how my centerpieces and bouquets came out. They definitely looked like something out of platinum weddings! Some of the other things were a little underwhelming by comparison leaving me to believe that she perhaps just ran out of time - floral garlands and the toss bouquet were sparse and the boutonnieres were nothing more than a single flower wrapped in ribbon - not like the more detailed photos I had provided as a sample. I do not feel like I got my moneys worth on those items. In the end though, I would recommend Flower Allie based on the spectacular, well-priced centerpieces and bouquets that she created - every flower was super fresh and all of the bouquets lasted for days.

Jason Jass was everything we could have asked for in a DJ. He is professional, young, not sleezy or greasy like lots of the DJs I met at bridal shows, and most importantly, he knows how to rock a party. He kept our dance floor packed all night long - everyone from my 50 year old aunts to our 20 something friends were out having an awesome time! Our entire reception ran smoothly and I received lots of compliments on the music. He ran the two meetings we had with him prior to the wedding very efficiently, helped my fiance and I choose key songs, and shared a lot of valuable insight on the reception time line.

He also provided lighting (amber uplights, pinspotting, and dance floor lights) for our reception and had the room looking great.

I ordered a dessert buffet of mini coconut cupcakes, candybar cupcakes, key lime pies, passion fruit tarts, banana cream pie shots, and chocolate mousse shots. I also ordered a four tier wedding cake. Melody was great to work with, super friendly, and put up with my indecisiveness like a pro. She created an absolutely beautiful display on wedding day, using a variety of cake pedestals and trays, and everything tasted as good as it looked! The only thing that went wrong, one of the cake layers was accidentally switched for another flavor but when I notified Melody, she promptly refunded a portion of my money along with a nice note of apology. I highly recommend Sweet and Saucy for those brides that are looking for a little something extra at their reception. The dessert buffet was definitely one of the highlights at my wedding!

I had my wedding reception at the Nixon Library. It was the first venue that we toured and after looking at 20 more places all over Southern California, and realizing that no place else could compare, we decided to bust our budget and book the Library. There is no doubt that it is expensive to hold a Saturday evening event here (especially since you have to hire outside catering and rent everything) but after having our reception, we definitely think that it was worth it. Our guests loved being able to tour the museum during cocktail hour, we got lots of beautiful photos in the rose garden, and no hotel ballroom can come close to the beauty of the East Room Ballroom.

The one thing that disappointed us, we had planned to take photos next to Nixon's helicopter but were told that it had closed at 5:00 and there was no way we could - even though we had rented the library until midnight. My fiance and I were definitely mad that we weren't informed about the early closing time earlier. Besides that, everything went smoothly. FYI, the Library really doesn't do much of anything to assist with event planning or set up so if you book here, plan on hiring a coordinator.