Barbara specializes in dealing with events at the arboretum. They are the preferred for the Fullerton Arboretum. Their prices were average but their customer service was outstanding. Also because they have a special relationship with the Arboretum they are allowed to set up early & pick up the next day which keeps prices down.

This review is simple. Yep, Joyce Luck is really as good as they say. I couldnt get over how expensive hair & make-up are but I must say these were some of my best spent dollars. Highly recommended.

This is the toughest review to write. I ended up switching my florist 3 weeks before the wedding. After meeting with this florist I felt that they could give me better value and style than my prior florist. Overall Im still glad I made the change. For the most part the flowers were beautiful, I loved my bouquet and the centerpieces.

However, looking back I realized that they made A LOT of mistakes because they either didnt care to listen or just thought their ideas where better than what I stated. Either way, in retrospect I feel extremely disrespected by this florist. Here is the list of things that they did wrong

1. They were late by and hour! There was no excuse for this, none whatsoever, according to them we were they only wedding they had booked for that day. As a result a batch of our pictures will be sans personal flowers.

2. My MOHs bouquets were already browning when they arrived, the flowers looked old.

3. I specifically told the designer I DID NOT WANT ROSE PETALS spread around the tables. We were at an outdoor venue and it is very important to keep the Arboretum grounds clean. Apparently the designer did not care and she spread flower petals EVERYWHERE! The petals were blown on the floor and as a result we have to pay a clean-up fee of $80/hour.[UPDATE: The Arboretum has decided not to charge us the clean-up fee but that is strictly because of our relationship with the rentals manager & our status as members]

4.I asked for pomanders for the flower girls and we got baskets instead.

5.The moms where supposed to be pin-on arrangement and they showed up with hand corsages instead.

I really dont know if they didnt care about my small budget, or if they thought they were improving my wedding, either way this is completely unacceptable. I didnt let these things bother me that day but looking back I dont understand why these things happened. Again, nothing horrific but it does show a lack of professionalism. I do not recommend them.

Planning- After finding out that the usual suspects for a Spanish/English bilingual DJ were booked, we met with Alex. We liked his energy and booked him. I contacted him 3 weeks before the wedding simply so we could set a date for a final meeting and he didnt get back to me for 8 days. Even then he only sent me an e-mail to tell me how incredibly busy he was. I was very annoyed with him. He finally called me again 3 days before the wedding to see if we could meet the next day (our rehearsal night). We ended up doing our final meeting over the phone, I was very, very annoyed.

Day-Of: Alex really came through. He kept people on the dance floor all night long and did a great job of balancing the English/Spanish factor.

Would I recommend him? Only if the other DJs are booked and you really need a bilingual DJ.

My husband is not a big dancer and I wasnt feeling all too confident about our first dance either. We decided to take private lessons and after looking around Lets Dance L.A. had the best options for us.
I went in and spoke with the person at the front desk who helped me figure out what kind of music we had, and therefore who would be the best instructor for us. We spent a total of 5 hours taking private lessons. Bill was completely awesome; he started us from the very beginning and never made us feel insecure about our abilities or lack thereof. He actually suggested that we brake up our first few lessons into hour sessions so that we would not be overwhelmed with what we learned and had time to master new material before moving on. Bill tapped in to our ridiculous sense of humor from the very first lesson and really used that to his advantage. He made us laugh a whole bunch and made us feel confident about dancing the foxtrot in front of our guests. We even got to use our new dance skillzzzzzzz during the Honeymoon, woo-hoo!

Everyone who teaches at Lets Dance LA is pretty darned accomplished, so no matter what youre trying to learn I think its hard to go wrong here. Also, its a much bigger place than most dance schools. They have their main gigantic dance floor but also two smaller rooms upstairs. They also offer tons of group lessons for a minimal fee and beginner classes start at the beginning of each month. We obviously loved this place and Bill in particular so were trying to figure out a way to head back to learn some other dances. Highly recommended!

The wife of my one of my colleagues recently opened a bakery in East L.A. They specialize in Mexican 3 leches cake. Im a cake snob and this is pretty much they only cake I really like. Just to be sure we went cake tasting at a well-known wedding cake bakery and were not impressed. So we booked this bakery. Each tier was a different flavor, at no extra charge. I just wanted a simple looking cake and they delivered just that. If you look at the pictures (to come in the future) youll notice that its not aesthetically outstanding but the taste was amazing. Our guests who had never tried 3 leches especially raved about it. We paid less than $2 per person and despite the fact that caterer served very substantial slices the biggest tier wasnt even touched. Highly recommended.

Planning: We initially didnt budget for a videographer, we felt it wasnt something we didnt really need. However, after reading so many reviews with brides either being so glad they had one, OR regretting that they didnt have one, I decided to find someone. I caught Young while he was still very, very new to the business so we got a great deal. For his current prices check out his website. He prefers to communicate mostly by e-mail, he may come across as uninterested but hes actually a sweetheart who is just a little shy.

Day Of- Young was on time and stayed the whole day. He was all over the place all day long.

Planning: I hired Philip 5 days before the wedding! In the end I am so glad I didnt find a Mariachi to play at our wedding after all. I found Philip on craigslist, I posted an ad and he e-mailed me with a resume and a list of his repertoire. He has a bachelors & masters in music and guitar performance. He was friendly, prompt, and sent me a few music files during those few days so I could choose music.

Day-Of: He was absolutely perfect! I kind of consider Philip my little last minute gem. He played during the ceremony & the cocktail hour. He brought his own amplification (I never even saw it) but I could hear his music softly playing in the background when we were still off taking family pics. When we finally reached the reception area he came over to introduce himself, he looked great and was dressed professionally. Highly recommend him!

Planning: Tony runs this mom-n-pop catering business. Theyre definitely not fancy-schmancy but their food is good and their prices are amazing. We got a pretty generous buffet for about $30 a person and that included linens (just plain white but still saved us $). Also, they allowed us to provide our own alcohol (he made sure we had the proper licensing) and charged us a pittance to provide 2 bartenders.

Day-Of: I loved the food! At the last minute Tony threw in stuffed mushrooms for free. Id asked about adding them to the menu but then kind of forgot about them in the last minute madness. Tony included them anyway and mentioned there would be no extra charge. We got a lot of compliments on the food but to be fair most of my guests were simple, kind-hearted people. If your guests (or parents guests) are high-brow kind of folk this is probably not the catering company for you. But if you want professional but no frills catering I highly recommend them.

Planning: After much debate I decided to hire a day-of coordinator. I met with Rosie and we instantly clicked. Even though I only hired her for the day-of she checked in with me every few weeks to see if I needed help with anything and offered to research vendors when I was still looking for a few key pieces. We had our scheduled pre-wedding meetings and walk-through and then I decided I needed to meet one more time. Rosie immediately got back to me and drove out to meet me.

Day-Of: Rosie was absolutely awesome and kept us on track without being overbearing. Perhaps my favorite thing that she did was basically force us to eat J My husband and I had started whispering words of despair at the realization that we would never be able to make it back to our table and eat, but Rosie saved us. Also as I mentioned above, the arboretum coordinator upset me at the end of the night but Rosie jumped right in and made sure that I calmed down and handled that idiot. If there were other issues, I never knew about them!