We went into Abella to meet a DJ who worked there. We had told them we already booked a venue, but they basically forced us into a tour and the whole time they spoke badly about the beautiful venue we already booked.

1) EXTREMELY cheap looking venue. It is right off a major road and had no greenery what-so-ever
2)The team was very unprofessional there
3) Inside it was like an old motel room, carpet, walls, lighting, decor..everything was pretty disgusting. It smelled musky, like there might have been a mold infestation.

These guys really pulled our reception together. They did everything my wedding coordinator was supposed to do. They were always around to answer questions and they were catering to our every need.
They did their best to get people on the dance floor and I liked that they used ipod docks so we could play our favorite music too. They had great games and I just cannot say what a great job they were as our DJ's. They really were one of the most professional vendors we hired and we had a very upscale wedding with plenty of other vendors.
Also you can't beat their prices. I recommend these guys to DJ anytime.

About a year out from our wedding we decided we needed to hire some additional help to keep everything on time. I was reluctant at first because I had been doing the entire wedding planning myself and I was not eager to let someone else's vision in. After speaking with AZ Pink Events (Maria) via e-mail I was very happy with her quick response times. I would rarely have to wait a day before receiving a reply. So from this I felt like she would be a professional, responsive wedding planner.

We met with her and worked out a contract that fit into our budget. It was for the week of, but unlimited phone and e-mail conversations for the entire planning period including that week. Well once the contract was signed we never heard from her again. I kept all of our e-mails back and forth so I had proof of everything the contract included. One thing she was supposed to do was send monthly calenders that had "To Do" lists on them. I only received one of these calenders, but only 3 total after booking her a year in advance, that's 12 calenders I should have received. I have e-mails of me asking for the July 2009 to do list and having to wait 7 days for any kind of reply, and in that reply there STILL was no calender.
Every time I had a question I would quickly shoot her an e-mail to see what she thought. If I was lucky I would get a reply 4-10 days later, but most of the time I would have to re-send the e-mail or send a new one asking her if she ever received the first one.

After 8 months of this I was furious. I wrote her an e-mail explaining that her slow response time was just unacceptable. She claimed that she "never received any e-mails from me". After this some other things came up where she claimed our contract for the "week of" was only "E-planning", but in the contract it specifically said that her services were for the week of and any "e-planning" was for the months where we could not meet. Why would you say:
"Our services include unlimited e-planning" and then try to tell me that I paid $600 to for just be able to e-mail her! So she was clearly lying.

The day of the wedding I have to say she helped because she did. She helped gather people together and so forth and so on. But when it came time for the reception........it started one and a half hours late. After the ceremony they were not even finished setting up the tables (that would have been 5 hours I gave them to set up and the tables were not even up yet)!!!

This was my our worst fear! We had taken every precaution to make our schedule "FOOL PROOF" but I guess some things can't be helped. In the beginning AZ Pink Events were supposed to set up the following:
ceremony location, set up the tables and chairs for the reception, set out the decorations (charger plates, flutes, napkins, linens, pastry buffet, other hanging lights).

In the end we had little faith in AZ Pink Events through their dishonest conduct and terrible communication, so we hired a rental company "Tucson Party Rentals" to set up the ceremony AND the tables and chairs for the reception. I even hired TWO other people to help AZ Pink Events set up because I did not trust them to get everything done on time. Well we were right, after spending thousands of dollars extra and going out of our way to interview the two additional decorators our reception STILL STARTED LATE.

Now I am not the kind of person that just looks at the bad, especially in a circumstance like this. Every other vendor was shocked to discover I had a wedding planner because 5 days before the wedding they STILL HAD NOT HEARD FROM HER. So now I had to call Maria and see if she was going to call my vendors and then she says she needs the full vendor list (I sent her one a week after I booked her, and the final one the month of the wedding. I have records of all of this). So instead of getting ready I have to baby-sit my planner to make sure she was on top of the vendors. I should have paid my vendors extra to make sure SHE did her job.

Well my long review is coming to an end. Sorry it is so long, but in reality this is not even half of what went wrong with this planner. Please BEWARE, speak with other vendors about who they recommend before booking anyone. NONE of my vendors had ever heard of AZ Pink Events and I wonder why........

P.S.
My photographer, Patrick Grimes, even asked if this was her "first wedding" because of how unprofessional and inexperienced she was.

BEAUTIFUL!

I found my gown at a salon in Phnx that was charging $1600 JUST for the gown. Well I bought it on Bestbridalprices.com and I only paid $1400 AND I customized my gown to make the train longer.
For $1400 I got my customized gown, cathedral veil, and shoes (they dyed for free)

THE BEST PART: My gown came TWO months early! The box was beat up pretty bad but everything inside it was safe.
And communication was great with them. I called them and e mailed them multiple times and always got a swift reply.

Pretty nice FI's brother had his wedding here. The problem with the outdoor area is that it has power lines right behind the gazebo where your ceremony will be. If the power lines were not there it would be a beautiful view at the foot of a mountain. Very small though. I would never have my wedding there, but that is just my taste.

Lovely, we came up with our own monogram and it turned out perfect!